Industry Funding Committee

The Industry Funding Committee will advise the Board on future direction of the strategy, including reform of the Grants Scheme based on their assessment of the impact of funding decisions and to provide independent review of the funding decisions in regard to exception cases requested by the CITB Executive Management Team.

Current committee members (as at November 2024) are:

Holly Price - Committee Chair and CITB Trustee

Stephen Gray - CITB Trustee

Sophie Seddon - CITB Trustee

Sarah Garry – Chief Executive Officer, Property Care Association

Sarah has been Chief Executive of the Property Care Association (PCA) since November 2023. The PCA is the UK’s leading representative organisation for the protection of buildings and operates across domestic, commercial and civil sectors in the structural repair, structural waterproofing, timber preservation, damp protection, flood remediation, residential dwelling ventilation and invasive weed control industries.

Sarah has spent 20 years working with membership and trade associations; including for construction trade bodies and in the international medical sector.

Prior to PCA, Sarah led the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) where she was Company Secretary and responsible for the day-to-day management of its activities including delivering the annual strategy, operational and staff management. She led the delivery of the multi-award-winning World Congress of Soil Science 2022, and was a trustee of the company set up to manage the delivery of the event.

In previous roles, Sarah was active in the construction industry’s response to the issue of competence following the Grenfell Towers tragedy and represented construction as a member of the Department for Education’s On Site Construction T Level Panel, the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) Card Management Committee and the Greater London Authority (GLA) Construction Skills Group. 

Sarah has a keen interest in skills, training and policy and led the development of a Soil Science apprenticeship and has worked with organisations to engage policymakers and provide evidence, which support decision making. Whilst with BSSS, this included registering BSSS as a Non-Governmental Organisation with the UN and actively participating in UNFCCC COP Summits.

Kacey O’Driscoll – Strategy and Leadership Director, Danny Sullivan Group

Kacey is the Director of Strategy and Leadership at Danny Sullivan Group, the leading supplier of skilled, professional labour in the UK. DSG has been serving the civil engineering, rail, transportation and construction industries since 1986.

In her role, Kacey is responsible for helping to create, communicate, execute and sustain the Group’s long-term goals and strategic objectives. Her role also involves leading and developing DSG’s education and training strategy to ensure it continues to successfully deliver on its commitments, invest in its workforce and have the right skills for now and in the future.

Prior to joining the family business at DSG, Kacey worked for almost a decade as an international corporate lawyer advising some of the world’s largest multi-national companies on high-profile reorganisation transactions. In particular, she advised the boards of some of the world’s largest corporates on the design and implementation of corporate governance programmes, including strategies for managing risk, complying with legal requirements, communicating with shareholders and forging proactive and effective relationships with all stakeholders.

Kacey has a particular interest in construction tech and is an investor, advisor and mentor to a number of UK and Irish based start-ups and businesses.

Hannah O’Sullivan - Head of Learning and Development, VolkerWessels

Hannah is the Head of Learning and Development for VolkerWessels UK, a leading multidisciplinary contractor that delivers innovative engineering solutions across the civil engineering and construction sectors including rail, highways, airport, marine, energy, water, and environmental infrastructure. Along with her team, Hannah works to offer opportunities for everyone to develop to their own potential - for both their own benefit, and that of the company.

Hannah is a passionate, innovative and dynamic learning and talent strategist, with a track record of adding bottom line value to a business. She is a strategic thinker who uses a broad network of peers to challenge the norm.

Over her 26-year career, across a number of different industries, Hannah has honed her skills as a performance management specialist, with proven returns on investment, and she has also delivered culture change programmes which include people development strategies and implementation.

Hannah is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD) and is particularly involved in external peer development - especially in coaching and mentoring. Currently Chair of the CECA Training & Development committee, and a member of the Build UK CITB Reform group.

Clare Smithson – Head of Human Resources, Lovell Partnerships

Clare Smithson is the Head of Human Resources at Lovell Partnerships. Lovell is a partnerships housing expert and leading provider of innovative residential construction and regeneration developments. They build homes for sale and rent, sourcing land and investing in communities alongside, local authorities, housing associations and other partners. Clare looks after around 1200 highly skilled people, who are employed directly, at every stage of the project, from architects and designers to building trades and customer care teams. Lovell take on a wide range of trainees and apprenticeships each year and offer the opportunity to move within the organisation so people can progress within the company. All of this is supported by a high degree of investment in training.

Clare has a wealth of human resource management expertise, most recently as HR Director at the Weston Group and previously having spent 7 years as Group Head of HR at Hill Group, where her work helped the business win a Housebuilder Award for their partnership with Women into Construction. Clare has also worked in senior human resource roles at DS Smith plc, NEST Corporation and BT plc.

Clare has a keen interest in the attraction and retention of talent in the housebuilding industry and in particular investing in the skills and careers of the next generation.

Mike Wharton – Chief Executive Officer, Complete Roofing Systems

Mike is the Chief Executive Officer at Complete Roofing Systems (CRS), one of the UK’s leading roofing and cladding specialists working with commercial, industrial and public sector clients nationwide. Mike’s role as CEO draws on his extensive experience in transformational change – driving revenue, enhancing profitability, pushing cultural evolution, adopting digitisation and streamlining processes.

Prior to joining CRS, Mike worked in both commercial and regulatory roles in construction including running the Competent Person Scheme for the roofing sector. Before that, he worked in the finance sector as both a Fund Manager and Equity Analyst, providing him with a unique approach to running a construction business.

Mike is passionate about risk management, AI and automation and making real, lasting change in the construction industry.

Mike is a Fellow of the Institute of Roofing and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments and is an Advisory Board Member for ARPAS-UK (Association of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems UK). He was the Chairman of the Institute of Roofing (Northwest Region) from 2020-2022.

2024 Meetings

• 6 February
• 14 May
• 1 August
• 31 October