Building Leaders

"The future is gloomy on the news, but the bright side is that we can implement game-changing technology and come out of this recession better than ever," said Nick Carter in one of his latest LinkedIn posts. In this episode, the CEO of Ingenious dives into the huge gap left by existing software providers in Construction and points to the fact that Owners and Client reps have largely remained underserved. However, something Ingenious is about to happen.

Spie Batignolles is everywhere, delivering from the smallest to the biggest projects across France. This was a fun conversation with Francesco and Ammar, two trailblazer technologists that are part of their BIM and Innovation team.

A special guest from a special company! Petros Zouzoulas is the Parsons Innovation Lead for MEA, responsible for leading multi-disciplinary teams to deliver a range of solutions interfacing with a broad array of technologies.  25 years of experience delivering transformative Rail, Transportation, and Infrastructure Projects - packed into one podcast!

Started from the bottom and now Ricardo is the Global Head of Digital Construction at Ferrovial, ranked 9th in the Engineering News Record (ENR) Top 250 Global Contractors ranking. He thinks Construction is cool, Innovation is culture, and Construction Tech is a boiling pot that is ready to explode at any moment. Watch and enjoy!

We spent an hour exploring BIM, Construction Technologies, and the Metaverse with the digital delivery director at The Red Sea Development Company, Ronan Collins. Though the hour was short, we learned three reasons companies need to leverage their technology investmentꟷespecially if they want to do more.

We had a great conversation about growth and transformation with Ivan Kozheurov, Chief R&D Officer at BBF. As the architect of his own career, Ivan recognizes that changing a company’s culture starts by modeling the behavior he wants to see. Watch the full episode!

Jeevan is the genius behind the industry-leading reality capture tool Openspace. During this podcast, Jeevan laid out his entire entrepreneurial journey from testing the technology in stealth mode to rapidly transforming the construction industry. 

What can Construction learn from other industries? From VELUX to Lego, to PWC to Per Aarsleff. Find out how Soren connected the dots and what it takes to unleash innovation for the largest Danish Contractor and beyond.

Aris is a trailblazer of an engineer, who leads the implementation of the reality capture tool Openspace at Schiphol Airport. His insights and passion for technology are contagious. Miss this episode at your peril.

Bill Gates used to say, “a computer in every home”. It turns out he was underselling it, Marco says. Similarly, “a camera on every construction site” is now obvious. From repairing your kitchen sink to delivering a Giga Project in the Middle East, site captures are slowly becoming the norm. The sophisticated software built on top of visuals is transforming every camera lens into a wormhole, sucking construction into a parallel, productivity-driven Universe.

Omnia Halawani trojan-horsed her way into the consulting world after founding Grfn with only 6 years of professional experience. It all started in 2012 when Omnia and her co-founder Hassan, spotted a gap in the market and since then Grfn flourished just like Dubai did.

Julien is a Civil Engineer and a construction technologist who has championed hundreds of transformative ideas during his relatively short career. During our latest podcast you could cut his passion with a knife, as he spoke on the promise of a circular economy and the inevitability of the digital tornado coming to shake the industry.

Paul Mullet is the Engineering and Technology Director of Robert Bird Group. He used to spend hours looking at the Usborne book of the future when he was a kid. Today, some thirty years later, patience and obsessive focus were skills that he honed masterfully in his pursuit to create the world he used to read about as a child.

During our latest podcast, he shared the mindset that served him best during his fascinating career as he changed roles, managed teams, and built departments from scratch.

Miguel Monteiro is not your typical project director. He is an architect by trade and despite his artistic traits, now manages the construction of the highly prestigious 340-meter JLT tower in uptown Dubai.

Surprisingly, that is not the only unconventional thing about him. He is a triathlete with various ironman appearances, a motorcycle enthusiast, an MBA graduate from INSEAD, and a construction technology ambassador for the industry.

During our latest podcast, he joyfully rolled out a precise reflection of his adventurous career and with his deep voice and quiet humility, he spoke about the experiences that shaped who he is today.

Well spoken and polite like a true Englishman, Prakash climbed the corporate ladder in a rapid pace. After working for companies such as Balfour Beatty, WSP, AECOM and others, he is now the Head of Digital Delivery for construction conglomerate JLL. How he got there may surprise you, which included a 4 month sabbatical to travel the world.

