Judges

Richard Hayes
President

Richard was elected as Vice President at the AGM in June 2008.
Richard is Western Area Manager for Highways and Neighbourhood Services within Northumberland County Council’s Local Services Directorate.  He is responsible for an area of 2468 square/kms based around the town of Hexham. He is also responsible for the County’s Construction Division which delivers capital works on highways structure and street lighting

He has been with the County Council since 2003 and before moving to Northumberland, he worked for Stockton on Tees Borough Council for 25 years in highways maintenance.
Richard joined the Institute Council in 2004, initially as one of the first graduate and student representatives, before being elected a full member in 2007.
He represents the Institute on the Construction Industry Council’s Health and Safety
Committee and the ADEPT Safety, Standards and Training Group. He is Chair of the North East Highways Performance Improvement Network and a member of the North East Winter Services Group, Richard is also contributing to the Institute’s work on Highway Maintenance Training and Competency Assessment.

Graham Edmond
Head of Network Maintenance

Graham is responsible for the day to day maintenance of the 3,500 km of trunk roads in Scotland.  This includes managing the trunk road operating companies and DBFO companies with an annual budget of around £150m.  Graham is also responsible for the adaptation of the trunk road network to cope with the effects of climate change and has steered a sustainability review for Transport Scotland including the development of a carbon management system.Graham is a Chartered Civil Engineer and a graduate of Heriot Watt University.  He has worked in a number of positions in the Scottish Executive and Transport Scotland since 1993 including being an Area Manager around Scotland and the project manager for the complex Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and M74 Completion projects.

 

Russell Bennett
Head of Infrastructure Projects

Spent ten years with various engineering companies on the development and improvement of the major road networks throughout Wales. In 2000 joined the Welsh Assembly Govt., project managing a wide variety of major trunk road and rail improvements schemes across Wales and now manages four dedicated project teams with an annual budget in excess of £100m.
Has a degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration. A Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation and the Chartered Management Institute.

Bob Cairns
Road Services Director of Engineering

Working for Roads Service, the highway authority in Northern Ireland for over 30 years, initially to design highway structures. In 1999 he was appointed to the post of Head of Highway Structures Unit, and in 2004 became Head of Roads Service Consultancy. He has been Director of Engineering for Roads Service since October 2006.
He graduated with a BSc Honours degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Queens University of Belfast in 1972 and with an MBA from the University of Ulster in 1995.

John Bagley
Divisional Director Lean & Benchmarking Division

John graduated from Nottingham University in 1971 with an Honours Degree in Civil Engineering and was later also awarded a Masters Degree in Transport Planning at Bradford University. He has spent over 40 years working in the field of transport and highway planning, construction and maintenance. John’s early career was with West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire Councils. John transferred to the Civil Service in the Department of Transport in 1986 and the Highways Agency in 1994 where his project management responsibilities have included several high profile trunk road construction and maintenance projects. As a Divisional Director since 2003 John has headed Network Strategy and Major Projects Divisions in the Highways Agency. He is currently a Divisional Director in the Network Services Directorate.