Judges

Martin Lang -
Director of Main Contracting, CIF (Construction Industry Federation)

Martin Lang is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Chartered Institute Accredited Mediator and is an Engineers Ireland Assessed Conciliator. He has been involved in the construction industry for the last 40 years. Martin began his career as an Estimator and trained as a Quantity Surveyor in Dublin. He has had an extensive career in Project and Construction Management in the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, the Middle East and West Africa. He joined the Construction Industry Federation in 1995 as an Executive Officer and is now Director of Main Contracting, He has acted as Mediator and Conciliator in over 150 construction related disputes as well as being involved in the development of national training programmes and advice services in relation to pre-tender, pre-qualification issues, contract documents, claims management dispute resolution, public sector procurement etc. He is also a published author having co written a number of works dealing with public procurement and public sector contracts. He is a practicing Mediator and Conciliator.

John Power -
Engineers Ireland Past President

Prior to joining Engineers Ireland in 2007 he was Head of Corporate Affairs at ESB. John has also held several key positions during his time with ESB; Managing Director of ESBI Consultants, Executive Director of ESB International Services & Industrial Holdings, as well as holding senior roles in Human Resources and Corporate Change. He was also Secretary of the Irish Committee of the World Energy Council for 10 years. Before joining ESB, he was a Technical Advisor with General Electric in the USA and in South America. He is currently Chairman of both the Rail Safety Advisory Council, and the International Centre for Graduate Education in micro and nano Engineering (ICGEE). John is an Engineering graduate from UCD, holding a Masters in Industrial Engineering and an MBA.

Dr Louis Gunnigan -
Team Leader, College of Engineering & Built Environment, DIT Campus Planning Team

Dr Louis Gunnigan is Team Leader for the College of Engineering & Built Environment on the DIT Campus Planning Team on the new campus development project at Grangegorman. He is a visiting lecturer at the Vienna University of Technology, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building. He previously held the positions of Head of Department of Construction Management & Technology and Head of the School of Construction in DIT in a career that spans over 30 years of experience in construction education and practice. He is the immediate Past President of the International Construction Project Management Association (ICPMA). His primary area of expertise concerns the effective use of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and he represents DIT and Ireland on a number of EU funded research initiatives relating to education and training of PPP practitioners. He is a current member of the UNECE Group of Experts in PPP whose brief it is to establish the criteria for developing PPP in transition economies.

Tim Brick -
Executive Director of the Irish Academy of Engineering

B.E. graduate from UCC (1967), worked for over 25 years in design and construction of major Civil Engineering Schemes in Ireland, Africa and the Middle East, operating at the most senior Project Management level. On returning to Ireland in the mid-1990’s he joined Dublin City Council as Deputy City Engineer with responsibilities for the delivery of major projects, including the Dublin Port Tunnel. Currently the Executive Director of the Irish Academy of Engineering.

Niall Coulston -
Senior Development Advisor - Construction, Timber & Consumer Retail team, Enterprise Ireland

Since joining Enterprise Ireland in 2008 Niall has held the position of Senior Development Advisor within the Construction, Timber and Consumer Retail team. Within this role Niall provides guidance to Irish SME’s on optimal internationalisation strategies, structuring and financing of business growth plans and connectivity to suitable global contacts. In response to industry needs, Niall has been involved in the development of Enterprise Ireland’s Strategic Marketing Review Programme and more recently Enterprise Ireland’s BIM Programmes (BIM Enable and BIM Implement). Niall currently sits on the Built Environment working group for the Year of Irish Design (YOID) 2015.

Shane O’Toole -
Architectural Critic

Shane O’Toole lives in Dublin, where he is active as an historian, author, editor, curator, broadcaster and campaigner for threatened buildings. He has been President of the Architectural Association of Ireland and Director of the Irish Architecture Foundation and was Ireland’s Commissioner for the Venice Biennale in 2004 and 2006. He was a founder of Group 91 Architects and ran his own practice during the 1990s. His awards include the Grand Prix of the Cracow Architecture Biennale (1989), the Architectural Association of Ireland’s Downes Medal (1996), finalist in the Mies van der Rohe Award (1996) and a Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland’s Triennial Gold Medal commendation (2003). A member of CICA (the International Committee of Architecture Critics), he was named International Building Press Architectural Critic.

