Join us at The UK Concrete Show 2025 as we launch our Emerging Talent Awards to acknowledge the top five individuals who have made a positive contribution to the industry.
Meet the winners!
Recognising the industry’s Emerging Talent
The Awards are about recognising and rewarding the achievement and efforts of those in the early stage of their career in the sector – as well as shining the spotlight on the organisations that are helping develop and foster the future of the industry.
Jack Rowe-Foley
Divisional Operations Manager | Gunite Eastern Ltd (Infrastructure)
Nominated by: Corey Phillips, Project Co-ordinator
Jack is an outstanding individual who has worked in the industry since leaving school, progressing from labourer to his current role as Divisional Operations Manager at Gunite Infrastructure. At just 32, he leads Gunite Eastern Ltd’s teams within the concrete and structural repair sector with remarkable skill and dedication. Jack’s knowledge of concrete and its applications is exemplary. Unlike many in his position, he is not afraid to get hands-on with his team, offering support where needed. Whether it's working a day on the nozzle, pot, or with a hand trowel, his practical experience on the tools earns him great respect from clients and colleagues alike. Beyond his technical expertise, Jack is also a dedicated mental health coach. He cares deeply about the wellbeing of others, often going above and beyond to ensure the welfare of his operatives. He has even driven hundreds of miles late at night to check on his team and recently intervened to save a young man contemplating suicide. Mental health is a critical issue in our industry, and Jack’s commitment to supporting his colleagues is unparalleled. With his innovative approach, Jack is set to influence not only how Gunite Eastern Ltd approaches concrete repair but also how the wider industry can be both rewarding and enjoyable. He continues to impress clients and inspire colleagues, making him highly deserving of this recognition.
Sophie Kinnaird
Assistant Materials Engineer | Balfour Beatty
Nominated by: Mariusz Oppermann, Senior Materials Engineer
Sophie Kinnaird has been employed by Balfour Beatty since September 2022. She started her journey as Graduate Materials Engineer on the M3J9-14 scheme and during her time on that project she became a key and integral member of the project team. On the M3J9-14 project, Sophie has taken ownership of foundation testing and the managing of the testing for the concrete vertical barrier slipform operations. She was also involved in the trial for: alternative low carbon concrete mix designs for slipforming concrete barriers, for which she was shortlisted for 7OGETHER Awards, recognised by the National Highways committee as highly commended. After the M3 project she moved to the Hinkley Point C Marine and Tunnels project where she completed her graduate programme. Sophie developed key effective relationships with the site delivery team, client, and supply chain partners. Since July 2024, Sophie joined the Sizewell C team as an Assistant Materials Engineer responsible for the execution of laboratory trials for complex HBM mixes. She has taken on this new role with determination and vigour and has shown her capabilities and constantly keeps a positive and proactive approach. Sophies demonstrates a good level of resilience, but also importantly will request for any necessary help or guidance. Additionally, she took more responsibility within the Materials Team joining the Junior Leadership Team. It is a pleasure having Sophie as part of the project materials team and she has an exciting future ahead within the industry.
Bronwyn Mulheron
Concrete Plant Supervisor | Mick George Concrete
Nominated by: Garry Woodcock, Concrete Transport & Operations Director
Bronwyn Mulheron started her career with Mick George six years ago at the age of 19. She came straight from college and began working in the Finance Department and Scanning. After 12 months she moved to Customer Services speaking to concrete customers. Following this, Bronwyn worked with the Technical Team on the A14 project working with the integrated team which consisted of Balfour Beatty, Skanska and Costain. Her role was to test all the concrete for strength and consistence for the whole project. We delivered over 140,000m of concrete with no removals. After this project, Bronwyn worked as a technician for Mick George Concrete for a year, which consisted of testing ready mix concrete – more than 20,000m of concrete per month. For the last 18 months she has been running her own ready mix concrete plant. This plant is a large wet batch concrete plant with a 2.5m twin shaft mixer. It has the capacity to produce 600m a day and has five trucks based there. The plant is plant shipped so Bronwyn deals with customers, drivers, transport and our head office for all their enquiries. The plant has undertaken a National Highways project for Skanska (A428) over the last eight months which has required high grade C40/50 Concrete with a four-hour retention of consistence. Bronwyn is producing all the concrete to the required consistence for structures to span the A1 at the Black Cat Roundabout and across the East Coast Mainline. The deck pour over the mainline will be conducted during live line.
George Bowman
Assistant Materials Engineer | Balfour Beatty Vinci
Nominated by: Steve Phipps, Head of Materials Engineering BBV HS2 Area North
George joined Balfour Beatty in 2019 after graduating from the University of Birmingham with an MSc in Advanced Chemical Engineering. Following two summer placements working within a site testing laboratory, he joined Balfour Beatty's materials engineering department, starting his career testing construction materials. George was enrolled on Balfour Beatty’s graduate development programme and transferred to work on HS2 Area North in 2020. George was mentored by the project concrete technical manager, quickly developing his knowledge and experience in cementitious products and construction methods. He took ownership for progressing product approvals by designer and client to enable their use, checking compliance, and producing approval schedules for project control. As part of developing and controlling a suitable concrete mix for the precast glued segmental viaduct segment manufacture on site, George managed a mobile laboratory, resourcing all testing and monitoring requirements while gaining valuable experience of maintaining a quality system. He implemented concrete maturity monitoring for the project which was subsequently adopted routewide by other main works civils contractors. George managed a large-scale proof of concept site trial including producing detailed technical reports for the use of digital monitoring and measurement of fresh concrete for compliance, enabling client approval under a departure from standards and reducing manual testing significantly. The compliance metrics and control procedures he helped to develop form the basis of the new ‘Good Concrete Guide 11’ published by The Concrete Society. George’s contribution to the business and wider industry is significant and impressive given his early career stage.
Mike Varnam
Junior Site Manager | Carney Construction
Nominated by: Robert Carney, Construction Manager
Mike joined us in June 2023 as a site engineer at age 24, after relocating from Ireland following completion of his Bachelor's degree. Entering into the company with limited Civil RC experience, he proved his worth on our Alderney WTW project for Kier receiving numerous safety commendations and awards from Kier in the areas of silica dust monitoring for confined space FRC works; reducing manual handling for FRC works within confined spaces through the use of compact cranage in challenging areas and leading the temporary works design methodology, on site co-ordination, and installation control for all high, intermediate and low level formwork on site to a very high standard. He is now working as a site lead on our Avonmouth FFT expansion scheme; leading the formwork methodology and implementation team on site overcoming complex FRC challenges, going above and beyond to ensure a high level of safety and quality is maintained throughout the works. While working as a site lead at this scheme, he is also involved in our ECI team for upcoming bridge projects along the M3, to expand his FRC knowledge to encompass bridge works. Mike is also undergoing training to become an appointed person and has become an active member of our crane planning team, planning and organising craneage on site to maximise efficiency and safety under the guidance of our lead Appointed Person.
