Project Management Steering Group members

Robert Crofts (Chair)

Subsea7

Robert Crofts serves as Chair of the ECITB Project Management Steering Group (PMSG), bringing extensive experience in leading complex projects across the engineering construction industry.

In his role as Chair, he guides the PMSG in strengthening project management capability, creating industry aligned training and development opportunities, and supporting the ECITB to meet the evolving needs of the project management community and the wider sector.

Will Black (Vice Chair)

EnQuest

Will Black brings 25 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, with more than two decades dedicated to the successful delivery of complex projects. His career spans the full lifecycle of capital projects, and over the past decade he has focused on applying this expertise to develop structured, efficient approaches to offshore decommissioning.

A highly experienced project manager, Will has progressed through the Association for Project Management (APM) qualification pathway, achieving both Registered Project Professional (RPP) status and Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) accreditation.
Passionate about developing future talent, Will has served as a mentor within the ECITB Project Management Mentoring Programme and continues to champion professional growth within his own organisation, supporting and guiding the next generation of project managers.

In his role as Vice Chair of the ECITB Project Management Steering Group (PMSG), Will brings a commitment to raising standards, sharing best practice, and strengthening the capability of project professionals across the industry.

Matt Knights (ECITB sponsor)

ECITB

Matt Knights has over two decades of experience across diverse sectors and brings a wealth of expertise in operational management, workforce development and leadership.

Starting his career as a Royal Engineer from 1999 to 2004, Matt honed his skills in discipline, problem solving and leadership. He later transitioned into the National Offender Management Service (NOMs), where he spent eight years focusing on the operational delivery of offender rehabilitation programmes and staff training. His work in this area underscored his commitment to transforming lives and helping individuals rebuild their futures.

In pursuit of his passion for workforce development, Matt joined the East of England Energy Group (EEEGR), leading a project to transition unemployed individuals and service leavers with the correct ethos, ability and skills into the energy sector. His leadership in this initiative paved the way for his next career move to the ECITB.

Since joining the ECITB, Matt has held various key roles over the past 11 years, including Account Manager, Senior Account Manager and Head of Regional Operations. His dedication to ensuring the fair and efficient use of industry levies to fund critical training initiatives has been a cornerstone of his work.

As Director of Regional Operations at the ECITB, Matt leads a talented engagement team, ensuring that regional operations run smoothly while supporting the broader goals of workforce development in the engineering construction industry.

Matt’s role within the PMSG is to act as the ECITB sponsor for the group, offering support, guidance and expertise, to ensure the activities and interventions delivered are fit for purpose and aligned to the ECITB leading industry learning strategy.

Cat Waddon (PMSG Coordinator)

ECITB

Cat Waddon is the Regional Operations Coordinator at the ECITB.

She supports the team across a broad range of activities but specifically for the ECITB’s project management work, she is central in the delivery of the ACTIVE Cup and the Project Management Mentoring Programme.

Since 2024 she has provided administrative and coordination support to the PMSG and its Competence and Recruit and Attract Working Groups.

Cat became PMSG Coordinator in 2026.

She is keen to continue developing a deeper understanding of how project performance impacts the industry and looks forward to contributing further to this important area of work.

David Hunt CEng FAPM - Conference 2027

Maritime Developments Limited

David Hunt CEng FAPM is a Project Portfolio Director and Technical Director at Maritime Developments Limited, with over 20 years’ experience delivering complex projects both on and offshore across the oil, gas, and emerging energy sectors.

A Chartered Engineer and Fellow, and an active member of the Association for Project Management, David is committed to advancing professional standards and maintaining alignment with evolving project management trends and best practices. He is a strong advocate of Mission Command project management, empowering teams through clear intent, accountability, and disciplined execution.

David has a proven track record of leading major capital portfolios in excess of £1 billion and building high-performing teams in complex, multi-stakeholder environments. He has held senior leadership roles across industry, including Director of Projects at Well-Safe Solutions and Head of Major Projects at CNOOC International.

He is recognised for his focus on governance, assurance, and safe project delivery, alongside his commitment to developing capability within project teams. He has led the implementation of structured project delivery frameworks and competency development programmes aligned to APM standards, supporting the professionalisation of project management across organisations.

In his current role, David operates at board level, shaping business strategy, overseeing major project pipelines, and driving organisational performance and growth. He brings a strong interest in industry-wide capability development, standards, and the future of project delivery.

David Manson - LXP Project Academy

Altrad Sparrows

David Manson is a Business Manager at Altrad Sparrows with expertise in operations, brownfield modifications and asset decommissioning.

He is a dynamic projects and management professional with over 30 years’ experience across the energy sector.

Paul Dundee ChPP - Competency

D-Plan

Paul Dundee holds the professional registration of Chartered Project Professional, continues to mentor Senior Project Managers for both ECITB and APM, and maintains a rich CPD, including reviewing the latest APM Body of Knowledge.

Paul’s membership of the PMSG is as chair of the very productive ECITB PMSG Competence Working Group, accountable for our national Project Management Mentoring Programmes, PM-to-PM (PMMP) and PE/PM development group (PMDP), as well as the funded, healthy and growing annual APM Chartership cohort.

Paul served an Engineering apprenticeship back in the mid-1980s. Paul later sat on the Engineering Board of an FE College where they kick-started (from first principles) an oil and gas supply chain apprenticeship programme in 2002, designed largely on his own experience of training modules and logbooks (!), plus updated ECITB advice.

It was early years spent as an Engineer within new build project teams that turned Paul’s head to what would become an award-winning career in international Project Management. Retired from his primary career, which spans forty years in practice as a Project Director, National Programme Manager and Senior Project Manager, Paul worked as a consultant, contractor and long-term staff, across a range of highly regulated sectors and settings. Over twenty years were spent in leading nuclear generation, transition, decommissioning and new build projects on many of the UK’s nuclear licenced sites.