Tony Chapman - RIBA

Tony Chapman is not a trained architect but the RIBA made him an Honorary Fellow in 2011 for his services to architecture and his work as a writer, film-maker and for his work as the RIBA’s Head of Awards, a role he made for himself following the creation of the RIBA Stirling Prize in 1996.
Previously, as a BBC TV producer he made a number of documentaries about architecture and the environment including the modernists’ riposte to the Prince of Wales’s Visions of Britain, starring then RIBA President Maxwell Hutchinson. He was thus considered a safe pair of hands to runs its Press Office and later its awards programme. His films for the RIBA form part of the judging process as well as the presentation ceremonies of Stirling, the RIBA International Awards and the Royal Gold Medal. His filmed portraits of (among others) James Stirling, Oscar Niemeyer, Herzog & de Meuron, Edward Cullinan, Alvaro Siza, I M Pei, David Chipperfield, O’Donnell + Tuomey and Zaha Hadid record the advances in late 20th and early 21st century architecture. He is author of a dozen books about architecture including The Stirling Prize – Ten Years of Architecture and Innovation and a children’s book on architecture. He is currently writing a book with Peter Zumthor and the RIBA Stirling Prize:20.
From Spring 2016 he is a consultant to the RIBA, advising on its awards programme and overseeing the judging and delivery of the first RIBA International Prize.

Barry Clarke -
President, ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers)

Barry Clarke, the 148th President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, is Professor of Civil Engineering Geotechnics at the University of Leeds. He is a member of Construction Industry Council Executive Board and a member of the Department for Transport Scientific Advisory Board. His academic roles include former Head of Civil Engineering and Dean of Business Development at Newcastle University and member of EPSRC’s Strategic Advisory Team for Engineering. His national roles include former President of the Engineering Professors Council, Chairman of the British Geotechnical Association, Chairman of Ground Forum and was the representative for higher education on the Board of CITB ConstructionSkills. He was a founder of the Northern Geotechnical Group and the North East branch of CIC. He has set up two spin out companies arising from research into geotechnical engineering. He has been actively involved in developing engineering programmes through the accreditation process; leading on the implementation of teaching of civil engineering as a system; and developing instrumentation for assessment of thermal and mechanical properties of soils.

Karl Ellefsen -
European Association for Architectural Education

Karl Otto Ellefsen is Professor in Architecture and Urbanism at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). He has been heading the school as Rector from year 2000 to 2014. He was also heading the board of Oslo Architectural Triennale until 2015 and is from 2013 the President of EAAE (European Association for Architectural Education).
Karl Otto Ellefsen is a practicing architect in the field of Urbanism and has produced scholarly writing within the History of Urbanism and Urban Design, Urban Strategies, Architectural Theory and Architectural Critique. He holds different roles in the development of Norwegian Architectural Policies and in the Natonal Tourist Routes Project.

Geraldine Walsh -
CEO, Dublin Civic Trust

Geraldine Walsh is CEO of Dublin Civic Trust, an educational charitable organisation that promotes the recognition and protection of Dublin’s architectural heritage through building restoration, public outreach and written policies. She is a UCC graduate in economics and subsequently worked in environmental policy. Geraldine founded the Trust with fellow conservation colleagues in 1992, to identify the city’s historic building stock and lead by demonstration in its restoration and repair, creating greater public awareness of its unique cultural value. Geraldine has extensive involvement in organisations such as the European Environmental Bureau, European Partners for the Environment and a number of national bodies.

Trevor McSharry -
Head of Department of Civil Engineering and Construction, IT Sligo

Trevor McSharry is the Head of Department of Civil Engineering and Construction at IT Sligo. Over the last five years in this role, he has provided academic leadership and led the development and successful launch of a portfolio of accredited online part time programmes for the construction sector. Trevor is a Chartered Engineer and holds an MBA. As a certified Project Management Professional (PMI), he has almost 20 years of industrial and academic experience to a senior management level and worked in the Food, Electronic, Nuclear, Pharma and Biotech industries. He has intimate knowledge and experience in Project and Programme management, particularly in areas such as large multinational capital construction and process improvement projects. Trevor is currently Chair of the Construction IT Alliance (CITA) North West BIM Region and recently completed a Certificate in Training in Low Energy Buildings. He has completed many Enterprise Ireland funded Innovation Vouchers for industry in areas such as construction scheduling software, lean, quality, and design and project management processes.

Madeline Hallinan -
Programme Manager for the Better Energy Communities (BEC) programme, SEAI

Madeline is a qualified architect and member of the RIAI. As a practicing architect she worked on wide variety of projects including social housing, public buildings, urban regeneration and building conservation work. She joined SEAI in 2011 and is currently Programme Manager for the Better Energy Communities (BEC) programme, annual fund programme which provides support to deliver significant energy savings through retrofit and upgrades of domestic and non-domestic facilities throughout Ireland.

Brian Brennan - BCF Architects /
Ex South Dublin County Council Architect

A graduate of the School of Architecture and Planning, QUB, Brian Brennan practiced in both the Public and Private Sector in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Serving as County Architect in South Dublin County Council from 1994-2006. He is currently Director of Architecture in BCF Architecture and Planning as a broad based general practice partnership.

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