Conflict Avoidance Conference 2026 – London

Sue Barrett, Houses of Parliament Restoration Project

Sue is Head of Contracts and Procurement at the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority. Leading the Development of the Procurement Strategy for the programme. Sue has worked in the construction industry for over 25 years, in a range of procurement and senior leadership roles. Her experience includes delivering enhancements to strategic network extensions, station capacities and interchanges, and station upgrade schemes. Sue has worked at a strategic level on a number of high value projects. She has been responsible for the development of commercial, procurement and contract strategies across a portfolio of construction projects with individual values in excess of £4bn and a portfolio value of £9bn. Prior to joining the Delivery Authority in 2023 Sue worked at the Urban Growth Company (UGC), where she was a member of the Senior Management Team. Before that, she worked for Transport for London, where she worked on various initiatives including the Northern Line Extension (a £1bn programme to extend the Northern Line to Battersea), the construction of two new stations and a new line extension, Bank Station Capacity Enhancement using Innovative Contractor Involvement, and the Victoria and Tottenham Court Road Station project (a £550m project to rebuild the station and create the adjacent Crossrail station in a very dense urban environment).

Vikki McCausland, Environment Agency

Vikki McCausland works within the Commercial Centre of Excellence at the Environment Agency. Vikki leads initiatives that strengthen commercial capability, improve governance and embed best practice across the organisation’s asset management frameworks. Her work focuses on enhancing commercial maturity, strengthening informed decision-making and fostering collaborative relationships with delivery partners to ensure successful outcomes on complex multi-million pound commercial frameworks. Vicki has more than 20 years of experience in flood and coastal risk management, working across local, regional and national programmes. A Chartered Water and Environmental Manager, she has developed extensive expertise in commercial framework management, asset management, flood resilience, strategic planning and partnership working.

Richard Bayfield FICE, FCIArb, Chair Conflict Avoidance Coalition

Richard Bayfield began his career working as a student at the Thames Barrier. He has held a variety of senior roles as a Contractor, Consultant and Client. He is currently a Vice President at the Institution of Civil Engineers (www.ice.org.uk). He is a former Chair and Honorary member of the Society of Construction Law (www.scl.org.uk ). Recent roles include Client Director / Advisor where he helps Client organisations set up processes, communications, contracts and governance that are purposefully designed to achieve collaborative cultures which reduce the risk of project failure. More at www.richardbayfield.com

Edward Moore, ResoLex

Edward Moore is CEO of ResoLex, a consultancy that has spent over twenty five years embedding collaboration into some of the UK's most complex engineering programmes — across transportation, energy, defence and health sectors. His career has been built on the insight that the principles of mediation and dispute avoidance, applied systematically to engineering project teams, can transform delivery outcomes. Edward is also Chairman of Concordis International, a peacebuilding charity whose work across conflict zones in Africa has earned a nomination for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. He believes that whether you are building infrastructure or building peace, relationships are everything.

Anthony Armitage, Solicitor

Anthony Armitage began his career at Allen & Overy and has practised law in the City of London since then. He is now General Counsel at Thirdway, a market-leading commercial interior design and fit-out contractor based in the heart of London’s historic Clerkenwell. His passion is intelligent design and simplification of contracts and in upholding ethical legal practice in the construction industry. As Chair of the Coalition Contract Group, he leads a team of lawyers and other sector professionals promoting the benefits of contract standardisation as a core element of conflict avoidance.

Jeremy Glover, Solicitor

Jeremy Glover is a partner at Fenwick Elliott LLP , the UK’s largest construction law firm and is listed as a leader in his field in Who’s Who Legal. Jeremy is an accredited adjudicator, Vice-President of the Conflict Avoidance Coalition, and a member of the CIArb Adjudication Sub-Committee. He is also a FIDIC Certified Adjudicator, Member of the FIDIC President’s List and of the FIDIC Net Zero Task Group TG23. Jeremy is the co-author of Understanding the FIDIC Red and Yellow Book: A Clause by Clause Commentary, the third edition of which was published in 2018, and lead editor of Building Contract Disputes: Practice and Precedents. He is a member of the Board of Examiners on the Construction Law MSc programme at King’s College, and also teaches on the MSc Building Information Modelling Management Programme at Middlesex University. Jeremy serves as the President- of the DRBF Executive Board.

Len Bunton FRICS FCIArb Hon FRIAS, President Conflict Avoidance Coalition

Len Bunton is a highly experienced construction industry consultant and now practices as a Conflict Avoidance Consultant and has been a passionate campaigner for changes in the UK construction industry for many years. He acts as an adviser to a number of trade organisations and also to specialist contractors advising on procurement and conflict avoidance. He has made a significant contribution to the work of the Conflict Avoidance Coalition, and is delighted to accept a role as the first President of the Conflict Avoidance Coalition, and to act as an Ambassador to promote Conflict Avoidance throughout the industry.

