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“Ask anyone at AECOM who they want to work with if they’re looking at sustainability issues on a rail project and they’ll point you in the direction of Mr Skinner. When it comes to trusted advice on the most appropriate railway designs and construction strategies taking into account environmental mitigation, consent, consultation outcomes, sustainability and operational requirements – John is the man. He is the ‘Go To’ guy for clients of AECOM with a reputation for pragmatic, actionable advice and taking forward initiatives that actually deliver efficiency in the round.
John’s gained his insights from over 20 years of experience getting crucial rail infrastructure delivered around the world, from Brisbane to Yerevan, Gautrain to Lagos, not to mention High Speed 1 and 2, Crossrail, East London Line, East Coast Mainline and Thameslink. How does he do it? He’s got a real knack for bringing people together and getting the best out of them: a natural leader and communicator with great emotional intelligence and insight: it’s great to watch him in action whether setting out a business case with the Chief Executive or enthusing a tired consultant with fresh energy and motivation. He’s also got real tenacity and focus and that is what I enjoy about working with him – that’s how a consultant should be, a real trusted adviser.
John has made his experience count by adding value to AECOM’s rail offer through developing management processes and tools for development and delivery of sustainability initiatives and their incorporation into engineering and construction designs. He’s encouraged innovation through the creation and application of the Strategic Sustainability Analysis Tool (SSAT). SSAT’s a proactive performance management approach for driving sustainability initiatives through the life cycle of rail projects, which John devised with colleagues based on experience from Crossrail. For the last 15 months John has lead environment, consents and sustainability for the £380m Wessex Capacity Alliance rail and station infrastructure upgrade.
John has effectively implemented SSAT across the upgrade of stations and track from Waterloo to Woking and Staines, including bringing Waterloo International back into operational use with new retail facilities. His work has ensured that there are effective initiatives covering a range of sustainability issues being considered across the development from noise to air quality, green space to customer well-being and a strong mechanism for tracking performance.
I’m nominating John because I think he’s a great asset to both the rail industry and AECOM. He makes his experience and insight count on some of the most crucial infrastructure projects we have going at the moment and I think we’re in safe hands. I wish him the best, because although I’m recommending for a lifetime achievement, I think he’s probably only half way through. To sum-up – John likes to get stuck in, build relationships and see the project through, in some cases over ‎many years, learning lessons and verifying predictions. Hence his view on HS2, he says: "it's a biggie, and I'm looking forward to the next 10 years"!“
“Thank you so much for inviting us to the Awards and for doing the raffle for Railway Children. We were absolutely delighted with the amount that was raised and it was great having the opportunity to promote our Great Rail Challenge. It certainly seemed to be a fantastically well organised event and well done to you. We really appreciated all the help we got from you. We get so much support from you all at RailStaff and I hope you are now enjoying a very well deserved rest!”
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