Associate Members Introduction – Selina Häringer & Aaron Lyons

The second session at our February monthly meeting gave us all the chance to get to know our new Associate Members, Selina Häringer and Aaron Lyons

Selina was introduced to us by acumen7 Member, Birgitta Schock. In October last year Selina moved from Germany to London to complete a Master’s in Business and Organizational Psychology at the University of Westminster. She met Birgitta during her (almost) three years as a Lean Construction Consultant at the Stuttgart, Germany-based refine.

Selina believes that outside of your comfort zone, the only way to grow, make a difference, and move forward is to take on new challenges and develop as a person.

Next up was Aaron who was introduced to us by acumen7 Member and former Chair, John Pilkington, and has a degree in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. He initially spent time with a company advising on energy in a very broad sense – a consultancy in the carbon agenda world. Aaron is now working at Carbon8 and is building their capability and credibility in terms of being able to market a, quite deliberately labelled, Carbon8 credit.

It was great to hear (and feel) the enthusiasm they both have, and we are looking forward to equally beneficial relationships over the next year.

The Quality of Life Foundation

Interesting and inspiring were two of the words used by our members to describe our first talk at our February monthly meeting.

Professor Sadie Morgan OBE is the founding director of Stirling Prize winning architecture practice dRMM. She has had a long and illustrious career, playing a key role in advocacy of exemplary design and architecture, through her professional and advisory roles.

Sadie recently founded the Quality of Life Foundation, a UK charity aimed at raising people’s quality of life and wellbeing through the improvement of the built environment.

Sadie spoke to us about her previous experience and about the Quality of Life Foundation, and how those fundamental requirements can be incorporated into the built environment.

Thanks to Sadie for taking time out of her incredibly busy schedule to speak to us.

You can learn more about the Quality of Life Foundation here: https://www.qolf.org/

Carbon8

Our second presentation at our January monthly meeting was given by long-standing member and former Chair of acumen7, John Pilkington
 
John is currently the Executive Chair of Carbon8 Systems Ltd.

Carbon8 was incorporated back in 2006 by two scientists who were working together at Greenwich University. For the previous 10 years they’d been experimenting on an idea hatched out of a failed experiment for a new method of soil stabilisation. Throughout 27 years from that ‘eureka’ moment, they have been seeking funding across a myriad of opportunities. In the past four years, they have been able to secure funding from external investors.
 
John spoke to us to give us the story of the ups and downs of the fundraising to date, the preparations for the next big round later this year, and the lessons learned throughout the entire, very long, process!
 
It was very interesting to hear about the reality of fundraising, how much hard work is involved and how long it really takes!
 
We wish John and everyone at Carbon8 all the very best for the future and for changing the world.

Carbon8 website

 

Making UK Nuclear Power Competitive

After Tony Roulstone presented to us last year, a group of acumen7 members got together with him with the objective of promoting and supporting the case for small nuclear reactors, a key element of the UK sustainable provision to enable us to meet our Net Zero carbon targets by 2040.

The Focus Group comprising Tony, Peter Dixon, Robert Osborne and Simon Murray have met several times and at our first monthly meeting of 2023, they shared the results of their deliberations in terms of formulating a cohesive approach to developing programmes of development for both SMRs and large reactors to standard designs.

The presentation and subsequent discussions demonstrated the depth and strength of our network in one of our key focus areas.

Thanks go to the Focus Group for their work so far (and the work that’s to come), and to all of our members who attended the session.

Realine Solutions Ltd

Thanks to Andrew Cobden for leading the discussion during the second session of our November Monthly Meeting.


Andrew has established Realine Solutions Limited with Quinton Hill-Lines and a team of 6 deeply experienced operators all contributing to Realine’s business strategy and set-up to apply modern thinking to delivery and a new way of managing relationships, sharing returns and reducing risk. 
 
Andrew took us through the Realine thought processes to explain how by reducing the number of partners in delivery it is possible to encourage greater collaboration based on two-way transparency, increase scheme returns; all incentivised by more equally sharing in the upside created.
 

Digital Transformation – implementing the next steps

Birgitta Schock is a long-term member and supporter of acumen7. We were lucky to hear from her at our November Monthly Meeting. 
 
Birgitta is currently leading on a digital transformation process for the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich that encompasses and promotes a human centric approach as a crucial element to ensure digital transformation success.

She is a Partner of the new BildDich.ch network – a network of professionals for professionals providing trainee and support to the construction and real estate industry.
 
Birgitta gave us an engaging and interactive talk, and acumen7 members responded well to her request for feedback on implementing the next steps.
 
It was great to see how much discussion the presentation generated. Members are encouraged to contact Birgitta directly to continue discussions.