Ed Schryver, VBB Engineering (UK) Ltd

Ed is the Group Commercial Director for VVB Engineering (UK) Ltd, a Mechanical and Electrical construction business that operate in the infrastructure sector namely within Rail, Highways, Fire, Power and Energy. Ed is also the Contracts Performance Director for Anthro Solutions, a project specific joint venture between VVB and Egis UK for the delivery of the M&E works on the Old Oak Common station development for High Speed 2. Ed has been in his current position for 5 years having previously worked for Balfour Beatty in the Rail and Major Projects sectors, and for Astins Ltd in the internal fit-out sector. Ed is also an active member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is Counsellor for a number of candidates seeking their RICS accreditation.

Stephen Blakey, Network Rail

Stephen is Strategic Commercial Director at Network Rail, leading commercial stewardship and supply chain collaboration to support safe, efficient and dispute-free infrastructure delivery. With more than 27 years' experience and oversight of over £12 billion of rail investment, he is a recognised champion of collaborative working and commercial innovation.

He has led industry initiatives including the Fair Payment Charter, abolition of retentions, Dispute Avoidance Panels and the adoption of ISO 44001 collaborative working standards. A Fellow of RICS, CICES and the Institute for Collaborative Working, Stephen is widely respected for bringing clients, contractors and suppliers together to improve outcomes. He is passionate about creating lasting improvements in commercial performance through a more engaged and collaborative supply chain. 

Emma Jones CBE, Small Business Commissioner

Emma is founder of Enterprise Nation, a business expert and an author. Her current role is Small Business Commissioner with a statutory duty to review complaints by small businesses regarding late payments, as well as provide advice and support on related payment and procurement issues. Following a degree in Law and Japanese, Emma joined international accounting firm Arthur Andersen, where she set up the firm’s Inward Investment practice that attracted overseas companies to locate in the UK. Emma started her first business at 27, Techlocate. The successful sale of Techlocate to Tenon plc gave Emma the idea for Enterprise Nation which was launched in 2005 to support the flourishing number of start-ups and SMEs. Enterprise Nation expanded reaching more than 800,000 businesses each year with its powerful digital business support platform. Whilst leading Enterprise Nation, Emma presented a positive campaigning voice to government and the media on behalf of partners and members. More info here

Iain McIlwee, Finishes and Interiors Sector

Iain McIlwee is Chief Executive of the Finishes and Interiors Sector (FIS) and Treasurer of the Conflict Avoidance Coalition. A recognised industry leader and advocate for reform, he has spent his career helping businesses navigate the complex commercial, contractual and regulatory challenges of construction. His work has focused on improving procurement and payment practices, strengthening competence frameworks and promoting collaborative approaches that reduce conflict and create better project outcomes. Through his work with industry, government and professional institutions, Iain is committed to embedding conflict avoidance as a core principle of successful project delivery.

Mike Ward, ASFP

With over 30 years in the fire protection industry, Mike leads the ASFP’s mission to raise standards, support members, and deliver competence through training, technical guidance, and advocacy. With a strong background in sales and marketing, he leverages his expertise to ensure the ASFP remains a key industry player.

Jim McCluskey, Kier Infrastructure

Jim currently works for the Nuclear and Energy sector of Kier Infrastructure. He has spent the majority of his career working on major programmes / projects at senior commercial level, such as Devonport Royal Dockyard, HS2 N1/N2, Whitechapel Main Station Works; Victoria Station Upgrade, one of the first UK projects to use the CAP method to resolve disputes in JV with Bam for client TfL/LUL, London 2012 Olympics Infrastructure, East London Line Extension, HS1 CTRL St Pancras Station, M11 Stansted Slip Roads and A13 Trunk Road upgrade. The majority of the projects since 2002 have been procured on a NEC Option C open book collaborative contracts where a variety of conflict avoidance measures including Dispute Boards have been in place.

Julie Forsyth LLB Hons, FCIArb, DipICArb, Solicitor

Julie has been a solicitor specialising in construction and engineering for over 30 years. She is experienced in litigation, arbitration and contract drafting and negotiation. She is a panel adjudicator for CEDR, an RICS accredited mediator and an arbitrator. The expertise and knowledge gained from her immersion in the construction disputes process has motivated her to encourage improvements in the system and to actively work towards early and efficient resolution of conflict on.

Sandi Rhys Jones OBE, FCIOB

Sandi is a businesswoman with many years’ experience in construction, engineering and property, providing management and marketing services to clients across the sectors, including multi-national businesses, representative organisations and local and national government. A chartered construction manager, Fellow and President of the Chartered Institute of Building 2023/2024, Sandi’s presidential theme was ‘collaboration with challenge.’ She has knowledge of procurement, contracts and dispute resolution with a reputation for identifying key issues, expressing complex matters in a straightforward way, improving performance, managing conflict and building ‘commonsensus’ – a concept she put forward in her MSc construction law dissertation at Kings College London, rather too many years ago. An experienced non executive director, chair and speaker, she is currently CIOB Global Fellows Sponsor and Client Champion.