TRADA Board and Advisory Committee members

Andrew Abbott

Andrew is a graduate in Civil Engineering and has worked for BM TRADA since 1985, where he has held a number of technical and managerial posts. He is also a Director of BM TRADA.

TRADA’s executive and management services are provided under contract by BM TRADA and Andrew has been closely involved in the development and delivery of TRADA’s research and information programmes.

He became Chief Executive of TRADA in 2002.

Andrew Lawrence

Andrew Lawrence is the leading Timber specialist at Arup, a member of the Timber Eurocode Committee and a judge for the UK Wood Awards. He lectures worldwide on timber in architecture, has co-authored a book for TRADA and RIBA on the use of timber for structure and cladding and has appeared on Grand Designs discussing new developments in timber.

He is committed to helping make timber a standard construction material for larger projects alongside steel and concrete.

His projects include the Metz Pompidou, the Canary Wharf Crossrail Roof and the Endless Stair.

Andrew Wylie

Andrew is a Group Director who leads a team of structural engineers in Buro Happold’s Bath office. He has extensive multi-disciplinary design leadership experience on a range of complex new build and refurbishment projects with particular experience in museum and theatre buildings. Andrew has a passion for timber engineering and design and with his team has been responsible for many challenging and pioneering timber structures. Andrew has completed a Masters degree in Inter Disciplinary Design for the Built Environment at the University of Cambridge. He is also a visiting tutor at the University of Bath and is the industrial supervisor for an EngD student researching Low Impact Building Materials.

Andy Ferguson

Carol Costello

Carol Costello is an architect and partner with Edward Cullinan Architects [now Cullinan Studio]. Carol has worked on some of the practice’s most notable buildings, and through her involvement in many complex projects, she has considerable experience in managing design teams and complex client groups, leading projects through the initial briefing stage, concept development, statutory consultations, detailed design and tender, to the eventual delivery of the completed building. Significant projects where Carol has led teams in the public sector include Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge, Herbarium, Library Art and Archive at Kew Gardens, John Hope Gateway at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and British Film Institute’s Master Film Store. Carol is currently leading projects in the education sector, and is part of the practice’s team delivering energy infrastructure and academic projects for the University of Warwick.

Charles Hopping

After completing an MA in Economics at Cambridge, Charles joined Hoppings, specialist softwood processor and distributor, in 1976. He has been Chairman since 1989. Charles has served as Chairman of the East Anglian Timber Trade Association and as Chairman of the Timber Trade Federation’s National Softwood Division. His approach is fundamentally commercial, but he is convinced that the key to success in the future will be to find ways to deliver an increasingly sophisticated product to the market, both in terms of the product itself and the associated technical and sales support.

Charlie Law MIEMA, ICIOB

Charlie has worked in the construction sector for nearly 30 years, and is currently Managing Director of Sustainable Construction Solutions Ltd, which he founded in 2014 after 27 years at principal contractor BAM Construct UK. Using the experience gained over the years in finance management, project management, training and sustainability, Charlie now specialises in advising organisations on moving towards a circular economy business model, which includes the responsible sourcing of materials. Charlie is also on the Grown in Britain Executive, which promotes home grown timber, and is a judge on the TRADA National Student Design Competition.

Craig White

Craig founded White Design in 1998 with fellow Director Linda Farrow. White Design’s founding principle is to help create beautiful, affordable places that help their clients to live, work and learn more sustainably. The practice’s design philosophy is based on systems thinking, recognising that we live in an interconnected and interdependent world. White Design has developed an international reputation for the design of sustainable building, places and landscapes.

Craig is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; Technology Strategy Board Low Impact Building Steering Group Member; Low Impact Materials & Innovative Engineering Solutions Research Network board member; Timber Research and Development Association board member; Spike Island Contemporary Arts Centre, Trustee; Energy Institute Member; Senior Lecturer at the School of Planning and Architecture at the University of the West of England. Craig is a Design Advice consultant with the Carbon Trust and works with UK government’s Department of Environment on the Low Carbon Buildings Programme.

Craig has also had roles as visiting lecturer on low-energy and environmental design for the Civil Service College and at the London School of Economics on their Masters programme in City Design & Social Science.

David Trujillo

David was born, raised and educated in Colombia. He studied Civil Engineering at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, graduating in 2000. He then worked in the reconstruction of the Coffee-growing region following the 1999 earthquake. Here he became motivated to learn about bamboo structures, but felt he lacked then the skills and experience to lead in this field.
In 2003, he moved to the UK to study an MSc in Earthquake Engineering at Imperial College London, where he obtained a distinction. In 2004 he started working for Chiltern Clarkebond, (later CCB Evolution) a consultancy that specialised in the design of multi-storey timber-frame structures (a former sister company to BMTRADA). In 2007 he moved to Buro Happold, a structural engineering consultancy. Here he contributed to the design of numerous landmark steel & concrete structures such as the Library of Birmingham.
In 2010 he became chartered with the Institution of Structural Engineers, and was awarded the Bob Fischer memorial prize for his performance in the chartership exam. In 2009, determined to further his research work with timber and bamboo, David moved out of industry and into academia, joining Coventry University as a Senior Lecturer. He currently chairs the INBAR (International Network for Bamboo and Rattan) Task Force for Structural Uses of Bamboo.

Nick Latham

Nick Latham joined James Latham in 1990. One of the eighth generation of the founding Latham family, Nick was is responsible for setting up Latham’s depots in Eastleigh, Fareham and Hemel Hempstead. He is a Director of both James Latham Limited and James Latham plc and at an operational level is responsible for the running of both the Fareham and Hemel Hempstead depots as well as managing a number of Latham’s key accounts.

Nick also sits on the James Latham plc Audit Committee where his responsibilities include reviewing the effectiveness of the Group’s financial reporting and internal control policies and procedures.

Nick Milestone, BSc, BSc.Hons, MSc.

Nick Milestone is Managing Director of B&K; Structures Ltd. Established in 2006 as a trading division of B&K; Steelwork Fabrications Ltd (est 1972), the company was originally created to service the needs of retail customers looking for a structural framed solution, using low-carbon sustainable materials. The success and demand for engineered timber structures led to a complete change in focus, with the entire company adopting the name B&K; Structures Ltd to reflect the new business strategy. Nick lives in Derbyshire with his wife and three children and is a devoted Hull City supporter.

Simon Fineman

Group Chief Executive of Timbmet Group, Simon is active in lobbying internationally against illegal logging and is committed to modernising and improving the supply chain efficiency of the timber trade. Simon graduated in Law at the School of African and Oriental Studies at the University of London (SOAS) and initially pursued a career in the public sector, before building up his own furniture manufacturing business overseas. He returned to the UK in the early 1990s to join Timbmet.

Simon Smith CEng, BEng, MIStructE

Co-founder of Smith and Wallwork engineers, Simon has been responsible for the delivery of a number of the UK’s largest engineered timber structures. He has been involved with TRADA for a number of years and was recently invited to join the construction panel of the Grown in Britain campaign. Simon is an affiliated lecturer at Cambridge University where he teaches and contributes to timber research.