About us

James Wates CBE

Chairman

James has worked in construction his entire life and feels passionately that it plays a crucial role in the UK’s economic and social well-being. Through his numerous roles, he champions change in the sector – encouraging the investment in skills development, greater collaboration, and the application of modern methods of construction, with the ultimate goal of creating a higher quality built environment, stronger communities and a better society.

James read estate management at college and joined Wates Construction in 1983, progressing through the management to running sites, before taking on a General Manager role in 1989. He joined the Wates Construction Board in 1994, was appointed to the Wates Group Board in 1997, and became Chairman in 2013.

His key positions in the sector include: Past Chairman of CITB, Past President of CIOB, Chairman of the BRE Trust, and Non-executive Director of Argent Services LLP. To help ensure that the UK punches its weight internationally, he has accepted the role of Co-chair of Infrastructure Exports: UK.

In line with his belief that good business, well done, is good for society, he has taken on a number of roles outside of the construction sector, including Chairman of the think tank Tomorrow’s Company, Chairman of the Princes Trust Corporate Advisory Group, and Ambassador for the Young Women’s Trust. In 2018 he was invited by the Business Secretary to Chair a new industry group on corporate governance.

In 2012 he was awarded the CBE for services to construction and the charitable sector.

David Allen

Chief Executive

David Allen was appointed Chief Executive in April 2018 having joined Wates as Chief Financial Officer in January 2016.

Before arriving at Wates, David was Crossrail’s Finance Director and one of the three Executive members of the £15bn project’s board. He had joined Crossrail in March 2009 from Laing O’Rourke, where he was Finance Director for its European Construction business.

Prior to entering the construction industry in 2004, David worked in Accenture’s Strategy Consulting practice and HSBC Investment Bank’s Corporate Finance & Advisory Division.

David began his career with Arthur Andersen’s Tax Practice, is a Chartered Accountant and holds a degree in Modern History from St. Peter’s College Oxford.

Timothy Wates

Director

Tim started his career at Cazenove & Co. in the City, prior to joining the Wates Group. He re-joined the Board in 2011, having served previously from 2006 to 2008, and is a member of the Audit Committee. He chairs Wates Developments and the Wates Pension Fund and is Chairman of the Wates Family Council – the Family Shareholder forum. He is a UKTI Business Ambassador, Chairman of the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership and a Non-Executive Director of Tampopo and Pedder Property. Tim is a Trustee of various Wates Family charities and Director of the Clink Charity. He has an MBA from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.

Jonathan Wates

Director

Having started his career at Grand Metropolitan (now Diageo), Jonny joined Wates Developments in 1995 and later held the position of Group Marketing Director until 2006. He was appointed to the Wates Group Board in 2008. Jonny is a Trustee of the Wates Family Enterprise Trust and the William Wates Memorial Trust and has an MBA from Cranfield University. He has a particular interest in sustainability.

Andrew Wates

Director

Andy joined the Wates Group in 1995 having spent six years gaining experience of the construction industry with Costain Construction and John Shreeves & Partners.  Formerly the Managing Director of Wates Interiors, Andy was appointed to the Wates Group Board in May 2011 and is also a member of the Remuneration Committee. He is a Trustee of the Wates Family Enterprise Trust and chairs the Wates Investment Partnership, which is the family’s long term investment portfolio outside of the Group.

In 2014 Andy was appointed Chairman of Construction Youth Trust, as well as a member of the IFB Policy Committee.  In the following year Andy was appointed Chair of Wates Foundation and Chair of IFB South East Region, along with becoming a Board member of the European Family Businesses.  He also holds an MBA from Roffey Park Business School.

Charles Wates

Director

Charlie is a chartered surveyor with over fifteen years’ experience in the commercial property sector. He is founder and joint Managing Director of Needspace?, the Wates Group managed workspace division which now comprises a portfolio of six properties across London and the South East. Charlie joined the Wates Group Board in May 2011 and is a member of the Property Investment Committee. In addition, he is a member of the British Council of Offices, the British Property Federation and a director of the British Centre Association. Charlie is on the Board of Management, Estates Committee and Finance Committee of the Royal Alexandra & Albert School in Reigate.

