Name: ROLAND GILBERT

Professional/Academic Qualifications:

BSc QS; MIRCS; Prince 2 Practioner 

Key Skills

Negotiation & Mediation                Strategic Thinking                        Project management

Cost & Risk Management              Innovative Thinking                     Process e ngineering

Budgeting & forecasting                Presentation/Influencing              Value Engineering

Feasibility analysis/projections    Supply chain development         Team Development

Contract authoring                          Change Management                  Client Relationships 

OJEU advice                                    Public & Private sector procurement                                    

Roland Gilbert is an experienced Chartered Quantity Surveyor of over 27 years with qualifications and experience in Cost Management & budgeting, Programme Management, Project Management, Procurement and Corporate Business Management. He is an accomplished presenter and has very a huge range of procurement experiences in both the Public Sector and Private Sector to provide meaningful training understanding from a client and suppliers perspective.

He gained a degree in Quantity Surveying and his early career started working with a Civil Engineering Contractor in the UK and then moved into a number of Private Quantity Surveying Practices both large and small around the UK. He has achieved a very broad experience of the industry from very large multi-million pound schemes down to small housing projects, across the varying elements of the civil and building industry.

In 1989 he joined B & Q to head up their Procurement & Cost Control team controlling the costs of their entire new build and refurbishment program of circa £80m per annum. There he gained many useful skills encompassing corporate management, high level presentation & influencing skills, corporate procurement, programme management, claims management & negotiation and more laterally strategic planning & innovation, process development, supply chain development and facilitation.

Roland developed his Procurement Team to focus on creating volume procurement opportunities using long term relationships with the supply chain (150 suppliers) in the construction area which achieved a £7m (10%) saving in 2003. Further development of this principle with key suppliers allowed them to look at creating end user benefits by reducing running costs in developing a new lighting product with them; this produced a 30% reduction in energy usage.

Roland’s personal negotiation skills and strategic programme management were demonstrated in his achieving a 10% reduction in costs and a 15% reduction in store construction times. Standardisation and the development of regular reporting methods, contracting & consultant agreements, standard specifications in order to drive improvement has been a key feature of his activity.

Roland developed a keen interest in improving the current procedures and looking for new innovation, developing Best Practise and ways of improving costs which led him to investigate construction costs in both China & Canada which helped eventually achieve a £300k saving on all new stores. He also developed wider contacts in the industry by working with an external Benchmarking Forums with 16 other retailers.

Over the last 10 years having researched Lean Construction and Partnered working principles, Roland sought to introduce them into the Commercial world of retail construction and the Public Sector, eventually successfully achieving this not only on Fit out construction, but also into normal Freehold construction, reducing Contractors and Consultants to core teams working proactively with the client.

In early 2003 he was asked to troubleshoot the Construction costs/ management of a new Head Office in Shanghai China, which he successfully brought back into budget and program.

Later in 2003 he moved to a specialist consultancy (Collaborative Working Centre) focussing on Collaborative Working within the Construction Industry becoming Pre-Contract Commercial Director. Using principles from the MOD Building Down Barriers and the Egan & Latham reports he helped a wide number of Public Sector clients in Highways, Schools, Housing Maintenance and LA portfolios, develop and implement a strategic approach to cost management, procurement and supply chain implementation.  He also led the development of the company’s growth in new IT infrastructure, and other support services and is keen to apply this within the wider industry.

During his time with CWC Roland was also involved in setting up 19 different Framework tenders on values varying from £2m p.a. to £75m p.a. Whilst with CWC for different Local Authority clients and established standard tender documents & open-book cost formats with them, & undertook open-book cost audits for many of these.

In 2007 Roland created his own business to utilise these specialist skills on behalf of a number of both private and Public Sector clients who can benefit from a strategic view as well as a project level view, combined with a personal approach. He is also developing the management consultancy aspect in seeking to help small businesses link with the new procurement initiatives and in working with Board members in developing policy and driving their aspirations forwards.

In 2009 Roland started working with Business Link in the South West as one of their panel of consultants supporting their Management consultancy programme particularly helping SME’s in their business structure reviews and specific development needs. In 2010 he has initiated a series of Public Sector procurement training seminars particularly aimed at SME’s to aid them in engaging with the sector.