Leadership Team
Marina Robertson
Group Managing Director
Marina has over 30 years’ experience in the Built Environment sector. She is passionate about the role infrastructure plays in affecting social change and in the sector’s response to the changing climate. She has undertaken academic research on the effectiveness of local authority owned companies in delivering social housing and more recently on the skills boards need to make effective decarbonisation investment decisions. Marina loves nothing more than working with others to affect real and lasting change. She is a creative and energetic thinker capable of translating vision and strategy into tangible results.
Marcus Passant
Group Director of People and Governance
Marcus is a successful Chartered HR professional with a solid record of strategic planning, recruiting, business partnering, reward, TUPE, cost reductions, problem solving, learning and development, merger and acquisition, service delivery and multiple projects in a diverse public and UK private sector and international environment.
Having worked in sectors ranging from Multi-disciplinary Engineering Solutions, Aerospace, Oil & Gas, Defence through to most recently working in the Ombudsman sector, Marcus has been involved in a number of key ‘start-ups’ and has built HR teams, businesses and organisations as a key member of the management team. Strong communication and relationship building are at the heart of his approach with high integrity and good governance.
Matt Cross
Group Finance and Resources Director
Matt is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with over 25 years experience across different industries and sectors. Following training in private practice, he has worked in Financial Accounting roles in insurance and banking before leading finance teams as Financial Controller in roles in high growth private sector organisations, higher education and most recently, in a large charity.
Matt enjoys working with Boards, leaders and the wider workforce to educate and champion how important a seamless finance function is to an organisation. He believes understanding the challenges of a business, helps deliver organisational success. He has a track record of delivering change and improvement activities in finance functions, to ensure the organisation keeps pace with developments in the regulatory environment and the wider market. Matt is focused on getting the best out of people and leading motivated and engaged teams as well as delivering the benefits of efficient processes and utilising the right systems. He prides himself on accuracy and integrity and helping ensure a foundation of financial sustainability to support the delivery of strategic objectives.
Kevin Blunden
Director of Building Consultancy
Kevin is a Chartered Building Engineer, a Chartered Environmentalist, and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, with nearly 40 years’ experience in the sector, during which time he has progressed from a trainee role fresh from school to positions where he has managed teams in both public and private sectors and providing a technical lead for a major professional body.
Throughout his career Kevin’s key aims have been to:
- Raise standards of service delivery and performance
- Share knowledge and experience and raise levels of competence and professionalism
- Ensure that standards are met
- Seek out new challenges and achieve objectives
More recently, alongside his main role he has been working with government departments, the future Regulator, key industry groups, and those developing competency frameworks to influence future standards and regulations and ensure that there is a secure future for the building control profession. In joining Acivico, Kevin believes that he is becoming part of a team which has a unique opportunity to become the leading service deliverer in the building control arena.
Board
David Powell
Board Chair
David’s extensive experience in local government has been gained in Unitary, County and District level Councils. Most recently he has been a local government Deputy Chief Executive and an Interim Chief Executive following over 10 years as a Chief Finance Officer where he was involved in setting up several private /public partnerships.
A strong advocate of public service he is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and has been a Government Advisor, a local government peer assessor and has extensive experience of the Housing Sector as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of a Housing Association.
Mark Evans
Non-Executive Director
Mark is a senior leader within British Land a FTSE 100 organisation and brings a wide breadth of experience from across commercial, retail, residential and mixed-use properties, with a particular focus on customer experience, digital place making and sustainable operations. He also has proven skills in business sales, restructure, and integration. As his first non-Exec role, Mark demonstrates the passion, desire, and experience of the whole group for its future strategy and growth.
Lisa Nicholls
Non-Executive Director
Lisa Nicholls brings over 28 years of experience in the housing sector, with a strong background in service transformation, performance improvement, and management of a wide range of housing services. As a Social Housing and Property Specialist, Lisa has consistently focused on delivering quality housing and support services that put customers first. Her dedication to the housing sector extends to serving as a Non-Executive Director and Trustee for various non-profit housing, construction, and homeless organisations. Lisa is also a Fellow Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has received the Innovations award, resulting in gold membership of the Institute of Customer Services.
