CIOB CEO Caroline Gumble visits Grade II-listed Barr Build restoration

Since the beginning of her tenure Caroline made it clear that she believes in underpinning the construction industry’s potential to be a force for positive societal change. The daughter of a bricky, Caroline understands the lives of CIOB members from the inside out. Having spent many hours of her childhood traveling from site to site in a builder’s van, her day-to-day activities as CIOB CEO make for a remarkably similar routine!

An ongoing commitment to regional visits helps Caroline to remain informed and updated through a first-hand understanding of real-life issues and motivations of the workforce. Under her leadership, the CIOB is focussed on driving the cultural shift in equality, diversity and inclusion, social mobility, worker welfare, and in promoting quality, safety, and sustainability in construction.

Between visits to the West Country and Scotland, Caroline’s travels brought her to Oxfordshire. Having spent the morning at University of Oxford’s Rueben College, with fellow CIOB members Morgan Sindall, Caroline accompanied Barr Group directors David Noonan and Stuart Barr to a totally contrasting site. The visit was to a 17th-century cottage in an Oxfordshire conservation area, which has undergone some major restoration works and a dramatic dig out in preparation for a two-storey modern glazed extension designed and project managed by West Waddy Archadia (WWA). From there, Caroline and the regional CIOB cohort headed onto Oxford Brookes University – for a tour of its field-leading School of Architecture and School of the Build Environment. Click here to find out more about Caroline Gumble’s action-packed programme.

Happily continuing our CIOB events run and by complete coincidence of timing, Caroline’s visit was followed, on 21 October, by the official Barr Build Ltd company chartership and individual graduation ceremony (hard-earned and long postponed) for two of our CIOB Chartered Members; Director David Noonan (MCIOB) and Senior Buyer Marius Tomazeiu (MCIOB).

Having been bestowed with Chartered Building Company status in April 2022, Barr Build Founder and Director Stuart Barr explains:

“We are proud to have become Chartered Members of the CIOB. As an organisation we strive for the very highest standards – not only in the quality of our work and our customer service, but also through rigorous policies and best practice in our day-to-day activities. As directors we believe strongly that our organisation is all about people – and that by treating each other honestly and fairly we will be the best that we can be. The CIOB ethos reflects this, bringing structure and shared purpose through their policies and accreditations. We thank the CIOB for their support and we are looking forward to a positive ongoing relationship with them and our fellow members."

Thank you to our clients in Oxfordshire, and our fantastic Site Manager Chris Thornton, for letting us invade en masse and to Julie Putman CMgr FCMI, Natalie Breakspear, Lydia Bocko, Elena Catalano, and the rest of the CIOB team for their bulletproof organisation! To read more about the work in progress at our Grade II-listed renovation and extension in Oxfordshire, click here. We look forward to sharing finished pictures with you very soon.