Costain health & safety lecture: are we really eliminating harm or just managing the risk?

Richard Bayfield

Richard is the Chair the ICE Ethics Committee and currently the ICE Trustee responsible for ethics. Richard’s civil engineering career comprises senior roles as a contractor, consultant and client. He has also studied law and was Chair of the Society of Construction Law in 2003/4. He is one of four civil engineers who have been made Honorary Members of the society. In 2006 he was appointed to the construction minister’s sounding board of six, chaired by the late Sir Michael Latham, which advised on proposed changes to UK construction legislation.

His early career began with Costain working on major projects including the Thames Barrier. The latter part of his career has involved working with large client organisations including Honda, UCL, New College Oxford, and the Church Commissioners. These client leadership roles have subsequently attracted peer awards for successful project delivery. The client role has majored on establishing a positive project culture, clear project governance and pro-active risk management processes. Richard occasionally lectures and writes about client leadership, including methods such as early warnings and conflict avoidance strategies to establish a true collaborative culture.

Richard often acts as an independent project advisor providing a second opinion or peer review on the status of a project. Sometimes this may be formalised into an Adjudicator’s Decision. Frequently such advice is obtained to avoid a formal dispute. Richard was previously appointed to dispute panels for Terminal 5 and the London 2012 Olympics.

Jamie Chestnutt

Jamie was appointed as Director of Engineering and Supply at the RNLI in September 2021, having held previous roles as Technical Director at Chessington World of Adventures and Director of Engineering and Logistics for the Commando Helicopter Force. Jamie’s early Royal Navy career included two years as a search and rescue pilot in Cornwall, several operational tours as an engineer and pilot, and four years as a test pilot on a broad range of military helicopters.

As Director of Engineering and Supply in the RNLI, Jamie is responsible for the design, build and maintenance of all lifeboats and lifeboat stations and their asset management, along with the procurement, logistics, warehousing and sustainability for the whole of the RNLI. Jamie is responsible for three production facilities; the All Weather Lifeboat Centre based in Poole, the Inshore Lifeboat Centre, on the Isle of Wight, and its subsidiary company Clayton Engineering in Knighton, Wales building Shannon Launch and Recovery vehicles.

Jamie is extremely committed to growing and shaping talent of the future, working with Women’s Engineering Society and Tomorrow’s Engineers, Jamie is driving the youth development strategy for the Engineering & Supply team. Actively broadening the reach of the apprentice program within Engineering and Supply from production to sustainability, recognising the skills for the future need cultivating now.

Jamie’s personal career highlight was his role in the Royal Navy as Director of Engineering and Logistics for the Commando Helicopter Force, managing a large team of people, aircraft and vehicles to support global operations. Jamie introduced two new helicopter types to active service in the Royal Navy and in 2017, was awarded the Ed Dunning Trophy for the Most Significant Contribution to Maritime Aviation across the Royal Navy, for managing the design, safety, logistics, certification, approvals, and training of staff to send two of these aircraft to sea for the first time.

Swapping aircraft for rollercoasters and dangerous animals at Chessington, and now for lifeboats with the RNLI, Jamie is able to use his experience and skill as an operational engineer in highly complex safety-focused businesses to develop the future of our teams, apprentices, lifeboats, sustainability and the use of emerging technology to support our vision to "save every one”.

Mark Howard

Mark is the Chief Engineer at HS2, responsible for the leadership of Engineering activities across the HS2 programme, ensuring that the infrastructure is designed and constructed safely and in accordance with the technical, legislative and Sponsors requirements.

Mark has over 30 years’ experience in the design, construction, and operation of major infrastructure projects in the railway sector. From an original background in High Voltage distribution engineering working in the UK Electrical Supply industry, Mark moved on to more rail orientated employment by joining the Eurotunnel (ET) client team on the Channel Tunnel project in 1991.

Early years of an 11-year stint at ET were focused on establishing an organisation to manage the operation and maintenance of the electro-mechanical systems on both the UK and French sides of the Channel. Later years were spent in various operational & engineering roles from Railway Operations Engineering manager through to working in the Rolling Stock department based in France.

In 2002, Mark joined Network Rail working on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) project to establish a new infrastructure maintenance organisation for the high-speed line. In 2005, he moved to Union Railways North to lead the client team for Track, Catenary and M&E systems on HS1 (CTRL Section 2). After a spell defining the power supply requirements for Crossrail, he returned to UK high speed rail on HS1 and now on HS2, where he has held several senior leadership roles since 2012 prior to being appointed as the Chief Engineer in Nov 2018.

Sam White

Sam White joined the Executive Board of Costain in January 2022, as Managing Director of the Natural Resources Division. Sam is responsible for the Costain teams delivering complex infrastructure programmes across energy, water and defence sectors.

Sam joined Costain from Babcock International Group where he was responsible for overseeing the delivery of infrastructure and engineering services in the UK, Europe, North America and Brazil. He previously held leadership positions in BAE Systems and General Dynamics.

A member of Costain’s Executive SHE Committee, Sam is a passionate advocate of safety, health and environment and inclusivity in the workplace. Sam has a BSc in Business from the University of Wales Cardiff, an MBA from the University of Strathclyde and is an executive coach and board mentor, specialising in supporting the development of diverse talent.