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You do have a reputation for being quite tough, don't you?
Well, yes, determined. I suppose I was laying the law down here two hours ago, reviewing what was outstanding on adjacent projects. I am quite determined. I was making it clear that things ought to have been resolved by now.

Who is (or was) the person you most admire?
Nelson Mandela. Because I think of his drive, determination and perseverance. Having been to Rock Island just off the coast of Cape Town and seen the conditions he lived in for 20-odd years and how he kept going and then brought South Africa back. Compared to some of the other African leaders he's done pretty well.

You were in the Territorial Army for many years. What skills have you learnt there that you use in your professional life?
Leadership, responsibility from an early age, teamwork, working under pressure, respect for people. You have got to look after the men who are with you. When you have been trudging through the countryside for 24 hours and it's been pouring with rain you have got to pull everyone through together.

Do you bring your army persona to meetings? Is that why people say you're tough?
I think sometimes my reputation may go before me. But every so often you need to remind everyone what they agreed to do. I am not saying to people "you have to achieve miracles". If you have agreed to do certain things for the next meeting, when you find they haven't been done, you need an explanation. I probably don't like hearing the usual common-or-garden bullsh*t as to why it's not happened, so that's when I may appear slightly tough.

Why did you choose the Bullring as a favourite project?
The Bullring is the most recent. It is the largest retail-led urban regeneration project ever undertaken in Europe and it has converted a brown field site of Birmingham into the second shopping destination in the United Kingdom now (although various people will argue as to what the facts and figures are).

The project was major in size. We used a partnering concept on the project and it worked well. We spent, in our maximum months, £15m a month here which is a fair old construction spend. We finished two weeks early and that's on the original date, not on an extension of time. We finished well within budget. And the other big factor is that everybody on the team has ended up friends after it. No one is taking legal action. Everyone is very happy. We have not overpaid, but people are satisfied they made a modest profit and it's an example of very good teamworking. In today's age there must be very few projects of this size which have those features.

What was your role?
I controlled the entire team, the consultants and the contractor and drove it through from the very early stages through to final completion. The great day here was when we opened the centre at 9:30 on the 4 September last year. The last week I was probably up here every week laying the law down and on the opening morning we actually met at 4:30 in the morning to make sure everything was well. And it was actually so well that we didn't know what to do from 6 o'clock until the opening at 9:30.

Why do you think it worked so well?
Because we built the team, it was a team we had used on our West Quay shopping centre in Southampton, so they understood me and I understood them. It was an example of longer-term partnering, rather than, as is the case with too many construction projects, the team is together for a year and they never see each other again. So most of the individuals involved, with two and a half years on site here and a six month period beforehand and similarly at West Quay, had a six-year plus involvement of working together.

A client heading the CIOB - isn't that a bit strange?
10% of the membership of the CIOB are clients. If you include local authorities as well, it's a further 10%. My view is that the client is the person who should lead the construction process. The client is the only one who is there from the inception of the scheme to the eventual ownership and management of the scheme at the end of the day. No other party has that involvement. And also the client is the person who ultimately foots the bill. So the client is the person who has the most incentive in my view to make the construction process work.

Wearing my Hammerson hat I place orders for £500m-worth of construction every year. I therefore believe I know the industry exceptionally well and I see all aspects of the construction process from the initial design through to the appointment of the main contractor, the appointment of the subcontractors, the development of the design, the physical construction, the completion and how it's used afterwards. The fact that I am the first client to become president of the CIOB shows the growth of the CIOB which has slowly over the years encompassed the client as well. So I don't regard myself as remote from the construction process. I drive the process through, so I'm very much part of it.

What do you hope to achieve in your presidential year?
To grow membership and get more people to convert from member to fellow grade. There are an enormous number of people in the industry that have the right background that would suit them for the CIOB. They may be members of another institution, but it's making them aware of what the CIOB offers. We want to increase the accessibility without reducing the standards. For example, take a construction lawyer with 30 years of experience in the industry. He may not be eligible to join but he probably knows more than many other would-be candidates. So we are reviewing the accessibility.

I place £500m of construction orders each year. yes, I know the industry well

Geoff Wright

To get more fellows, we have got to make sure that council pushes the message out that we want more fellows. It isn't as if we are going to promote people that haven't got the background or the experience. It's a case of putting the message round: 'By the way, old boy, you're eligible to transfer to fellow class if you want to.'

Another goal will be to capitalise on the profile of the CIOB and make sure it's relevant to industry. If you put it in footballing terms we are in the top five of the premier division of football and it's trying to make sure we are not fifth but we are somewhat higher up the pecking order.

What does the CIOB mean to you?
I regard it as the leading professional body for management of the construction process which is different to the RICS, different to the RIBA. So the CIOB can therefore deal with various facets of construction. We've seen in the last two years the ASI merger. And I think it brings like-minded professionals who are in the management of the construction process together and it can give them more training, by examination, by CPD, for example, to help them to be more effective managers.

What's the CIOB's role: influencing policy with government or raising public awareness?
I think the primary role is influencing government. There is a lesser function of connecting with the general public. The function is telling people about the construction industry. It doesn't mean having your name in the Yellow Pages and having an 0800 number which is manned 24 hours a day by a team of advisers for people who want a builder for some work at home. CIOB is a professional body.

What do you think of the idea of an elected council?
It may be a good thing over time to have some members of council duly elected. But you've got to be careful that you don't end up in RIBA's situation where there's six candidates for the presidency and all work on the RIBA stops for several weeks while they're all busy electioneering. I think you need to have members on council who are in touch with local grass roots opinion which informs them as to what they should be saying yes or no to, and the obvious way to do that is by them being the branch chairman themselves.

I think it will be difficult to have every single member of council freely elected. It's probably a dream. You may get some people at some point in the future. I can't believe it will happen in my year in office.

What are your feelings on Egan's report? Was it all that a waste of time?
Egan launching the Movement for Innovation was a good thing because it made sure that everybody understands what the key factors are: construction safety, quality, client satisfaction, productivity and ultimately profitability. These are important things in the process and I think there have been some successes with KPIs and other items of that nature. I think probably Latham changed much of the thinking of the industry and I think Egan then took it along afterwards. It's difficult to say if it has been a great success. Egan has related what he did to the car industry and some of it's quite practical to have in the construction industry and some of it is more challenging.

What do you mean by that?
About cost reductions. One of the things about the construction industry is that when work is lean, prices tend to fall rather than times when there's work around. Whereas in the car industry you can actually go out and save money by cutting back things or improving the overall production by getting more machinery and things of that nature. There is a limited extent that you can do it in construction but I do think we have been guilty in the UK for many years of over-designing buildings, but I don't think that's something Egan looked at.

If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?
It's difficult to come up with one item. Work well as a team. Stop reinventing the wheel. And we've largely eradicated the claims culture but making sure the price at day one is the price at the end of the day. So the price at day one shouldn't be a silly price. Prior to Latham in 1994 the industry was prone to putting in one price and then six months later wanting 30% more. I think the industry has improved 75 to 80% but its trying to eradicate that last 20 to 25% where it hasn't.

Do you own any shares in construction companies?
Only property companies.