Established in 2004, Acorn Developments is a family run business which has been building high quality turnkey homes throughout Northern Ireland for over 15 years. The team are currently building a new housing developments of circa 60 high quality, turnkey homes within a rural setting on the edge of Lurgan.I oversee all financial, procurement, planning and business development / forecasting aspects of the company, as well as liaising with our established supply chain, agents, solicitors and all relevant bodies to ensure our compliance with building regulations, planning conditions and health, safety and environmental regulations.I also manage all external consultants to ensure the design and delivery of new planning applications for new housing schemes that create spaces that people will be proud to call home for years to come, while also maintaining a steady stream of profitable work which will allow the company to continue to grow.

During this period I was working on the Moyraverty Gardens development in Craigavon, a scheme of nearly 70 homes in a variety of styles which was recognised for its quality by being awarded the NHBC Pride in the Job Award 2018.My role was organising sub-contract labour, overseeing finances, programming, ensuring compliance with building control and NHBC standards, material procurement, liasing with planners, architects, engineers, DFI roads, NI water and numerous other bodies.

Longshot Developments procures land for residential housing development in all areas of Northern Ireland. The business works with both its sister company Acorn Developments as well as other building contractors to deliver quality homes and sustainable communities.

During this period I ran the day-to-day operations of Wembley Innovation, a specialist blockwork company which was being used extensively across Europe's biggest civil engineering project Crossrail, as well as numerous London Underground station upgrades, Battersea Power Station and large scale commercial projects across England.This included directing our in-house engineering and logistics teams, meeting with architects, engineers, main contractors and sub-contractors to overcome the logistical and technical challenges of working on and delivering such large scale projects.I was also responsible for increasing awareness of the product within the industry and securing new work during this time, reporting weekly to the Managing Director.

I ran two sites concurrently during this time which where located beside each other, a £5million RC frame pub and restaurant on the edge of regents canal designed by award winning architects Stanton Williams and a £10million civils, hard and soft landscaping development which was both logistically and technically challenging due to its location over the top of underground tunnels by Kings Cross Station.I managed my own site teams to oversee the delivery of the projects as well as reporting monthly to company directors on the progress and profit of the projects. I also reported to the client and the clients representatives, managed the design process to make sure it progressed meet the programme and that any aspects which where not part of our original scope where highlighted to ensure the company was instructed to carry them as additional works with the associated cost and time implications accounted for.

Moving into a purely management role within the company, I managed numerous packages from ground works and hard landscaping, through to internal finishing trades, cladding and roofing. I still oversaw all tower and mobile crane activities on site and acted as temporary works coordinator during this time.

My role as a site engineer and package manager was to oversee all quality checks during the groundworks, RC and steel framing elements of the new 14 storey Camden Civic centre in the heart of the Kings Cross Regeneration. I was also the appointed person for all crane activities, writing and approving lift plans, as well as temporary works coordinator.

I worked as a site engineer and later package manager on the £60million new Medway College Campus. I checked all subcontract work to ensure it was within tolerance and was being installed correctly to the design, provided primary control points, levels etc for the site and managed some subcontractors including brickwork, glulam timber roofing and secondary steelwork, as well as assisting with a number of the engineering related packages.