Buro Happold Founding Partner Retires
Michael Dickson, a founding partner of Buro Happold, the international multi-disciplinary firm of consulting engineers, retires from the Partnership with effect from 30 April, 2006 but will continue his involvement in the practice as a Consultant.
Michael was one of eight partners who founded the practice 30 years ago on 1 May, 1976, in a small office in Bath. In the intervening years, Michael’s contribution to the development and evolution of the practice has been enormous – the Partnership has grown from six to 26, the headcount has increased to 1,150 worldwide and turnover rocketed to £52m for the year ending April 2005. Financial performance continues to improve with turnover likely to exceed £60m for the 2006 year end.
Michael was the practice’s chairman for nine years following the death of Sir Ted Happold in 1996 until April 2005, during which time he steered the practice through a period of sustained growth and spearheaded a new way of working in integrated, multi-disciplinary teams to deliver a better service for our clients.
He has also overseen the introduction of a broad range of services since the early days of offering only structural and building services engineering. Today Buro Happold also offers infrastructure and environmental engineering solutions, including transport and urban design, as well as specialist consulting services such as fire safety engineering, security, IT and lighting technologies. The practice is active in a range of sectors, notably sport and leisure, education, retail and health.
Michael is highly respected in the profession, renowned for his innovative design flair and meticulous approach to problem solving. He is currently president of the Institution of Structural Engineers, a year long role that ends on 30 September this year. Last year he was awarded a CBE for services to engineering.
Rod Macdonald, current chairman of Buro Happold and himself a founding partner of the practice remarks: “During Michael’s 30 years with Buro Happold he has worked tirelessly and with endless enthusiasm for the good of the practice and also for the greater good of the community at large, as well as the people for whom he has designed great buildings. In addition to developing the practice into one of the finest and most creative engineering consultancies in the world he has made a huge contribution to the wider industry, having been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1999 and a former chairman of the Construction Industry Council, helping to shape its rigorous Design Quality Indicators for Buildings. I am delighted that Michael is to continue as a consultant to Buro Happold, where his design ability will be brought to bear on future projects undertaken by the practice.”
Michael will continue as chairman of the Happold Trust, a charity that promotes education, research and training in fields applicable to the construction industry, engineering, design, technology and architecture.
end
Elspeth Wales
PR and Communications Officer
Buro Happold Ltd
Camden Mill
Lower Bristol Road
Bath
BA2 3DQ
T: 01225 320600
D: 01225 320627
M: 07753 829630
F: 0870 7874148
E: Elspeth.wales@burohappold.com
