About Me
I am Ivan Hurst, and as I sit here writing these words, I have been retired for a number of years.
First, let's look at an extract from my former website relating to my company, Ivan Hurst Consulting Ltd.
About Ivan Hurst FCInstCES
My Career
This web site is primarily about my work, my career, my passions, my interests, and the people I have met along the way. By describing this in such detail it demonstrates how I can help my Clients.
Quantity Surveyor
Primarily I am a Quantity Surveyor in the Civil Engineering and Railways elements of the Construction industry. I started my career over 4 decades ago. Most of the time it has been a rewarding and fulfilling time. Initially I moved around the country wherever the work took me, but for the last 20 years I have been based in Epsom and commuted to work.
Main Specialties
- The early part of my career was with main contractors, building roads and bridges, or highways as they are now known. A particular interest at the time was earthworks, including the measurement, theory, and claims.
- Latterly my career has involved railways, with Clients, Contractors, Consultants, and Designers. Track is my special interest area within rail.
- Throughout my career I have been interested in the collection and manipulation of data. This includes helping develop holistic project life cycle tools, creating industry codification structures, generation and defense of claims. The current developments regarding redrafting the Uniclass structure and the advances in Building Information Modeling are particularly interesting.
- More recently I have extended individual training and mentoring to include more widespread knowledge sharing. At Hyder I instigated and commissioned a 'Global Commercial Management Services Community' and a Knowledge Base.
The Shard and London Bridge Station
Precis
I am a Senior Commercial Manager in the Rail / Civil Engineering sectors of the construction industry with a career spanning four decades. I have worked for Main Contractors, Clients, PQS Consultancies, and an Engineering Design House. This gives me a wide and holistic appreciation and understanding of the industry in both pre- and post-contract elements. Specialties include rail systems, and roads and bridges, in approximately equal proportions with respect to time.
Amongst many other projects, I have worked on both The Shard and London Bridge Station Redevelopment, pictured left, award winning, and the King’s Cross Station Redevelopment Programme, train shed roof, pictured below.
View of the new train shed roof, including PV imbedded glazing, from the central platforms
I am passionate about excellence, innovation, and data. The collection, organization, and dissemination of data is fundamental to an organization, a community, a society. Data packaged with parameters and a little insight is knowledge. Creating and using tools to enhance decision making, improve efficiency, and exceed quality expectations is important to me.
Caring about people, their aspirations, needs and wellbeing is part of my nature. Give people the right environment and they will excel. This applies to people who report to me, those I report to, associates, clients, and suppliers, and of course me. I do acknowledge that there are challenges the more remote people become, as the sphere of influence weakens.
During my career I have been involved in a number of team events, team role and psychometric tests. I have been described as a ‘tamed Rottweiler’, a ‘Plant’, ‘Completer Finisher’, and ‘Data’. In a very recent free online test at 123test the top 4 results for me were Innovator (19%), Executive (17%), Expert (14%), and Analyst (11%). Follow the link to take the test yourself. The tests have changed over time, as have my results. I recall that at my first introduction there were six team roles, but now there are nine. I have looked at the revised Belbin Team Roles but have not taken the test recently. I am interested in team dynamics, the Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model of group development, cultural change management, and Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). However, I do not consider myself and expert or practitioner. Get the team right for the task, and it will perform.
I also enjoy complex problems. This is a trait that I can trace back to my schooldays. Many people have suggested things like 'KISS' and 'simplify', however, I do not believe you can make a truly complex problem simple, unless you ignore significant elements of the problem. There is an inherent risk in that approach. However, I do consider that a complex problem can be managed so as to appear more simple. In spreadsheet terms, this could be expressed as having a user friendly input end, and reporting section, but an even more complex, but hidden, middle section, or engine. The debate goes on.
King's Cross Completion - Everyone at Christmas. Photo by Network Rail. I am near the centre.
My Company, Ivan Hurst Consulting Ltd
An extract from the home page of my company website, ivanhurstconsulting.com. I have taken down the website as I have dissolved the company following my retirement. I did not want to sell the company on as a going concern with my name, but without my involvement. Also, I did not want to semi-retire. Having retired, I don't know how I found time to go to work. :-). I am not short of things to do.
The page gives an idea of the areas I covered.
I enjoyed my time working for myself on a variety of projects, in a range of positions.
Travelling
At the beginning of my career, I was lucky enough to be able to take a break in employment and go travelling. After, the first break, I returned to the previous employer. Following the longer second break, I started with a new company.
Read about how it all started here.
After "My Grand Tour" the time available for travelling was considerably reduced. Holidays were the alternative. Not the same, but still very enjoyable and rewarding. Slowly the holidays became more Cruising centric.
About my family
My immediate family consists of my wife, Wendy and our son, David.
One of my hobbies is genealogy so I know of a much wider family going back some 100 generations, but that is a different story.
Wendy Hurst
Wendy on the terrace of our room at Legends Hotel, Mauritius
Wendy grew up in Lincoln. Wendy had just started working as a physiotherapist when we met in Ipswich. We have now been married nearly forty years.
Which trips were Wendy involved with:-
Almost all apart from The Grand Tour, and the Southern Africa Safari, too many to list here.
David Hurst
David at one of the tree walks at Capilano Suspension Bridge, Vancouver, Canada.
David is our son.
He was born in Epsom, Surrey, England.
Which trips were David involved with:-
Almost all from his birth until he was a adult, and became selective as to which holidays he would join us for. Again, too many to list here.
