Neil Kaplan, Hafez Virjee and Prof. Doug Jones hosted John Lancaster, Wendy MacLaughlin, Ian McIntyre and Jon Prudhoe in a Conversation Special on Construction Experts. The recording is available here.


ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

Professor Doug Jones AO (chair)
Doug Jones AO is a leading independent international commercial and investor-state arbitrator with over 40 years’ prior experience as an international transactional and disputes project lawyer. Doug is a door tenant at Atkin Chambers London and has offices in Sydney and Toronto. Doug is also an International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court. He has been involved in over 140 arbitrations spanning over 30 jurisdictions in disputes of values exceeding some billions $US. In addition, Doug has held appointments at several international professional associations, including as President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA).

John Lancaster
John is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with 37 years of experience spanning roles from a full mechanical apprenticeship, Design Engineer, Project Engineer and Project Manager, Functional Director of Project Controls & Planning (EPC/EPCM), General Management (EPC) and Delay Analyst Consultant including provision of Testifying Expert Witness Services. John has vast cross-border international experience having advised in relation to projects in 30 countries living and working in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, U.S. and Australia. In particular, he has extensive oil & gas experience transcending both onshore and offshore projects including: oil refineries, tank farms, LNG liquefaction, LNG import terminals, LPG plants, pipelines, FPSO and FSOs (conversion and new build), FLNG, shipyard fabrication, semi-submersibles, jack-ups, platforms, exploration drilling, offshore installation, and petrochemicals (Ammonia, Urea, Polysilicon). John also has a significant track record with respect to mining & metallurgy, including mining processing facilities and extractive metallurgy process plants, as well as in the power and energy sector including nuclear, fossil fuel and cogeneration power plants. John has provided Expert evidence in international arbitrations under the rules of ICC, LCIA, SIAC, AAA, AIAC, LMAA etc. John has been appointed on 31 occasions. The matters that John has been instructed on include a number of multi-billion-dollar disputes heard in London and New York. John’s expert evidence has related to issues of delay and disruption analysis and project execution.

Wendy MacLaughlin
Wendy is a senior partner at gb².  She is a Chartered Civil Engineer and a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.  She has over 25 years of experience in the engineering and construction industry, specifically on major projects in the power sector during her time with Arup, in both site based roles and project office roles.  Her years working as a consulting civil engineer provides her with a sound basis for her primary role as a programming and delay expert. Wendy specialises in delay and disruption analyses and is known for her pragmatic and proportionate approach to her analyses, and her ability to absorb a large amount of information in a short period of time. She has undertaken analyses on major projects around the world in most sectors. Wendy has been appointed to provide independent expert programming and delay analysis advice to court, arbitration, adjudication and other tribunals and has testified in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, and in arbitration hearings at London, Singapore, Dubai, Bucharest, Johannesburg, Brisbane, Sydney, Santiago and Stockholm.  She has experience as a party and Tribunal appointed expert, and has given evidence to arbitral tribunals on numerous occasions. She was cited in Who’s Who Legal: Construction 2016 as an “intellectually rigorous authority”, in 2017 as “able to explain the complexities of her analysis to lay people in an accessible and persuasive manner, and everything you would expect of an expert”,  in 2018 as “awesome on the delay side” and a “delay superstar” and more recently that “she continues to amaze in the way she performs as an expert” and “phenomenal”.  

Ian McIntyre
Ian is a Civil Engineer with more than 40 years of experience in major civil engineering and multi-disciplinary resources, transportation, power and industrial infrastructure projects throughout Australia, Asia and Dubai as a construction contractor executive and as a consultant. Ian is an experienced expert witness. He has prepared expert reports related to project scheduling issues, project management decisions, project management processes, the effect of various events or factors on project performance, causation, delay, disruption, construction methods, productivity, loss of production, quality of work, contract administration, the cost and valuation of variations, the  reasonable cost of work carried out, delay costs, project overheads, corporate overheads, loss of profit, and quantum of damages. He is a member of three current Dispute Boards on major projects and was previously a member of three Dispute Boards on major projects now completed. He is a member of the Board in Region 3 (Australia and New Zealand) of the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation. Ian is also Chairman of the Industry Advisory Committee to the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

Jon Prudhoe
Jon Prudhoe, FRICS, CIArb, FAE is a Senior Managing Director and the Asia Pacific leader of Ankura Consulting’s Construction Disputes and Advisory Practice. Based in Asia for almost 20 years, he is one of the few experts, worldwide, equally capable of opining on matters of both Quantum and Delay. He holds an extensive portfolio of over 100 expert witness appointments, including many of the region’s most high profile and complex disputes. Jon has over 35 years of experience in building, civil engineering, on / offshore oil and gas, marine, shipbuilding, petrochemical, infrastructure, transportation, and utility projects. His depth and extent of technical knowledge, combined with his robust testifying experience, make him one of APACs most highly sought-after construction experts. He has given evidence under ICC, SIAC, SCMA, DIAC, HKIAC, SCC, UNCITRAL, AIAC (f.k.a. KLRCA) and LCIA rules and, court / arbitration proceedings in Singapore, UK, Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia, India, UAE and Sweden. Mr Prudhoe’s experience also includes engagements as Expert Determiner as well as Dispute Board appointments and he continues to provide contract advice on live projects. Who’s Who Legal, Expert Witnesses 2020 says: “Jon Prudhoe is a world-leading expert on Quantum and Delay issues with a sensational track record of appointments in high-value construction, infrastructure, marine and natural resources disputes”.

Find out more about Neil Kaplan, Chiann Bao and the In conversation with Neil series here, and browse past ‘conversations’ here.