Paul benefitted from being mentored, and mentoring others, his entire career – still does. Paul remains passionate about giving back, and is playing his part in assuring the ongoing competence of our profession in high consequence of failure activities delivered within regulated industry. Paul now serves higher education as an L6 and L7 Independent Assessor, and Training Consultant, designing, developing and delivering bespoke vocational PM training to industry partners.

Phil Jefferies CMgr FCMI FAPM - Recruit & Attract

20/20 Management

Phil is the Sales and Marketing Director at 20/20 Business Insight, an independent provider of project management and project controls training and consultancy. Phil joined 20/20 in July 2018 as a Business Development Manager following 6 years at Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) as a Head of Skills Strategy for the South of England.

Previously, Phil’s background is originally in the Construction Industry which saw him then share his skills and knowledge delivering construction courses in a FE College. In 2008 he became a Project Manager on a multi-million-pound Project for the Department for Education before progressing to Programme Manager in 2011.

Alex Robertson

Petrofac

Alex Robertson is a Project Director at Petrofac and has over 25 years experience in project management on both brownfield & greenfield CAPEX projects, and asset support contracts in the North Sea and internationally. I am a strong advocate for embedding consistency and predictability in project outcomes through the coaching of people and the deployment of technology and have led multinational change management programmes to embed new practices.

A member of the PMSG since 2019 I’ve been involved in many of our initiatives but more recently contributed to the project controls working group and have presented at the ECITB bi-annual project management conference.

Charles Dunbar

bp

Joe Strachan

Bilfinger

Nikki MacPherson

ECITB

Nikki MacPherson, the Regional Operations Manager for Scotland at the ECITB. Nikki’s been part of the Project Management Steering Group (PMSG) since joining the organisation in 2018.

Nikki first contributed to the Leadership working group before moving into the Competence working group, where she’s remained actively involved ever since. Nikki also sits on the Conference working group, helping to plan and deliver our biennial PM Conference.

Being part of the PMSG is something Nikki genuinely values. It’s rewarding to see initiatives like PMMP, PMDP, ChPP and the Conference progress from early ideas into fully developed programmes and events that make a real difference to the project management community.

Nikki also really enjoys working alongside the diverse mix of project managers who volunteer their time. “Their commitment, passion, and desire to give back to the profession is something I deeply respect.”

Peter Benton

Senior Consultant

Peter Benton is senior consultant, specializing in project, program and portfolio management. He assists organisations to improve the delivery of their projects and the capability of their people by providing PM consultancy, delivery and training, both in the classic project management disciplines and emerging areas.

He is a Chartered Project Professional (ChPP), a Registered Project Professional (RPP), a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Chartered IT Professional (CITP).

Peter has over 35 years’ project management experience in a range of industry sectors including oil and gas exploration, production and decommissioning; electricity supply; public water supply and treatment; hospitality and software and technology development, both in the UK and around the world.

With a desire to see effective project management adopted throughout the engineering and construction space, Peter serves on the main committee of the PMSG and contributes directly to the competence, controls and conference working groups.

Shem Harper

Arla Foods

Shem is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and Senior Project Manager with 20+ years’ experience across multiple sectors including, Oil and Gas (Upstream, Midstream and Downstream), Energy, Waste, Petrochemicals and more recently Food & Beverage.  He has managed projects ranging from minor brownfield modifications through to £100m+ CapEx investments.  Working across many sectors has given him the opportunity to learn different approaches to Project Management and Project Controls and apply the tools and techniques in different scenarios.

Shem joined the ECITB PMSG in 2023 whilst at Stopford to bring some experience and insight form the wider Engineering and Construction sectors and also from an SME perspective. He has been pleased to support in several areas including regular attendance at the Group meetings, conference planning, and the Project Management Mentoring Programme.

Simon Coles

Nuclear Restoration Services, Dounreay

Simon Coles is a Chartered Project Professional and Chartered Engineer with nearly forty years delivery experience gained in the nuclear environment. As well as project, operations, and engineering experience, Simon has functional management experience in programme, commercial and governance roles. He is currently Head of Profession, P3M at Nuclear Restoration Services, Dounreay.

After gaining a degree in Nuclear Engineering from University of Manchester, Simon started work at Sellafield where he worked in the Projects Group at Calder Hall before moving into maintenance management role. He left to complete an MBA at Cranfield University following which he joined WS Atkins to support the UKAEA management team at Dounreay. He joined UKAEA to become the senior operations manager for a major facility Dounreay with responsibility for programme, operations, safety, and security, delivery responsibilities. Subsequently, he worked for Cavendish Nuclear supporting projects across the nuclear decommissioning estate and before rejoining Dounreay.

Simon has participated in / led in-house project assurance reviews (following OGC / IPA approach) for over twenty years. He contributed to knowledge exchange within and between industrial sectors in the UK and overseas. He previously held director appointment at Decom North Sea (now Decom Mission) and in a social enterprise in Caithness.

Susan MacKenzie

Spirit Energy

Susan MacKenzie is an experienced Project Manager specialising in the delivery of complex, multi disciplinary energy infrastructure projects.

At Spirit Energy, she leads the Morecambe Net Zero Transport & Storage Project through the Select Stage, overseeing governance, risk management, schedule integration and cross functional coordination.

Susan’s approach is rooted in structured project management, decision quality and disciplined project controls, ensuring clarity, accountability and informed strategic choices. She has extensive experience guiding engineering, subsurface, commercial and supply chain teams, and is committed to strengthening industry capability.

Susan brings practical delivery insight, strong stakeholder engagement skills and a passion for advancing project management excellence within the ECITB community.