Gary Mills
Non-Executive Director
Born and raised in the Black Country with a deep connection to the West Midlands, Gary Mills is an FCCA qualified Risk and Audit Director with nearly 35 years of experience in internal audit, external audit, and corporate risk management across various industries. Gary has held several Non-Executive Director/Trustee roles, such as Chair of Risk & Audit Committee and Vice Chair of the Finance & Audit Committee. Known for his collaborative approach, Gary works with staff at all levels to develop practical solutions. His commitment to giving back is evident through his involvement in local church and education sectors, as well as mentoring ACCA members to advance their careers.
Hugh Meiklejohn
Facilities Management Commercial and Technical Director
Hugh is a highly experienced Property & Facilities Director with a track record of success in delivering strategic, commercial and business improvement goals. He has extensive experience across the broad spectrum of estates and facilities management functions including operations, projects, technical standards, commercial, procurement and supply chain management. Hugh has occupied roles within the public and private sector, both client and contractor side and is proud to have worked for some of the largest and most well known organisations in the sector. He has even occupied Director Roles covering EMEA and Global estates.
Throughout his career Hugh has been highly performance and results driven and he is passionate about making a difference and driving change where it is needed. As an apprentice electrician in 1984 he won Apprentice of the Year in his final year and his track record of achievements since then shows that he has never lost that desire to challenge, innovate and succeed. Among his proudest achievements to date Hugh included “having the privilege to lead such a highly motivated and high performing team here at Acivico” as one of them.
Lindsay Harris
Director of Project and Programme Management
Lindsay is an experienced Project Manager and Programme Manager and has worked in the property industry, predominantly in the public sector, for over 30 years and has significant experience in a wide range of project work, with involvement from inception to completion including new build, refurbishment and planned maintenance replacement works. Individual project values range from £50K to upwards of £18 million, with a project portfolio in excess of £50 million. Lindsay has a proven track record in the delivery of multi stakeholder projects, working on the development and delivery of integrated public sector projects, through the rationalisation of local and national government assets. She has had valuable experience in working with local and national funding bodies, attracting match funding for her clients.
Her experience also includes significant programme management along-side her project management skills, delivering grant funding programmes, planned capital maintenance programmes and capital project programmes of work.
Lindsay has been a key driver in the transformation of project delivery and governance at Acivico and is passionate about providing an excellent quality service to our shareholder partner and external client. She constantly strives to demonstrate continuous improvement with her team.
Lindsay also is a Non-Executive Director for Sustainability West Midlands. This supports her personal and professional objectives around supporting the de-carbonisation agenda and working with her clients to achieve their Net-Zero targets.
Imran Salam
Acivico Commercial Director
Imran leads the Cost Management and Design teams within Acivico Group and has key attributes which support our Clients with their delivery of challenging and complex projects / programmes to maximise best value.
He takes pride in delivering a professional and trusted service to our Clients. He works closely with our specialist teams to provide innovative and robust solutions on projects to drive long term benefits.
He takes pride in developing the next generation of quantity surveyors in the industry and is an RICS Assessor and Counsellor.
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Experience
Imran has a wide array of experience in project delivery across new build, refurbishment and listed buildings. He has valuable experience across sectors which include Education, Housing, Leisure, Infrastructure, Retail, Residential, Transportation and Frameworks.
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Projects
Imran is involved in Masterplan programmes at Smithfield Development and Curzon Street Enhanced Public Realm projects within Birmingham acting in a technical commercial advisor role to the Client.
Imran has been part of successful and award winning teams who have delivered prestigious schemes within Birmingham, UK including the National College of High Speed Rail and the redevelopment of Centenary Square.
Imran has extensive experience in the Education sector having previously led the delivery of Birmingham City Council’s Capital Education programme equating to a programme value exceeding £500 million.
Imran leads the Cost Management and Design teams within Acivico Group and has key attributes which support our Clients with their delivery of challenging and complex projects / programmes.
Acivico Commercial Director
Fellow of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS) Member of Association of Project Managers (MAPM) BSc Hons Quantity Surveying MSc Mechanical and Electrical Quantity Surveying Chartered Institute of Public Finance Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS)