CIOB recognises outstanding achievers at inaugural awards

The very first International Outstanding Achievement Awards, run by the Chartered Institute of Building, has recognised Alex Cook from Barratt Developments as the ‘Outstanding Newcomer’ of the year. Along with Qi Hu from China Minsheng Jiaye Investment Ltd for his work in Design Management.

The awards launched in June 2014 set out to discover the hidden heroes within project teams who have made an outstanding contribution and changed things for the better.  It encompass fields as diverse as procurement, conservation, design, people management, facilities and health and safety management.

Alan Crane CBE Past President of the CIOB and IOAA judge said:  “In its first year these awards have highlighted some of the amazing achievements that are out there in the industry and it’s been an inspirational experience to hear their stories. We would urge more people to come forward and nominate someone they know who is making a big difference. This is a fantastic platform for the industry’s to celebrate its stars – no matter what role they are in.”

Alex Cook was awarded ‘Outstanding Newcomer’ for his impact at Barratt Developments. After only 8 weeks in the business Alex identified an opportunity to improve the process for contracting affordable housing. He took ownership for negotiating contracts for 29 homes. So impressed with his work he was asked to take on a further 19 homes.

Alex was selected alongside senior managers to join a strategic working group. No other Barratt graduate, after two years in the business, has had the ability to play a key role in such a strategic project. Alex’s contribution led management to create a role for him to specifically look at developing innovation on a full time basis.

Qi Hu receives his Outstanding Achievement award for orchestrating the design of 3 hotels simultaneously in China.  From setting up a design team to negotiating with hotel management and finalising suitable facilities that were more respectful to the local community and culture, Qi Hu strove to understand every aspect of the clients business.

With two of the hotels situated in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region, and the third based in Xi An, an ancient city of the Tang Dynasty, these hotels had to be designed sympathetically to their cultural surroundings and yet still offer the modernity the client was looking for. All three projects were successfully developed.

Highly commended recipients at this year’s awards were:-

• Rockson Dogbegah from Ghana
• Ada YS Fung from Hong Kong
• Peter James from the UK
• Benjamin Valliquette Kissall from Canada

The CIOB will open entries for the 2016 competition on 1 July 2015. To find out more about the awards go to http://ioaa.ciob.org.