JCT Povey Lecture

Povey Lecture 2011: Mike Putnam, President and CEO, Skanska UK

The JCT Povey Lecture is an annual event at which an eminent person is invited to give their thoughts on significant matters that are relevant to the construction and property industry. The purpose of the lecture is to stimulate thought and encourage ways of continuing to improve the quality and value of construction output.

The event was inaugurated in 2003 to acknowledge and pay tribute to Philip Povey, who served JCT for fifty years.

Previous speakers and their papers have been:

• Mike Putnam (2011) The Journey to Deep Green™
• Paul Morrell (2010) Ambition in an Age of Austerity
• Francis Salway (2009) Leading on Sustainability
• Rt Hon Nick Raynsford MP (2008) The construction industry and Government
• Bob White (2007) Innovation in the change agenda
• James Wates (2006) Joining up the dots: How the construction industry should punch its weight
• Professor Peter Brandon (2005) Design, Procurement and IT: Rolling back the frontiers of management?
• Professor Roger Flanagan (2004) Risk – yours, mine and ours – what is happening in the world
• Richard Saxon CBE (2003) Vision for the Industry (formerly known as construction)

(click on the links to download lecture notes)

Philip John Povey

Philip John Povey – Barrister – commenced in construction as a legal adviser to the NFBTE, which later became the Construction Confederation, in 1951. At the same time he began to assist the Joint Secretaries of the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT).

Philip first became Director of Legal Services at the Confederation and then its Director General. He later became the first Secretary-General of the restructured Joint Contracts Tribunal Limited in 1998.

Philip's work for JCT became well known through the publication of JCT Standard Forms of Contract, which in time found their way to many parts of the world. He had a keen mind, which steered him around what he viewed as the less important or parochial issues for which the industry seems to have a particular attraction and enabled him to get to the core of a problem and to resolve it. He was an extremely skilful draftsman who invariably managed to satisfy the demands of many disparate, often competing, bodies.

Although there were committees, working parties and individuals that provided valuable input, it was Philip who shouldered the burden of writing the text.

He retired from JCT at the end of 1999 but died suddenly only 18 months later, in 2001.