Andy Alder, programme director of the Thames Tideway project in London, and Jacobs vice-president and head of major programmes (UK and Europe), has been awarded this year’s James Clark Medal by the British Tunnelling Society (BTS).
The BTS awarded Alder the medal in recognition of his understanding, and supportive and inspiring leadership to the tunnelling profession.
Speaking at the BTS’s June meeting, in London, where the award was presented, Thames Tideway chief executive Andy Mitchell said that Alder’s design and construction experience across a number of tunnelling projects, including Crossrail, meant his technical and practical capabilities were recognised and respected.
Mitchell said: “But, equally, we all also recognise Andy Alder the leader and human being. In my opinion, Andy is a great leader because he genuinely cares about people. His relentless focus on health, safety and wellbeing is driven, I am sure, because he does genuinely care about everybody’s health, safety, and well-being.
“The same goes for his focus on mental health and his leadership in driving for diversity and equality in the broad sense. People see this, and see that his care is real and heartfelt.
“When you put his technical excellence alongside his care and compassion, it all adds up to Andy being an excellent (tunnelling) engineer, a brilliant leader and a thoroughly lovely person,” Mitchell said.
On LinkedIn, Alder thanked the BTS for the James Clark medal award.
He said: “I’m also very conscious that any individual success is only possible through the work of many people working together. Tunnelling is a total team effort, and I’m very grateful to all the brilliant people I have worked with, and learnt from, over the last 30 years. Thank you to everyone who has taken time to share their knowledge, opinions, expertise and experience with me.”
“I’m determined that this award will help me to continue to strive to do my best for our industry – to keep everyone safe, to enable our people to grow and develop, and to deliver projects that contribute to both meeting society’s needs and protecting and improving our world.”
The James Clark Medal is the highest honour that is awarded to an individual by the BTS. It recognises major contributions towards tunnelling and the tunnelling industry, innovation, and/or responsibility for a major tunnelling project. The medal perpetuates the memory of James Clark, who worked for Charles Brand & Sons on many well-known projects.
