I started my construction career officially at 18 years old with a Tier 1 contractor as a trainee quantity surveyor working 4 days a week and studying at college and then later university on the other day.

However, I had been involved with construction many years before that thanks to my wonderful dad John Allen.

You see my dad is a construction estimator and before he started his own business I’d go with him to the construction yard of the company he worked at over the years. I have fond memories of a yard man named Dan who made the strongest tea known to man and who simply added more and more teabags to the pot as the day went on! It was vile but he was lovely and always made me feel welcome!

However, once my dad started his own business I sometimes used to go out with him and visit sites (or sometimes it might be a family outing driving across the country on a Sunday to deliver tenders and estimates to his clients!).

My dad is the one who got me hooked on the industry and it was one specific project that really made an impact – an old listed building that was being renovated. A Tudor built manor house where it was said Henry VIII stopped off when travelling around the country.

That day, I was dragged along by my dad who said I wasn’t just sitting at home because I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. He gave me the plans and a tape measure and told me he wanted measurements in four places on each wall. I was 17 and cocky and obviously thought he was completely bonkers until I realised how wibbly wobbly those ancient walls were!

The renovation plans he was pricing were epic and that was it – I wanted to be in an industry that could do so much with amazing buildings!

My dad’s response – you’d better go and get trained then …so I did just that and that is where my 30 year construction career began!

The first 20 years of my career were spent working for various contractors, first as trainee quantity surveyor and then as a quantity surveyor and commercial manager.

I worked hard gaining my Honours Degree in Quantity Surveying XXXXXX continue from here

I worked on some epic projects and ran large and varied teams working in numerous sectors including residential (housing, university accommodation & flats/apartments, old peoples homes), commercial, large scale mixed-use developments, education, hotels, healthcare, aviation and rail and more recently power plants, wind farms, shipbuilding and sports stadiums and a few cladding remedial projects post Grenfell disaster.

I had some brilliant times but also some incredibly difficult times (some of which made me want to leave the industry all together).

10 years ago I stopped working for contractors and chose to step into the construction dispute and dispute avoidance arena. I needed change.

I now support a variety of construction and engineering clients to avoid, mitigate and resolve disputes and I’m regularly involved in dispute resolution processes both domestically and internationally. I have even given evidence in the Technology and Construction Court.

I love what I do but there was still a nagging feeling. There was still something I needed to do.

Little did I know back then that I was to embark on a huge and sometimes painstaking journey of writing a book. 

To learn my trigger you will have to read my book (after all I’m not giving everything away here) but suffice to say there was a huge trigger that led me to where I am today where I want to make things better for future generations, so that they can thrive where so many haven’t been able to in an industry I love.