Rod has over 40 years experience
in marketing, specialising in the business to business, technical
and professional sectors. A founder partner of RhysJones Consultants
in 1976, he has particular expertise in construction, engineering and technology.
A member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, Rod has worked
on many projects in the UK and overseas, particularly in market
research, analysis and strategy formulation. He also has experience
in marketing communications, including the production of marketing
guidelines, training in marketing skills, corporate identity management,
seminars, as well as audio-visual and brochure production.
Rod spent a year setting up a new department for fundraising and alumni
relations at Imperial College in 2002. He recruited new people, built a
new team, developed new administrative systems, launched new and successful
events, developed new web services, reinvigorated the Friends of Imperial
College and raised seven million pounds in new revenue for the college. He was Chair of Friends of Imperial College organising scientific lectures and visits to the College over two decades. He is now Emeritus Chair
Before forming the consultancy, Rod worked as a corporate planner
for GKN Building Services, a marketing executive for Oscar Faber
& Partners and as editor of a monthly magazine The Consulting Engineer.
Rod has
a degree in Civil Engineering from Imperial College of Science,
Technology and Medicine and after graduation, worked as a surveyor
in the Falklands and by dog sled in the Antarctic from Halley Bay, UK's most southerly research station.
He is set up the British Antarctic Monument Trust, to create memorials to those killed in British Antarctic Territory in the pursuit of science. On 10 May 2011 a memorial was dedicated in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral close to the central aisle between the tombs of Nelson and Wellington. On 12 May the Northern part of the Antarctic Monument was unveiled outside the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University. On the 25 February 2015 the Southern part of the Monument was dedicated at a moving ceremony on the waterfront of Stanley in the Falkland Islands - gateway to the Antarctic through which all UK scientists and explorers travelled South. Rod then led a voyage to remember visiting South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula where these men and women had lived, worked and died.
Sandi Rhys Jones OBE, FCIOB, FWES, FRSA, MCIM, ACIArb
Sandi Rhys Jones has some forty years experience in strategic marketing and management, communications and training for technical, professional and business to business organisations in the engineering and construction sectors. Since co-founding RhysJones Consultants in 1976, she has worked for a wide range of clients, including consultants, contractors, suppliers, representative organisations, local and national government. She is experienced in the management and practical implementation of business development and branding, including culture change, talent management and corporate communications.
In addition to delivering management and marketing services, she is increasingly in demand as a chair and facilitator at conferences, workshops and training seminars. She has also developed innovative training and development programmes, acting as coach and mentor, particularly for women in non-traditional occupations. You can read her thoughts on business on her blog Constructive women or her twitter account.
Sandi is an experienced non-executive director in commercial, public and not for profit organisations, including audit, finance and remuneration responsibilities and is familiar with governance requirements for both public and private sector activity.
Sandi served on the boards of EnviroBuild Ltd and Kennington Place Management Ltd and was a member of the Business Development Group of the London Mozart Players, the UK's oldest chamber orchestra. After serving as Deputy Chair of Trustees of the Royal Marines Museum for ten years, she helped the delivery of a new building for the museum as a member of the Seamore Project Board at the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
Her first non-executive appointment was in 1998, when she joined the board of the Docklands Light Railway. In 2002 she was appointed non-executive director of the construction and property development company Simons Group Ltd, where she served for seven years. In 2012 she stepped down from the Board of Trustees of the Royal Marines Museum, where she had served for ten years, five of them as deputy chair. Between 2008 and 2014 she was served on the board of Engineering UK - the body that promotes engineering.
In all these organisations she was actively engaged in promoting equality and diversity, introducing innovative training programmes, in addition to the traditional roles in governance, audit and good practice.
Sandi has a reputation for identifying and clarifying key issues, expressing complex matters in a straightforward way, managing conflict and building consensus. he has a knowledge of procurement, contracts and dispute resolution, through many years involvement in the management editing of international conditions of contract for engineering projects, good practice manuals and professional publications. She successfully completed the MSc course in Construction Law & Arbitration at Kings College London in 1996, achieving merit in all modules. Following this she became an accredited mediator with the Centre for Dispute Resolution, skills she applies to day to day management, as well as dispute resolution.
For example, in 2015 at the request of a major engineering institution, she was appointed as one of three person panel to review the procedures and decision of a complex and very sensitive disciplinary tribunal. The recommendations covered not only the verdicts but also the procedures and performance of the tribunal including recognition of the personal elements of the case. In 2016she was retained to resolve a complex dispute between two large organisations in the energy sector, successfully achieved after a two day residential workshop working with a cross section of the individuals involved.
A passionate advocate for engineering and construction, Sandi believes that performance would improve if more women were involved and has campaigned for many years for changes that would attract and retain them. She has edited and contributed to a number of of key reports on the issues around diversity in construction. She leads the Association of Women in Property national mentoring programme, which bring together women across a variety of disciplines in order to improve business performance as well as personal development through greater understanding oaf the property and built environment process.
She led the Association of Women in Property national mentoring programme, which brings together women across a variety of disciplines in order to improve business performance as well as personal development through greater understanding of the property and built environment process.
Between 1997 and 2002 she was appointed a trustee, then chair, of the charity Women's Education in Building, which trained disadvantages women in building trades. This innovative organisation trained many more women each year from its premises under Westway in London than the National Construction Industry Training Board.
In 2001 she was invited to be a founder member of the Raising the Ratio Task Force at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which in six years saw the number of women in the RICS worldwide increase from 10% to 15%.
Between 2006 and 2011 Sandi was Vice Chair of the Governing Body of the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering, Construction and Technology, set up and funded by DIUS to address the under-representation of women in these sectors following the Set Fair report by Baroness Susan Greenfield.
Sandi was appointed OBE in 1998 for her work promoting women in construction, became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building in 2002 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Sheffield Hallam University in 2005. She received a First Women of Property award in 2008. She was listed in Who's Who in 2012.
In 2015 she was appointed Fellow of the Women's Engineering Society. She devised and delivered an innovative cross-disciplinary mentoring programme for the Association of Women in Property and also led on public affairs including submitting evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Women and work.
In September 2022 she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by Design and Build Magazine at its inaugural Women in Construction dinner.
In June 2023 she was inaugurated as President of the Chartered Institute of Building, During her year of office she is particularly keen to promote collaboration in the sector in order to address the huge global and societal challenges around sustainability, quality and safety, and human resources. She sees the strength of CIOB as having a diverse membership and a commitment to the modern professionalism of its international membership.
Read Sandi's Blog to get her latest opinions on constructive women.
In a place far from business she has extensive interests in the arts, travel, food and family. You can read more about her interests in her blog Parallel universe.,
