Lord Evans the ICW Chairman presented Network Rail with one of the BSI/ICW Collaborative Pathfinder Awards 2022 at the Celebration of Achievements and Pioneers in Collaboration reception he hosted on the House of Lords Terrace on Thursday 21st July 2022.
This award recognises the sustained industry leadership and advocacy for collaborative working that's been a corner stone of Network Rail's engagement with its Capital Works supply chain from 2010 onwards. Network Rail was the first UK infrastructure client to secure BS11000 in 2011 and one of the first 6 organisations globally to secure the international standard ISO44001 in 2017. Their leadership of the sector in professionalising collaborative working and delivering major programmes through Alliances and progressive forms of contract was key to creating the collaborative working capability that many tier one suppliers in rail have today.
Lord Evans was especially pleased to be able to present the award to Stephen Blakey, Commercial Projects Director on behalf of Network Rail. Over the years, Stephen has done so much in support of Network Rail's collaborative capability as well as supporting the ICW.
In recognition of that support Lord Evans was also pleased to award Stephen Fellowship of the ICW.
Many tier-one suppliers to rail, including Babcock, Bam, Balfour Beatty, Amey, Skanska, Morgan Sindall and VolkerWessells are now Corporate Members and Ambassadors for ICW. Alongside Network Rail, they ensure that the rail sector has a strong and well-earned reputation for successful collaborative working.
Rail companies and projects regularly feature in the ICW annual awards, showcasing successful programmes that have been delivered collaboratively. And it is notable that over the last 7 years the ICW annual award for Individual Collaborative Leadership has been awarded 3 times to leaders from the rail sector, with the most recent Collaborative Leader Award going to Toufic Machnouk, Network Rail's Delivery Director on the East Coast Digital Programme.
It's clear that the rail sector is leading the way in collaborative working and ICW looks forward to continued liaison with Network Rail and its Head of Collaborative Working, Kevin Tozer and seeing further examples of rail's success at future awards.