Infrastructure Team : Interview with newly appointed heads of department.
The Infrastructure Team have worked collaboratively with clients to widen our services and operational reach and have developed exciting new opportunities within new market sectors to enable our business, our staff and workforce, and our clients to capitalise on our expanding self-delivery capabilities.
We caught up with Phil Eastment, Head of Project Delivery Infrastructure and Julian Rowles, Commercial Lead Infrastructure, who joined the company in May 2023, to learn more about their future plans for the infrastructure arm of the business.
Hi Phil and Julian, we’re glad to have you on board. You’ve made a great impression on everyone. It would be interesting to know what your first impressions of ECL were.
Julian – My first impression, apart from the fact that ECL was a successful business, was that there was a highly talented team behind it.
Both factors we hope will provide us with great opportunities to expand the department and explore untapped potential for further expansion outside the company’s existing market sectors.
Phil – The first thing that struck me was the workforce at HQ and on our sites. The company has done a great job nurturing a ‘Can Do’ corporate mentality.
As soon as I met the team, I knew I had a solid base of experienced, positive staff and workforce to help elevate the business collaboratively.
When you joined, what were your main objectives for the department?
Julian – My aims are quite simple. To open up the Infrastructure Department to existing clients and to also develop relationships with a new client base. Beyond that, I want to grow our supply chain and increase the turnover of the infrastructure arm in a controlled, profitable manner, building the commercial department to suit.
Phil – My skillset lies in building and developing teams to meet the demands of the board, and that’s essentially what I’m here to do.
My main objective is to develop the team further in preparation for the next business development stage and meet the demands of our clients through sustainable construction.
Having been with the company for six months, how have your objectives progressed?
Phil – Within our first six months on the job, the business development plan has progressed well.
We have successfully broadened ECL’s geographical spread, expanding operations to the Cambridgeshire and Nottinghamshire regions. Within these regions, we have taken on local employment in line with client KPIs and have formed local supply chain partners to ensure we can provide the most advantageous sustainable construction solutions.
We are also gradually expanding our self-delivery offering to further support the demands of our existing clients. These bolt-on services will undoubtedly help develop the business within new market sectors and enable it to capitalise on its strength, staff, workforce and expertise.
What’s next for growing ECL?
Julian – We aim to expand the business from a linear to a circular economy using advanced sustainable building practices and sourcing sustainable materials. We are continually investing in the business to offer our clients services and capabilities that enable better ethical construction methods.
There’s a lot of hard work ahead, but we’re focused on enhancing our green construction capabilities to exceed our client’s needs.
