John Holland-Kaye, CEO of London Heathrow Airport, is the latest high-profile speaker to sign up to speak at the European CEO Conference which will see construction and infrastructure leaders from across the continent gather in London on 4-5 November 2019.

As well as talking about the latest state of play on the Heathrow expansion project, Holland-Kaye will no doubt address the issue of carbon emissions, which is also a key topic of debate at the European CEO Conference. Only last month, while attending the UN Climate Summit in New York, Holland-Kaye said: “It is time to go further and ensure that aviation plays its part in meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees. The prize is enormous. If we can decarbonise aviation, then we can do the same in every sector of our economy. 

“Climate change is happening, that aviation has to play its part and that we must set out a positive, global plan for how we can decarbonise aviation. That way we protect the benefits of aviation in a zero-carbon world.”

This year’s CEO conference, organised around the theme of ‘Delivering for Society’ and attended by CEOs and senior business executives from across the continent, combines a hard-hitting business programme with exclusive social and networking opportunities, including the European CEO Dinner on Monday 4 November.

The event, delivered by the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) in partnership with the European engineering consultancy association, EFCA, has attracted a high-profile line up of international speakers from across the European construction sector. 

Day one of the conference opens with a session on global infrastructure disruptors, led by Richard Threlfall, global head of infrastructure at KPMG, which will examine current trends impacting on the health of the construction sector. These include the volatility of domestic politics across European countries and ongoing global macro-economic trends, which could end up plunging the industry into a downturn.

Speakers in this session include Henrik Garver, CEO of the Danish Association of Consulting Engineers, Bernard Gilliot, board member at Tractebel, Rebecca Larkin, senior economist at the Construction Products Association and Geoffrey Spence, Jersey Ports non-executive director. This will be followed by sessions on climate change and the ongoing campaign to achieve net zero emissions and social and economic infrastructure.

Other speakers at the conference include Benoît Clocheret, CEO of ARTELIA, a leading French consulting, engineering and project management firm, Heathrow CEO John Holland- Kaye, Wouter Schik, sustainable design and development expert at Arcadis Netherlands, professor Phil Blythe from the Department for Transport, Emma Howard Boyd, chair of the Environment  Agency, Mace CEO Mark Reynolds and Patricia Brown, director of Central.

The event will provide an unrivalled forum for discussion and debate between CEOs in the consultancy and engineering industry in the UK and continental Europe. Delegates will be able to discuss the impact of global economic, political and climate developments on markets and growth strategies and explore the latest evidence on the rate and impacts of climate change and the specific role of the engineering and consultancy industry in the journey to a net zero built environment.

Large firm CEOs and SME leaders alike will benefit from attending the conference and the organisers are especially keen to attract those from smaller firms, with a special delegate rate for ACE member firms with less than 250 staff of just £299 + VAT, which includes the European CEO Dinner event.

Click here for full details and to book a place at the 2019 European CEO Conference.