Monthly State of the Nation

Mark Wakeford is the Joint MD at Stepnell – a regional building contractor based in Rugby with offices from Nottingham to Southampton. Mark is also Chairman at EvoEnergy, a renewables technology company that aims to identify and reduce corporate Britain’s carbon footprint.

Mark is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineering and currently chairs the Major Contractors Group of the NFB; a group of larger regional businesses that have come together to promote main contractors and share best practice. He is the vice-chair of the Midlands Constructing Excellence and regularly speaks on best practice and industry issues. He is also a Governor at Moulton College, the best construction college in the UK.

Stepnell has been active throughout the pandemic and strives to provide customers with a highly tailored service to meet specific demands. Stepnell recently celebrated its 150th anniversary.

Emma Osmundsen BSc (Hons) Pg Dip (Arch Conserv) MA MRICS
Managing Director of Exeter City Living Ltd, the ‘Profit for Purpose’ Development Company of Exeter City Council. Responsible for the delivery of a portfolio of developments spanning residential, commercial and leisure.
Chartered Surveyor with 25 years of development experience in the public, private and charitable sector.
UK pioneer of Low Carbon, Healthy and Climate-ready buildings and leading developer of the International Passivhaus Standard.
Non Exec Director and Trustee of YMCA England and Wales, The UK Passivhaus Trust and Construction Excellence South West.

Alison is a former commercial lawyer and experienced senior executive who has worked in both the private and public sectors. She is working on the delivery of numerous public and public/private projects and programmes across the Tees Valley, including at the South Tees Development Corporation and Teesside International Airport (which she is a Director of), various rail/transport schemes and other regeneration projects in all five of the Local Authority areas within the Tees Valley region.

 Alison joined the Combined Authority in early 2017 from Sunderland City Council where she was Executive Director of Commercial Development, previously having been the Assistant Director of Capital Investment at Newcastle City Council. Before that she was for many years a partner and head of the commercial team at Dickinson Dees in Newcastle (now part of Womble Bond Dickinson). During these years Alison worked on delivering projects across the North East of England including new hospitals in Newcastle, Carlisle and Leeds, the second Tyne Tunnel, Newcastle City Library, the Northern Spire bridge at Sunderland and over 20 new schools.

 Alison is also an experienced non-executive director in the areas of health and social housing.

Huw is the Head of YGC, a department of Gwynedd Council, delivering high quality services in the fields of climate change, flood Coastal Erosion Risk Management, community’s adaptation as a consequence of climate change, project management, highways, structures, environment, architecture, cost consultancy, and geotechnical,

Huw is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Chartered Engineer, and has been the Project Director of multi-disciplinary projects including all associated procurement processes. YGC offers multi-disciplinary solutions to communities under risk from climate change and Huw is the Project Director of the Fairbourne Moving Forward and the Pwllheli Pilot study projects.