Meet our speakers!

Hugh Carr, Director of Strategic Procurement, Scotland Excel

Hugh provides leadership to Scotland Excel's strategic procurement teams and ensures that the organisation delivers best value collaborative contracts to its customers. Hugh works closely with stakeholders to ensure that their strategic priorities are incorporated into future development plans, and that the needs of our sector are represented in national procurement plans.

Hugh has extensive experience of supply chain and outsourcing management. He spent 12 years at the electronics company Compaq, and has held senior roles at Accenture, Network Rail and Babcock International. Prior to joining Scotland Excel, Hugh was responsible for supply chain and commercial management at Scottish Water Solutions.

Morag Angus, Head of Property & Construction, Scottish Government

Morag is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors with over 30 years’ experience in public sector property working for local and national government, community organisations and charities. She joined the Scottish Government in 2013, where she acts as the principal property adviser to Scottish Ministers and leads a team of professionals transforming the government’s approach to estate and construction procurement.

During her time at the Scottish Government, Morag helped to establish the Smarter Workplaces Programme and now leading the delivery of the Single Scottish Estate.  As part of the Construction Leadership Forum, she co-chairs the Transformation Board tasked with delivering the Construction Accord in Scotland.  In 2022-23, Morag was elected Chair of the Association of Chief Estates Surveyors Scotland.

Mary Mitchell, Chief Procurement Officer, Scotland Excel 

Mary joined Scotland Excel in 2019 to lead a collaborative two-year procurement transformation programme for five member organisations in the Tayside region.  

In June 2021, she was appointed as Strategic Programme Manager for Scotland Excel's construction, transport and environment category teams in June 2021, bringing a net zero focus to the portfolio and working with partners on supply chain innovation. 

In December 2023, Mary was appointed Chief Procurement Officer and now oversees all Scotland Excel procurement activity across corporate, education, ICT, construction, transport and environment.

Mary is an experienced leader with extensive background in local government and the private sector.  Before joining Scotland Excel, she was the Corporate Procurement Manager at Perth & Kinross Council.

Christina Gaiger, Associate Director, Architype 

Christina was the youngest ever President of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) from 2020 – 2022, and only the second woman to hold the post. In 2020 Christina was recognised in the Architects Journal 40 Under 40. 

Christina works in practice at Architype Ltd, sharing their passion for regenerative design, sustainability and retrofit. Previously Christina has worked for design led practices, Helen Lucas Architects Ltd in Edinburgh and TsAO & McKown Architects in New York, alongside two years in Paris at Renzo Piano Building Workshop, working on the creation a new university campus within a 17th century fort in Amiens.

Christina continues to focus on the creative re-use of existing buildings and is a vocal advocate for VAT parity and policy driven change.

Alexander McNaughton, Principal Engineer, SWECO

Alexander is a Principal Engineer in Sweco’s dedicated Active Travel Team, based in Scotland. He has over 10 years experience in the highways sector, delivering projects for public and private clients.

Alexander led the Sweco team on the technical design of the Accessible Ayr project, which involved the reallocation of road space to revitalize the town centre. 

Alan Blacklaws, Technical Manager, SWECO

Alan leads one of Sweco’s dedicated active travel teams based in Edinburgh. He has over 23 years of experience in various multi-disciplinary highways, active travel and road safety projects across Scotland.

Alan has extensive knowledge of all aspects of the design development process, from inception through to detailed design.

Professor Sean Smith, Director, Centre for Future Infrastructure, University of Edinburgh

Sean is Professor of Future Construction and Director of the Centre for Future Infrastructure, based at the University of Edinburgh.

He has held previous posts leading in sustainable construction, construction innovation and building performance and has managed major projects involving low carbon construction technologies.

His research has led to new processes and new housing product innovations, four government white papers and over 20 award winning projects. He serves on SE Scotland Regional Housing Board, founded and led the HCI Skills Gateway, and served on the 2021 Zero Emissions Task Force (ZEST) for social housing. His technical designs have been used in over 1.6 million UK homes.

Sean is an invited fellow of the UK’s Clean Growth Leadership Network and serves on various committees involved in innovation, net zero, housing, skills and infrastructure.

