Judges
With Special Thanks to Our 2024 Judging Panel
Ricardo Baptista – Design Director, AKT II
Ricardo Baptista is a design director at AKT II, who oversees design and technical matters of projects within different teams, allowing him to infuse each with his design-led approach, with an emphasis on creativity.
Baptista’s broad range of experience includes tall buildings such as London-based One Park Drive, Highpoint and One Nine Elms,, as well as the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad. Prior to joining AKT II, he worked in his native Portugal, specializing in large, bespoke, long-span structures such as sports stadia and airports.
Jenny Burridge – Head of Structural Engineering, MPA The Concrete Centre
Jenny is a chartered civil and structural engineer. Prior to joining The Concrete Centre Jenny worked for several consulting engineers including Aecom and Arup, where she designed several award winning buildings.
Jenny chairs the BSI strategic committee on Engineering Design and Construction and sits on the Construction and Built Environment Sector Policy and Strategy Committee. She is on the council of Construct and chairs the Post-tensioning Association as well as being on the council of the Institution of Structural Engineers.
Alex Carter – Partner, Structural Engineering, Cundall
Following a BEng (Hons) degree in Civil Engineering and a period working in Birmingham, I spent a decade working overseas designing buildings in various geographies and gaining Chartership status with both the Institution of Structural Engineers and Institution of Civil Engineers, along with an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School.
Victoria Hills – Chief Executive, Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)
Victoria joined the RTPI in April 2018 and has 20 years’ experience and expertise in planning, transport and organisational leadership and development. She was formerly Chief Executive of the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, which saw her drive forward the early stages of the transformation of the Old Oak and Park Royal opportunity area. She also established the UK’s second Mayoral Development Corporation that sought to maximise the benefits of a super-hub station at Old Oak Common to drive regeneration.
Previously she was Head of Transport for the Greater London Authority, and before that held a variety of roles in transport consultancy and local government. Victoria also previously chaired the Transport Planning Society and the RTPI’s Transport Planning Network, and in 2017 was appointed Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Alan McCartney – Partner, Howells
Alan has led on a wide variety of schemes and has a keen focus on how existing communities and contexts integrate with and inform the new places Howells creates. He has gained experience on a wide variety of major mixed-use projects, including Royal Wharf, the Birmingham Institute of Translational Medicine, Wirral Waters, the NEC and Salford Central masterplans. He has also delivered several residential and student housing schemes across the country.
He has led on urban integration of HS2 Birmingham Curzon Street into Birmingham’s city core, as well as serving as Lead Architect for the HS2 Washwood Heath Depot, overseeing the design of HS2’s Network Integrated Control Centre and railway Maintenance facilities in the Midlands region. Alan is currently working with Birmingham City Council on Our Future City which is providing a once in a generation opportunity to influence a vision on the future of Birmingham over the next 20+ years.
Steve McKechnie – Director, Arup
Steve is an award winning structural engineer with extensive experience in the design of buildings. He leads a multidisciplinary design team in London within the engineering design firm Arup.
Steve is co-author of the Concrete Centre guide to the design of tall buildings. He has spoken recently within the industry on tall building design methods; BIM and scripted optimisation; approaches to high risk structures; viscous damping; core prestressing; design for manufacture and the design and construction of T5, Heathrow.
Simon Robins – Partner, MAKE Architects
Simon joined Make in 2010 and has worked on a number of the practice’s key projects. These projects range from major master-plans in Saudi Arabia, Earls Court and the London Olympic Park to the design and planning approval of significant residential towers in Croydon and the Isle of Dogs. Simon has also had significant commercial and mixed used experience with office buildings in Mayfair and Fitzrovia as well as a Student housing scheme on the site of the Hammersmith Palais.
Gary Strong – Global Building Standards Director, Global HQ London
Chartered Building Surveyor, Chartered Building Engineer, Chartered Arbitrator, and Chartered Loss Adjuster. Experience in inspecting, reporting, managing, and upgrading existing buildings particularly in relation to fire investigations, fire damage, facades, building safety investigations, and building codes globally.
Currently Chair of the International Fire Safety Standards UN supported Coalition; and Chair of the Chicago USA based international Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat Fire & Life Safety Committee; UK Construction Industry Council Building Safety Committee; N.Ireland Building Safety Panel; RMIT Uni Melbourne advisor; Advisor to government(s) on fire and building safety; CROSS Fire Safety Expert Panel.
Susan Mantle – Director, Heyne Tillett Steel
Susan is a highly skilled and experienced engineer with over 18 years’ experience in the industry. She enjoys collaborating with design teams to achieve the best structural solution for a project and relishes the creative nature of the design process. Susan champions technical excellence and sustainable low carbon design and leads HTS+ Innovation and Research, our dedicated team who work on research projects to help resolve engineering challenges.
