Paul Allen

Paul blends the strands of traditional quantity surveying, construction management and management consulting to create a brand of construction cost and commercial management that I rooted deep in the history of construction management, making a real difference to client projects.

Paul believes he was bitten by the construction management bug by switching from big cost management houses to smaller start-ups, introducing him to the benefits and positive impact of CM.

How did you get into construction?

A careers advisor. It wasn’t the best experience but I was told to sit at a computer and answer about 100 questions as accurately and narrowly as possible to generate a shortlist of options. The computer generated three options being a footwear designer, quantity surveyor or the SAS. Upon review of the three options, I decided that quantity surveyor was the best choice and the careers advisor put me in touch with the Chartered Surveyors Trust. Despite not being convinced by the process l really enjoy working in cost management and think construction has been a fantastic way to make a living. That said, I recently watched Abstract: The Art of Design | Tinker Hatfield: Footwear Design on Netflix which also looked like a lot of fun!

What's your favourite kind of project?

I think this is less about the ‘what’ and more about the ‘how’. So, not what service or sector or the nature of construction, but more about how we tailor the approach to the client’s business model and how we assemble the team, design, procure, contract and the continuous learning in execution and delivery.

Who are your inspirations?

I gave this some thought when I was working at one of the start-ups actually and where some people may struggle to find one, I found have many that resonated and who have inspired my efforts to date. They can be grouped into:

Government: John Egan, Michael Latham and Nick Raynsford all for championing clients, collaborative working and construction where people attempted to apply reforms via Constructing Excellence and Movement for Innovation (M4i)

Design: Peter Rogers, Ove Arup, Sir Ted Happold, Peter Rice and Max Fordham

Construction Management: Carl Morse, Sir Peter Trench, Richard Halpern, Harold Schiff, Peter Lehrer, Gene McGovern, Sir Frank Lampl, Stuart Lipton, Peter Rogers and Ian Macpherson

The Eden Project, designed by Sir Ted Happold.

Image by Penstones from Pixabay

Do you have a favourite album, book or film?

I have all three

Album: I have a broad taste in music, but more because of the timing perhaps I would say What’s the Story Morning Glory by Oasis

Book: I never read books at school or college, but had a lecturer at University by the name of Andy Atkinson who helped me find a love of learning and reading and so when I got to Davis Langdon we read called Good to Great by Jim Collins which I thought was just fantastic

Film: Hard to zoom in on a favourite but did enjoy the Wolf of Wall Street