Ian Carlisle

As Country Director (Managing Director) I have overall leadership responsibility for the operations of Deerns UK. My remit is to ensure that the highly skilled team at Deerns UK are working to their full potential and adding maximum value to our clients, whilst also ensuring that we operate effectively within the Deerns Group. Sitting within Deerns' Data Centre Division, our core area of focus clearly sits within the data centre market, where we deliver projects both locally in the UK and abroad, often in collaboration with our well-established regional teams. We do however also have a strong focus on UK Life Sciences and a developing role in the UK Semiconductor market. These two additional areas bring diversity to our business whilst also remaining focused in the technology led sectors. Deerns is a privately held corporation founded in 1928 in the Netherlands. At present, the firm operates with ~750 staff situated in national offices in France, Germany, India, Italy, Kuwait, Spain, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Brazil.

Joining Deerns in 2020 I took on a split role of (global) Sector Director Data Centres, and the role of Country Director UK, with the mandate to grow both areas of the business based on the continuing expansion of the data centre market. At the time both of these areas were modest in size, but they grew in each area by a multiple of 4x and ultimately we needed to make a decision to focus my efforts. For this reason I handed over my Sector role and continued to develop the excellent team in Deerns UK. As Sector Director Data Centres at Deerns I led group strategy in this market and oversaw commercial activity across our global office portfolio, working with the data centre teams in each location to bring a consistent approach to our global client base. Our focus was with both the hyperscale clients directly, and through the colocation/enterprise market, where we drove best in class performance through account management and close collaboration.

Based in the Arcadis Leeds office, I am a Senior Account Leader, responsible for supporting the growth in the data centre and technology market that we are seeing both here, and across Europe, whilst also leading the global account of one of our fastest growing Global Key Clients. Through the data centre community of practice that is in place, and our MTech delivery organisation, we have a very strong team of engineers and consultants that can solve our clients’ toughest challenges and deliver their most complex projects. Our expertise in real estate, retail, manufacturing and many other areas ensures we can also support our technology client across all of their portfolios / programs, and with our teams working seamlessly across the globe, and through the implementation of digital technology, we are able to operate wherever we are needed to be at the same high standard.

My role within Arcadis is Technology Sector Leader for our Buildings Business Line in the US. We sit within our Commercial Industrial Sector, which covers private sector buildings and construction work throughout North America. Our Technology Sector team in Buildings is centered around the San Francisco Bay Area, but with national presence where our clients need us to be. Our focus is on cost and project management, construction management, scheduling controls and analytics, but we also work across the Arcadis group to provide design (workplace, data centers, manufacturing facilities & retail), environmental compliance & consulting, water services / infrastructure design and risk management. We are currently helping our Technology clients with a variety of projects, including; data center construction, real estate fitout, retail stores and fiber construction. My 18-years in the industry have given me some great opportunities to lead successful teams for a variety of clients, and our growing Technology sector is the most exciting yet.

Within EC Harris I transitioned from quantity surveyor, into project management, and then into commission management. Through this time I had great success with a number of our key clients, delivering successful programs of work for TSB Bank, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Co-Op and Tesco. I also held a team leader position, responsible for project managers and cost consultants across the north of England, and formed part of the Conglomerate and Consumer Goods sector leadership group. Key milestones during this time were the graduation from Reading University as Master of Science, and also my promotion to Associate. I also led the office transition in Leeds as EC Harris and Arcadis merged, bringing our people together under one roof.

I joined MEPC straight from school with a desire to be part of the working world. My desire had always been to enter into the world of construction, following in my father's footsteps, but going down the consultancy route by joining this small but highly professional organization. I trained at MEPC as a quantity surveyor, obtaining a great level of understanding in traditional cost management techniques and procedures, a background that has set me in good stead for the rest of my career. Here I was lucky enough to work on some great and varied projects, and also with some fantastic people who were keen to help me develop and grow. Throughout this time I continued to study, through college courses and onto the BSc in Construction Management at Leeds Met University.