Meet The Team
Ali is the founder of Arcian Consulting with 35 years of traffic and highway engineering experience in public, contracting and consultancy sectors specialising in interim management, highway engineering, programme management, team leadership, design management, finance and business development. He has extensive experience in delivery of highway engineering and infrastructure projects.
As a senior manager he has a wide range of skills and background from large civil engineering infrastructure projects, municipal engineering to network management. He is self-motivated and a strategic thinker with practical experience in design management, local authority/stakeholder engagement, traffic management, problem solving and Health & Safety. Ali is well experienced in senior interim management roles, managing multi-disciplinary teams and engagement with client organisations at all levels.
Chris Founds
Associate
Procurement & Change Management
A high performing business leader and practitioner; with over 27 years of international experience in delivering technical solutions on major infrastructure and in public/private sector procurement; and organisational transformation programmes. Chris is highly respected across the highways and infrastructure industry and a collaborative-team player who always demonstrates the right behaviours, drive and commitment.
Chris sees his core responsibilities in advising Clients to help make informed decisions around the best procurement and programme options, for infrastructure and highway maintenance contracts; delivering an on-time procurement, award and mobilisation. He also helps Clients consider value management, efficiency savings, performance frameworks, collaboration, safety and innovation, which are essential components of a successful procurement.
Rod Black
Associate
Transport Planning & Development Control
Rod has gained over 40 years’ experience in the fields of traffic engineering and transport planning including over 20 years in local government. He is an experienced project and programme manager and has managed large project teams both in the UK and Ireland.
Rod's primary expertise is in project management, sustainable transport strategy and development planning. He has in the past undertaken a long term secondment as programme manager for the delivery of a multi-million pound project for the implementation of a network of Red Routes in the West Midlands. Rod has extensive knowledge of the public sector from working on a broad range of transport schemes, including highway planning.
Paul Barton
Associate
Planning & Economic Development
Paul is a highly experienced senior leader with a strong track record of delivering customer focused services and transformational projects. He utilises a strong understanding of partnership working to deliver services and projects. His approach is always based upon robust analysis of evidence and data. He is very commercially orientated and experience in developing profitable traded services.
His particular expertise is in the fields of economic development, planning, research and geospatial services and he has used this expertise to deliver and implement strategies and policies. Paul will ensure that the strategic role of transportation is recognised and how it can drive the transformation of “places” when allied to wider plans and strategies including economic strategies and local plans. As well as a strategic focus, Paul is also keen to ensure that strategies are deliverable via the identification of clear action plans.
Paul is also skilled in developing robust governance and performance frameworks that provide the foundations for programme/project/strategy delivery.
Neil Guthrie
Associate
Sustainable & Active travel
Neil has worked in sustainable and active travel for 20 years including stints at Sustrans, the London Cycling Campaign, TRL, Atkins and Jacobs. He has a strong interest in the new generation of continental standard cycling provision, and has contributed to its uptake throughout the UK by giving a series of popular seminars and producing technical summaries. Neil also has considerable experience in other fields of sustainable transport including non-motorised user audits, feasibility design of pedestrian schemes, road safety research and travel plans.
He has worked on a wide range of research projects for Department for Transport and Transport for London, and spent 18 months working on TfL’s ground-breaking Better Junctions programme. Neil has produced cycling strategies at town, county and city levels, and carried out monitoring for a wide variety of cycling schemes. He has delivered cycling design training for TfL, and provided cycling content for two university post-graduation courses. In 2014 he co-initiated the popular ‘Cycling@Teatime’ monthly sessions hosted at UCL, now in their 4th academic year. Since 2015 Neil has provided the acclaimed ‘Designing for Cycling’ PTRC evening lectures.
Debbie manages the day to day affairs of the office and is responsible for company's finances. She has extensive experience in retailing and small business management. Debbie has a diploma in business studies and has been managing the company accounts for a number of years. She has the overall responsibility for managing the business administration and providing support to the technical team.
She has long established experience of dealing with the public, and providing exceptional customer service, following a career in merchandising.
Debbie Rice
Director & Company Secretary