Deena Mattar

Independent Non-Executive Director

Deena was appointed Non-Executive Director of Wates Group in February 2013 and is Chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Remuneration Committee. She is also an independent non-executive of the Grant Thornton UK LLP Partnership Oversight Board. Until its 2014 sale to Schneider Electric Deena was a Non-Executive Director of the global technology company Invensys and Chairman of its Audit Committee. She is a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee for the information and communication technology company RM, which provides IT products and services to educational institutions. Deena started her career with KPMG in their property and construction division, later joining Kier Group and becoming the Group Finance Director.

David Barclay

Independent Non-Executive Director

David was appointed Non-Executive Director of Wates Group in December 2012 and is the Group’s Senior Independent Director. He is Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Audit and Nomination Committees. He also holds Non- executive positions with Wessex Water and The British Library, where he is Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee. He was appointed to the Board of YTL Land & Property (UK) Limited on 13 March 2017. He is former Non-Executive Deputy Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and Vice Chairman of Dresdner Kleinwort, the investment bank. Earlier in his career, he spent ten years in the UK civil service, including two years as private secretary to the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Joe Oatley

Non Exec Director

Joe Oatley was appointed to the Board as non-exec director in July 2017. He has been Chief Executive at Cape – a global FTSE-listed company specialising in the provision of critical industrial services to the energy and natural resources sectors – for six years. Joe was previously Chief Executive of Hamworthy plc, a global oil and gas engineering business, which he joined in 2007 and led until its takeover by Wärtsilä in 2012.

Prior to this, Joe spent most of his career in the engineering sector in a broad range of roles including Managing Director – Strategy Development and Acquisitions.

Joe’s extensive experience in senior management, combined with engineering prowess complements the Board’s collective skills and expertise to help the Group meet its strategic objectives as a growing business.

Paul Chandler

Group Managing Director, Wates Construction Group

Paul joined Wates as Group Managing Director of the Construction Group in January 2017, with accountability for the portfolio of businesses comprising Construction London, Construction London Residential, Construction Home Counties, Construction North, SES Engineering Services and Wates Building Services.

He was appointed to the Wates Group Board in June 2018.

Before joining Wates Paul was Executive Vice President at Skanska UK, responsible for building and mechanical/ electrical operations. Additionally Paul  held executive responsibility for environment, pre-construction and strategic development. Over a 34 year career with Skanska, Paul delivered large and complex projects (routinely over £100 million in value) across the commercial, residential and engineering services sectors as well as a significant number of large public-private partnership (PPP) schemes in healthcare, defence and education. Amongst the most notable landmark projects for which Paul has had accountability are 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin) and Heron Tower in London.

Paul has a strong reputation for people development and succession management. He places a particular emphasis on promoting young talent in construction.

Jeremy Newsum

Non Executive Director

Jeremy Newsum joined the Wates Group Board on 1 September 2018.

A Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Newsum retired in 2016 after spending over 25 years leading the executive team of the Grosvenor Estate and the Grosvenor Family Investment Office. He remains a trustee of the Grosvenor Estate, and also holds Non-Executive roles at Trinity College, Cambridge; Grupo Lar (Spain) and Cambridge Ahead.

Previous Non-Executive roles include Chair of the Urban Land Institute; President of the British Property Federation and council member of Imperial College, London.

David Allen

Chief Executive

David Allen was appointed Chief Executive in April 2018 having joined Wates as Chief Financial Officer in January 2016.

Before arriving at Wates, David was Crossrail’s Finance Director and one of the three Executive members of the £15bn project’s board. He had joined Crossrail in March 2009 from Laing O’Rourke, where he was Finance Director for its European Construction business.

Prior to entering the construction industry in 2004, David worked in Accenture’s Strategy Consulting practice and HSBC Investment Bank’s Corporate Finance & Advisory Division.