Helal is the Technical Director of WSP in the Middle East. If you’d scroll down his LinkedIn profile you’ll see giants such as Parsons, Jacobs, Al Araab Contracting, and others, making him one of the most experienced construction executives in the Middle East. During our recent podcast, Helal was a circling tornado of insight and experience, and we were moved, shocked, and entertained by his story.

Dimitris Kitsios will never admit to being an organizational genius, but a look back on his eventful story suggests otherwise. He was once managing the Program Development for an $11bn Airport Capital in Abu Dhabi, running a premium supermarket store with nine thousand SKUs in Dubai and nurturing a family as an expat man, all at the same time.

Despite being hugely successful, he humbly admits that he had many failures along the way and that “you can do everything, just not at the same time”. We were excited to talk to him during our latest Building Leaders episode, not least because the Stanford graduate worked as an Executive for some giants in the construction industry like Archirodon, Parsons, and DAMAC, as well as going through the grind of an entrepreneurial pursuit during the same lifetime.

He is the top person for Digital Initiatives at CCC, a company of 100,000+ employees — the largest construction company in the middle east, he is the CEO of CCC Startup, and he is a Strategy Officer at the World Economic Forum.

Aref Boualwan was born and raised during the Civil War of Lebanon and left shortly after for Greece, where he became an early IT employee of the company. With a smile on his face and a laser-focus on his mission to digitize the construction industry, Aref is very strategic and deliberate in his moves when faced with obstacles.

For our podcast, Building Leaders, Aref shared his passions, stories and insights in a rarely witnessed open manner.

Construction is the 2nd largest industry in the world. A sleeping giant who has been slowly waking up from its productivity slumber. Lately, the industry has taken some firm and stable first steps forward and because of people like Marco Bonelli, it is soon going to step its foot on the gas.

During our latest podcast, the Digital Lead of VINCI UK spoke with great enthusiasm about his role, the biggest challenge innovators face in construction as well as the things that make the industry special.

We have avoided it for as long as we could, it seems, but with outspoken Executives like Kefah Semaan bringing a human-centric culture to the forefront, the industry is bound for change.

Kifah, a man with an incredibly well decorated background, is now the Executive Director of TAMAS Projects — one of most reputable specialized contractors in the GCC Region. Prior to TAMAS, Kifah held Executive roles at DAMAC, Parsons Corporation and Al Nasr Contracting, and for our podcast, he shared with us his story and insights into what he believes is key to the success of the Construction Industry.

When Abdurrahman Farooq arrived in Saudi Arabia in 2008, he had to sell his Nokia phone to buy milk. Thirteen years later, he is working as a Quality General Manager for one of the largest property owners in the Kingdom, Abdul Latif Jameel Lands.

George Panoutsos left Greece 16 years ago to work in the Middle East and now calls the Arab world his “real home”. Currently a Project Manager at Abu Dhabi ports, George has an unwavering love for building things and was never a fan of sacrificing growth for security. 

During the Building Leaders podcast, we discussed what is like working as an expat in the Middle East, what it takes to grow and get promoted as an engineer, and many more topics.

Mohamed Elweshahy is the MEP Director of Shomoul Holding, managing the electro-mechanical works in some of the largest mixed use development projects of Saudi Arabia, worth well over $4 Billion.

Abdulhameed is the IT director of one of the largest holding companies in Saudi Arabia. It is a story of grit, determination and an example of how you have to power to be unstoppable when you set your mind on something. 

Ali Katkhada is the CIO of one of the largest construction and manufacturing firms in the Middle East. He is the mastermind behind DEPA’s IT Enterprise, and he has been a core member of the team that grew this company from 50 to 8000 employees and through an IPO.

An absolute pleasure to be talking to, Ali shared with us his story of how a can-do attitude and a hamble approach can help you achieve anything you set your mind to.

Costanzo is the Highways Sector Lead for AECOM EMEA, a holder of a PhD in Civil Engineering and the son of a legendary Italian bridge engineer.

During our podcast Costanzo shared deep career insights, the values that help engineers to get to the top, as well his high-level insight for the construction industry.