ANDY ALDER | INTERVIEW


experience of all the teams and that ensured we knew how to support each other. “I always saw my role as programme


director as being there to do things that were needed to lead delivery, but most of the time to support the teams who are doing some really good work; and where there were challenges to help to support the team in resolving those challenges. In 2023, the BTS awarded him the James


Clark Medal for services to the industry. “Somehow, in amongst all of that, the BTS


decided to award me this medal. I guess I am like all the other colleagues who have medals in that we all wonder what we have done to deserve it as everything we achieve is through the skill and dedication of a much wider team. I am very grateful.” Then, in 2024, after thirty years with


Halcrow/ CH2M /Jacobs, he left. Alder is now with Anglian Water. Was there a reason for the jump? “There was. Tideway was getting to the


point where it was year or so away from finishing. I thought, ‘If I stay here till the end, then I am in the way of some of the team taking more responsibility, someone else taking over as Programme Director and having the opportunity to lead. So it was time for me to leave Tideway to allow others in the teams to continue to grow and develop. “I had got to the point where there’s


only so much more stuff I can build in my career, and where the real value I can give is continuing to grow the team and develop people, so that they then carry on and take all that experience on board and build far more stuff than I can ever build. The legacy is development of people. “So, I stepped away from Tideway and


took a corporate role with Jacobs looking after their major programmes team. Jacobs is a great company, I’ve loved working for them; and there was a project we were working on for Anglian Water that was challenging but also has a really big environmental purpose. It is about water supplies for the eastern side of the country and making it sustainable. A lot of the water supply in the east of England is from groundwater abstraction, and that is having as significant detrimental effect on ecology in the rivers and streams that pollution does. Pollution is really important but actually not having enough water in the stream is worse still. “So Anglian Water is building a strategic


water pipeline that is the first stage of a grid system to connect up the whole of


Above: Andy Alder has worked on many major tunnel projects in leadership positions November 2024 | 43


the water system from North Lincolnshire to Essex, so that the more sustainable water supplies in the north can be brought across to the south and east. So it is a good purpose, with a company that has adopted good values. Earlier this year I left Jacobs to join Anglian Water full-time to lead this interconnector pipeline programme and our other major infrastructure projects. “I am also supporting the Bartlett School


of Sustainable Construction. There’s a parallel there with health and safety. Key is the way we have embedded health and safety into engineering so that it is completely part of how we plan, how we design, how we work and build. Safety is an integral part of this now, it is not an add-on any more. We’ve got to get sustainability to the same stage. When we make decisions on how we plan, how we design, how we procure and operate – we need to make sure that sustainability is embedded in that right from the very start, at every stage


SAFETY IS AN INTEGRAL


PART OF THIS NOW, IT IS NOT AN ADD-ON ANY MORE. WE’VE GOT TO GET SUSTAINABILITY TO THE SAME STAGE


from thinking about the project onward. “Bartlett is part of UCL, University


College London, and has a MBA in major infrastructure. I speak at a couple of the modules, on subjects like leadership and purpose, social value, how you deliver value through projects, and major programme management. This is all part of giving back to the industry and helping to set up the next cohort of major programme leaders. “I do a fair bit of work with ICE as well,


because one of the things that got me into civil engineering was a three-day experience thing for 6th Forms, where they took you to various projects and showed you what civil engineering is all about. When I was at that age I went on it and it really cemented the choice for me so I always felt it’s good to give back. “And, I’m still a Scout Leader in my spare


time. I think I learned a lot about leadership when I was in the Scouts. You’ve got a bunch of young people you are looking after and you’ve got to make sure that whatever you are doing, whether it’s going for a walk or some other activity, that you achieve what you set out to do, that everyone was looked after, that everyone was safe, that everyone had fun, that you have been encouraging the people who are really good at stuff, helping the people who are not. There are all kinds of courses and books, and you learn from colleagues and you see other leaders in the industry, and all of those are valuable; but I think Scouts is where I first learned leadership.


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