David began his career with Arthur Andersen’s Tax Practice, is a Chartered Accountant and holds a degree in Modern History from St. Peter’s College Oxford.

Rod Holdsworth

Chief Financial Officer (interim)

Rod is an experienced CFO having operated within both private and listed companies across diverse industries including construction, business services, manufacturing and healthcare. He has extensive experience covering corporate finance(M&A), strategy development, funding and treasury, technology, transformation, international operations and outsourcing. Rod enjoys collaborating with the broad cross section of stakeholders to create sustainable business for all those involved.  

Rod’s most recent executive role was as Group Finance Director at OCS Group, a family owned facilities management company with turnover of £1bn and 80,000 staff across 45 countries.  He worked closely with the Chief Executive on strategy, corporate development, stakeholder relationships, and technology, finance, real estate and governance.

Rod started out as a Civil Engineer before training as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in London.  After qualifying, he moved into industry with Smiths Group plc (high tech. medical device manufacturing) where he held several senior financial positions, both in head office and in trading subsidiaries. He then joined Alfred McAlpine plc as Group Financial Controller and after that moved on to be Finance Director at Whitby Bird (engineering consultants). He then joined Morrison(part of Anglian Water Group plc), the £1bn turnover construction and support service group, as Finance Director.

He is also a non executive director and chair of the audit committee at Augean plc, a specialist waste management group.

Rod enjoys the gym, horse riding and an outdoor life, and is married with four children.

David Brocklebank

Group Managing Director- Residential Developments Group

David has over 20 years’ experience in the development sector, having previously held Directorships within the Berkeley Group and David Wilson Homes. David was a principal figure in Wates’ key 2005 strategic transformation from Regional House builder to London and South East land investor and planning specialist, that secures land and planning consent, creating joint ventures with mainstream homebuilders to fund new development schemes.

David is a prominent figure in the development industry with a keen interest in the evolution of planning policy and housing supply.  He sits on the board of a number of development project companies as partner to PLC homebuilders such as Barratt and Linden. This offers significant influence and insight into development operations and the housing market within the UK.

David sits on the Research Committee for the Princes Foundation for Building Community – Financial Capital. In addition, David sits on the Advisory Committee of the MSC in sustainable development, Oxford University.  In his role within Wates, he also sits on the Group Risk and Developments Investment Committees.

Steve Beechey

Group Strategy Director and Managing Director Government Affairs

Steve joined Wates in 2010 and is responsible for Wates’ Group Strategy, Group Communications, Group Sustainability and Government Affairs.

He is accountable for guiding, informing and co-ordinating relationships with government departments, including the Department for Education, MOD Defence Infrastructure Organisation and Ministry of Justice.

In his previous role as Managing Director Education and Investment Solutions, Steve was instrumental in the development of Adapt – our kit-of-spaces design solution for cost effective schools. He was also responsible for investments across the Wates Group, focused around social infrastructure.

With over 30 years’ experience, Steve has an excellent industry track record. He began his career as an Engineer with Tarmac in 1987 and progressed into a number of commercial roles before moving into a development and programme management role with Schal.

Subsequent roles included Development and Sector Directorships with Jarvis and Laing O’Rourke, where he was responsible for over £2bn worth of PFI contracts across education, social housing, MOD, MOJ and infrastructure. He is a Chartered Surveyor, Chartered Builder and was a Founding Trustee of XP Free School in Doncaster.

Steve is accountable at ExCo for our sustainability and CR strategy ‘Reshaping Tomorrow’ and its alignment to the Group strategy and also has line management responsibility for the sustainability and CR team. In addition, he is also responsible for consistency around customer engagement and feedback.

Helen Bunch

Managing Director, Wates Smartspace

Helen joined Wates in 2006 as Group Strategy Director, developing and supporting the delivery of the Group’s growth. Helen became Managing Director of Wates Retail in January 2011 before heading up Wates Smartspace, the enlarged property services business following the merger of Wates Retail and Wates Interiors and the acquisition of Shepherd FM, as Managing Director in 2015.

