Gary France

Gary is the founder and Chairman of the Planning Engineers Organisation. He has been a planner since 1973 and in that time he has worked almost exclusively in a planning, methods and logistics role. Throughout this time he has gained a considerable depth of understanding of leading edge planning and management techniques which have contributed to the successful completion of many landmark projects.

Gary is a Group Board Director of Mace, one of the largest and most successful Construction and Project Management companies operating in the building, civil engineering and property sectors. Gary is responsible for all planning engineering within Mace and leads a 45 strong team of planning engineers. He is constantly seeking to challenge industry norms and do things better, faster, more safely and more efficiently - and to champion best practice improvements wherever he can. In addition to his planning responsibilities, Gary also leads best practice within Mace.

Gary has a wealth of experience at management and director level within development, design, construction and property, in both public and private sectors, having worked for some of the most prestigious organisations in the UK.

With his programming and general management background, as well as programming projects, Gary is equally at home providing strategic input and innovation to the early stages of construction projects, as well as utilising his more general management skills and experience on a wide variety of consultancy commissions. Gary is often asked to input into the conceptual/feasibility stages of his clients projects, advising on overall management strategy as well as providing construction engineering input and advice.

Some of the projects Gary has worked upon include Broadgate in the City of London, the Natwest Tower, the London Eye, the British Museum Great Court and the planning of the Manchester Commonwealth Games. Gary is currently planning the construction works for the London 2012 Olympics. In addition, Gary has acted as a planning engineer expert witness in a number of construction litigation trials.