Matt is a Partner in our Birmingham office and specialises in large complex projects, particularly in residential, commercial manufacturing and mixed use development. Matt has been working in the Midlands region for 20 years and joined Core Five in 2018 to develop our Birmingham office.
The challenging aspects of the industry are where Matt is at his most effective. He enjoys simplifying the complex and has the ability to understand the shades of grey that are often prevalent in multi-stakeholder projects and he interprets them into actions that are black and white; he will always strive for clarity of objective to allow effective decision making. Matt has a strong focus on achieving excellent results through teamwork. Construction is a people industry so it is crucial that effective relationships are fostered.
Matt also ensures he stays abreast of the industry through his active involvement with the British Council of Offices. Matt was on BCO NextGen’s first committee outside of London, sat on the Regional Judging Panel before accepting a role on the Regional Committee. Working alongside the BCO allows Matt to gain a wider perspective of workspace/office development to really understand what great looks and feels like.
How did you get into industry?
I think a better question for me may be “Why do I stay in the Industry?” The answer to that has to be the variety of projects, types of work and the opportunity to meet great people. I don’t think there are many industries that can match ours for the mix of projects, teams and challenges, which means each day is different.
What is the best piece of advice you have received?
I always try to take away lessons from everybody that I spend time with and, as always, I tend to learn a lot from the more challenging times. A couple of key pieces of advice that have always stayed with me are “Get comfortable being uncomfortable”, “Control what you can control” and probably the one I go back to most “Don’t tell me what you can’t do, tell me what you can do”.
What is your proudest movement or biggest achievement at Core Five?
Sounds cliché, but I don’t think I have got to the biggest achievement yet as I am still on the journey. That being said, I am really proud of everyone in our team and the way in which they have responded to the pandemic in particular. They have each been brilliant and displayed a massive amount of innovation, resilience, dedication, excellence and personality through some tough times.
