Introducing David Pierpoint, our new Operations Manager for UK construction.
Welcome to Ardmac
David joined Ardmac in October 2021 strengthening the Senior Leadership team. David brings a wealth of experience in delivering larger fitout, new build and framework projects. David’s personality is calm and reflective, and his confidence is born out of his experience in all aspects of project and commercial management.
David is a solutions driven individual. He is an excellent communicator with exceptionally strong client management skills. He believes in 100% customer satisfaction – he says, “it’s simple – you do a great job for your customers, and they will keep coming back.”
David is currently managing three live projects as well as leading the preconstruction team on several exciting new opportunities.
In his previous role, David achieved a 10 on his customer net promoter score, which is the highest score available, the comments stated “David Pierpoint is first class, he understands what we are trying to do, he bends over backwards for us without deviating from principle contractor processes“. He is looking to implement a similar feedback system within Ardmac. He hopes this will enable his team to obtain valuable customer insights & to continuously improve. David explains, “this is where I think we can make a huge difference as we continually look to grow, expand and maintain an industry-leading service.”
David is really enjoying working with Ardmac, he has been particularly impressed with his team, the company’s commitment to safety and the way that relationships with key stakeholders are managed.
David’s background
David graduated from the University of Liverpool with a degree in Project Management, setting him off on the path to where he finds himself now. He started out as a ‘setting-out’ engineer with Galliford Try and then made the move to Balfour Beatty advancing through key roles such as Site Supervisor.
He joined Carillion in 2005 and got started on the News International projects as a Package Manager, managing various large and complex schemes in the centre of Manchester. In 2008, he moved down to Heathrow, where he worked on a massive £460-million scheme at Heathrow Terminal 5C, and from there he became the Framework Lead for the whole of Heathrow at Carillion for several successful years. Not stopping there, David looked after all projects up to the value of £2million across all Heathrow terminals. In this capacity, David enjoyed working on his biggest project and greatest career achievement – Heathrow, T5C.
Then came the time for fatherhood and a return home, where he ventured into the Facilities Management Team at Carillion and handled 180 buildings. Unsurprisingly, there was a large team of 260 underneath him at the time and it was this that gave David his steepest learning curve in people management.
Progression
Continuing with Carillion, David worked as the Aviation Director (framework lead) for the Manchester Airports Group, where he looked after all airport work across all airports within the UK and he operated as Project Director on a £75million student accommodation scheme at the University of Manchester.
Moving on from Carillion, he joined a contractor called Forest based in Bolton, where he was Regional Director for Liverpool and responsible for running three schemes valued in the region of £70 million. David then had the chance to work for Crate Construction as their Business Unit Director where he was responsible for schemes up to the value of £50million and for delivering £70million of work in the year. David has had career that is demonstrable of his ability to run huge, complex schemes from cradle to grave and it is this, of course, that made David a great fit for the Ardmac team.
Day to day role
David has a very broad role with Ardmac. He works with his own team, overseeing the delivery of live projects, he communicates with clients regularly, making sure they are happy with the level of service, and he works with the pre-construction team of estimators, design management, commercial and project leads to support future work.
Teamwork makes the dreamwork
David is the first to tell you that he couldn’t do his job without the support of his team.
“I’ve learnt a lot about the importance of team over the years, I’ve found that the trick is to build a team that works well together, then once you have that winning formula, hold on to it!”
David continues, “I know I can’t do it on my own, my job is to support, guide and direct people, but everyone else does the hard work. That’s why I also think it is important to celebrate success with the team. When we hand over a project, I will always try and organise a get together to recognise the stellar efforts of everyone involved.”
David’s final comments
“The best thing I’ve found about working at Ardmac are the people. It’s great to be part of the Ardmac Way, I’ve had such a great welcome and already feel like part of the furniture.”
We wish David all the best in his future role.