Group Members

John Sheridan is Executive Director of the Mineral Products Association (Scotland), the country’s principal Trade Association for companies involved in the quarrying, asphalt and concrete industries and he represents the industry on a wide number of issues across the country.

He was a founding Director of Construction Scotland and appointed Vice Convenor (Industry) of the Cross Party Group for Construction in the Scottish Parliament in 2011.

In recent times he has been appointed to the post of Chair of the Industry Advisory Board for the Institute for Sustainable Construction at Napier University.

He is also Co-chair of the 2020 Climate Group Built Environment group and has actively worked to build an alliance linking the various bodies with an interest in sustainability in the Scottish construction industry.

Dr Branka Dimitrijevic is a director of CIC Start Online, a joint project of seven Scottish universities led by Glasgow Caledonian University in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University, Glasgow School of Art, Heriot Watt University, the Robert Gordon University, University of Edinburgh and University of Strathclyde Glasgow. The project supports collaboration between academia and industry in developing innovations for sustainable building design and refurbishment and disseminates the outcomes through interactive webinars, quarterly online magazine Innovation Review, online and live conferences.

Stewart has spent 28 years working for Stewart Milne Group, progressing to Managing Director of their timber frame operations, before overseeing all aspects of product and process development, across the group, in recent years.

During his time at Stewart Milne Group, Stewart’s work includes project director on the ground breaking and Award winning prototype Sigma® Level 5, near zero carbon Home, the first in the UK. He was also Bid Director for Stewart Milne Group, for the Zero Carbon Challenge site at Peterborough.

More recently his work includes the development of the Group’s low energy/carbon Sigma II Build System and the advancement of the Group’s off-site manufacturing and on-site assembly processes. Stewart is Project Leader of the AIMC4 consortium, which seeks to collaboratively research and develop Level 4 homes, through a fabric first approach, for mass market production at an affordable price.

Stewart is member of the HBF Sustainability Group, UKTFA Fire Committee Chairman & Stakeholder member of the Modern Built Environment Knowledge Transfer Network. He has also actively contributed to a number of government working parties regarding zero carbon, sustainability & building regulations energy performance. He has a Bsc & Msc University Degree in Project Management

David is an Associate Director of Construction Innovation at BRE and has a PhD in Building Physics. Recently, David has led on the development of the BRE Innovation Park at Ravenscraig and associated TSB-funded projects covering retrofit and post-occupancy evaluation. David also acts as the Operations Manager for Construction Scotland, who are the recognised industry organisation for the sector.

Craig McLaren is National Director of Royal Town Planning Institute Scotland. He took up this post in January 2011. RTPI Scotland aims to help to create great places for people through leading thinking on planning issues in Scotland; supporting its 2,200 members to have the skills they need; and brokering dialogue and action between those involved in planning. Prior to this, Craig set up and was Director of the Scottish Centre for Regeneration in Scottish Government/ Communities Scotland. Previous appointments include Chief Executive of the Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum (SURF), the independent network promoting best practice in regeneration, and Senior Planning Officer with the London Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Craig is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Institute of Economic Development and is an Academician of the Institute of Urbanism. He is also a Trustee of Built Environment Forum Scotland and of Resilient Scotland.

Sue Kearns heads the Renewables Routemap team at the Scottish Government which provides policy support to Ministers towards delivery of the 2020 renewables targets for electricity, heat, and community/local ownership.