Prior to Wates, Helen spent 17 years with ICI and, successor company, Lucite International working in global businesses that served a wide variety of industries from automotive to household products.

Helen is a Non-Executive Director of Morgan Advanced Materials Plc.

Paul Chandler

Group Managing Director, Wates Construction Group

Paul joined Wates as Group Managing Director of the Construction Group in January 2017, with accountability for the portfolio of businesses comprising Construction London, Construction London Residential, Construction Home Counties, Construction North, SES Engineering Services and Wates Building Services.

Paul was previously Executive Vice President at Skanska UK, responsible for building and mechanical/electrical operations. Additionally Paul  held executive responsibility for environment, pre-construction and strategic development. Over a 34 year career with Skanska, Paul delivered large and complex projects (routinely over £100 million in value) across the commercial, residential and engineering services sectors as well as a significant number of large public-private partnership (PPP) schemes in healthcare, defence and education. Amongst the most notable landmark projects for which Paul has had accountability are 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin) and Heron Tower in London.

Paul has a strong reputation for people development and succession management. He places a particular emphasis on promoting young talent in construction.

John Dunne

Group Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Director

John joined Wates as the Group Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Director in April 2015 and was appointed to the Executive Committee in March 2017.  He is responsible for leading a company-wide Safety, Health and Wellbeing behavioural transformation programme, embedding a culture of good decision making throughout the organisation and ensuring everyone at Wates understands their individual responsibility. He also has line responsibility for the Quality Assurance and Environmental teams.

Before arriving at Wates, John spent 15 years at Balfour Beatty within various lead Health, Safety and Environmental roles eventually managing the global HSE function across 17 different countries. He has over 20 years’ experience as a HSE Professional, across manufacturing, major construction, engineering and consultancy.

Prior to entering the construction industry in 1997, John spent ten years in the Royal Navy as a diver working on civil and marine engineering tasks as well as bomb disposal, mine clearance and Underwater Special Forces.

John is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. He is married with four children.

David Morgan

Managing Director, Wates Living Space

David is Managing Director of Wates Living Space. He joined Wates in January 2014, following a successful career in senior leadership roles in the support services sector.

A graduate of Warwick University, David was previously Group Managing Director for G4S’ Care and Justice business, a £325m turnover business, employing 5,000 people. Prior to this he was Business Development Director of BT Global Services’ Public Sector division, developing long term strategic partnerships and growing the business to over £500m.

As Managing Director for Wates Living Space, David is responsible for maintaining over 500,000 social housing properties in England and Wales. He has a wealth of experience in working in partnership and joint ventures with housing associations and local authorities and is committed to delivering excellent value for money in addition to community regeneration for all of our clients and residents.

David sits on the Wates Group Executive Committee, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee and Group Risk Committee.

Outside of Wates, David is a keen fundraiser. In 2015 he took part in a successful attempt to break the World Record for the Fastest Relay Run from John O’Groats to Land’s End, raising over £100k for charity in the process.

Paul Rowan

Group HR Director

Paul joined Wates in August 2014 as Group HR Director where he is responsible for all HR activities in the Group including recruitment, learning & development and reward.

Paul has previously worked in a number of sectors including manufacturing, financial services, telecoms, and technology. Having worked for organisations such as Unilver, Glaxo and Barclays, Paul has over 25 years’ experience of supporting substantial business change programmes in large complex organisations.

Paul is ExCo sponsor for all employee issues including diversity and inclusion.

Simon Potter

Group Commercial Director

Simon Potter was appointed Group Commercial Director in July 2018.

He joined Wates in 1989 and has held a number of key roles within the business including most recently as Commercial Director for Wates Construction, where he had overall commercial responsibility for all construction projects – both pre and post contract, across the UK overseeing a team of 400 surveyors.

Simon works closely with our clients to overcome problems and define commercially viable solutions for their businesses, bringing extensive knowledge of all contractual forms, construction techniques and procurement types.