James Stevenson, Housing Development Manager, North Lanarkshire Council

A chartered project professional with over 20 years public sector experience, James is responsible for the delivery of North Lanarkshire Council’s New-Supply Housing Programme, which includes delivery of 5,000 council homes by 2035.

This is the largest council housing programme in Scotland and includes town centre regeneration projects, re-provisioning of existing housing stock and the conversion of prominent listed buildings within the authority.

James has delivered multiple high-profile programmes of work for various authorities, and continues to deliver placed-based regeneration programmes to meet the needs of local communities and support the delivery of The Plan for North Lanarkshire – a vision where North Lanarkshire is the place to Live, Learn, Work Invest and Visit.

Darren Payne, Director of Client Services, Rhodar Industrial Services Ltd

Darren is an Executive Board member and Director of Client Services at Rhodar, one of the UK’s largest and most established licenced asbestos removal specialists, part of the Lexia Solutions Group of companies.

With nearly 30 years of experience within the asbestos abatement and specialist enabling industry - he combines a vast technical knowledge with a commercial focus and is an acknowledged contributor to the latest HSE Publication and Guidance Document “Asbestos: The Analysts' Guide HSG248”.

Darren has been a keynote speaker representing Rhodar and the wider Lexia Solutions Group at a range of industry, client and HSE-related summits and conferences.

Stephen Good, CEO, Built Environment - Smarter Transformation (BE-ST)

Stephen is CEO of Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) – Scotland’s national innovation centre for construction and the built environment. Stephen has been CEO since its inception in 2014 and has led the growth of the organisation to Scotland’s national innovation asset for construction and the built environment, and a recognised UN international Centre of Excellence for high performing buildings. 

An Architect to training, Stephen spent the first 10 years of his career with Anderson, Bell & Christie Architects designing and delivering award winning housing, education & healthcare projects across Scotland. In 2007 he joined CCG (Scotland) Ltd, one of Scotland’s leading private construction companies to support the technical delivery of their £12m offsite manufacturing facility, notably delivering the 2014 Commonwealth Games Athletes Village.

Taking on a Group Director role in 2010, he set up the Building Futures Lab, CCG’s specialist sustainability, research, and innovation consultancy.

Mark Gornall, Head of UK Sales, HAGS

Mark is passionate about the development of outdoor recreation, enabling all generations and abilities to play, learn and develop through the design of holistic play environments.

Dr Stuart Gadsen, Commercial Director Social Housing, Kensa Group

Stuart holds a First Class Honours Degree in Environmental Engineering and a Ph.D. Managing the Urban Environment: the Solar Energy Potential of Dwellings. He has had a 25-year career in Sustainability and Environmental engineering roles.

Stuart is passionate about decarbonising heat and taking people out of fuel poverty, and his work for the past 10 years has been focused in the social housing sector.

Martyn Wallace, CEO, Digital Office for Scottish Local Government

Martyn leads the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government which he set up in October 2016 to look at creating, delivering, and accelerating innovative digital products or services for Scottish councils.

Martyn is also the Senior Responsible Officer for the Analogue to Digital Telecare Switchover programme in partnership with Technology Enabled Care and the Scottish Government. He has been chairperson for the Scottish Government’s Digital Identity Programme since 2021 and joined the board of The DataLab in 2023.

Martyn has been named on the CIOUK100 for the past seven years. Before joining the Digital Office, he worked in the technology sector for over 20 years, including with companies such as Capita Secure Digital Solutions, Telefonica O2UK, BlackBerry, Computacenter, and Compaq.

Elaine Ellis, Skills Planning Manager Construction, Skills Development Scotland

Elaine has worked for Skills Development Scotland for past 6 years. She works strategically with stakeholders to support the delivery of an intelligence-led skills planning system which supports sectors to access the skills needed now and into the future, with a focus on the transition to a net zero economy.

Prior to joining Skills Development Scotland, Elaine worked with SELECT across a number of roles connected to training and skills.

Nick Ribbons, Construction Partner, Zero Waste Scotland

Over the past decade, Nick has worked as a sustainability adviser with specific interests in circular economy within construction and the built environment.

Zero Waste Scotland has recently carried out research into reuse hubs and best practice in waste and data management, as well as developing the Net Zero Carbon Public Sector Building Standard in partnership with Scottish Futures Trust.

Nick's previous roles have included recycling management and environmental consultancy.