Speakers

Dr. Dejan Makovšek has almost 20 years of experience in investment planning/appraisal, major infrastructure procurement, and economic regulation in the transport sector and beyond. Prior to joining the OECD, Dejan worked as management consultant for KPMG, where was he was engaged in a number of projects involving the planning and financing of investments in infrastructure, forensic analysis of failed infrastructure projects and others. While working full time, he pursued and completed a PhD on systematic cost overruns in transport infrastructure and their causes. At the OECD, Dejan developed several major projects on infrastructure investment planning/ex-post analysis, contract renegotiations, cost reviews in infrastructure projects and others. He designed, led, and co-authored one of the largest international projects on the subject of procurement choices and outcomes, specifically on dealing with uncertainty in contracts. The project involved experts from UK, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, and 9 other countries. The project was finished in 2018, with 19 dedicated publications and a synthesis. Recently, Dejan designed and managed the first ever transport policy review of a country (Estonia). In a yearlong project, with a team of ten policy and transport-modelling experts, a deep-dive was performed into ten thematic areas, including transport sector organization, infrastructure planning, procurement, and funding. Dejan co-developed the OECD’s first evidence based method to inform procurement strategies in major projects (STEPS). Dejan also held invited lectures at Paris School of Economics, UCL in London, National Bureau of Economic Research in the US, World Bank, IMF, and many other government and international institutions.

Eime is a Social Value Strategist in real estate and urban planning. Her mission is to drive positive change for the sustainability of cities and places with a particular focus on social aspects, such as wellbeing, equity, social cohesion and cultural identity.

Through strategic advice and capacity building, Eime guides public and private sector organisations in developing and implementing a theory of change. This is underpinned by a unique set of expertise across architecture, urban planning, sociology and data analytics, as well as rich international consultancy and company management experience.

She has a track record of delivering projects through meaningful engagement with clients, adapting tailored approaches in response to their needs.

Well rounded communications and engagement specialist with a background in the public and private sectors campaigns. With over 17 years working mainly on construction and regeneration, I have built up an extensive experience advising on high profile, complex projects, communicating the social, economic and environmental benefits of investments, to those projects key stakeholders. Currently working as a Social Value Advisor at the Strategic Investment Board to ensure public procurement contracts identifies and maximises the opportunities for individuals, communities and businesses across Northern Ireland through the Social Value policy.

Projects worked on:
Weavers Cross – Belfast - Regeneration
Belfast Transport Hub – Belfast – Construction/Infrastructure
Elephant Park – London – Construction/Regeneration
2015 General Election – London – Constitutional Change – Voter Registration
Scottish Independence Referendum – London – Constitutional Change – Voter Registration
Maze Long-Kesh – Lisburn - Regeneration
Strule Educational Campus – Omagh – Construction/Regeneration
Peace Bridge – Derry/L’derry – Construction/Regeneration
Ebrington Barracks – Derry/L’derry - Regeneration
Victoria Square – Belfast – Construction/Regeneration

Erik Bichard is co-founder of RealWorth, a consultancy that helps organisations identify, maximise, measure and communicate the societal value of buildings, places and programmes.

Since RealWorth was formed Erik has worked on a variety of significant regeneration projects for The Earls Court Development Company, U+I, Everton FC, and Mount Anvil. He has also worked on innovative policy projects including those for Liverpool Combined Authority (Spatial Development Strategy) and Transport for London (Sustainable Development Framework).
Erik’s varied career started as an Environmental Planner with Cheshire County Council and then moved to sustainable development consultancies including Entec and ERM. For 10 years he was Executive Director of the Co-operative Bank inspired UK National Centre for Business & Sustainability and Sustainability Northwest.

Erik spent another 10 years as Professor of Regeneration and Sustainable Development at the University of Salford’s School of the Built Environment where he led research for the Environment Agency and later on the valuation of social value in built environment project including a key report for the RICS Research Trust.

He has contributed to newspapers, radio and television programmes on issues concerning sustainability, and has written many articles, book chapters and two books including ‘Positively Responsible’, and ‘The Coming of Age of the Green Community’.
Erik is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and a Fellow of the RSA. He was an original member of the UK Sustainable Development Panel and serves on the Advisory Council of Social Value UK and the Methodology Committee of Social Value International. He is also a non-Executive Director and Trustee of the social enterprise FRC Group.

For more information, please visit www.realworth.org

Anne Davies is Professor of Law and Public Policy and a Fellow of Brasenose College. She studied at Oxford, completing the BA (winning the Gibbs and Martin Wronker Prizes) and the D.Phil. She was a Prize Fellow at All Souls College from 1995 to 2001, and the Garrick Fellow and Tutor in Law at Brasenose College from 2001 to 2015. From 2015-2020 she was Dean of the Oxford Law Faculty.

Professor Davies is the author of five books and numerous articles in the fields of public law and labour law. In public law, she has a particular interest in government contracts. Her D.Phil. thesis examined the phenomenon of contractualisation in the UK National Health Service from a public law perspective. She developed this research into a book entitled Accountability: A Public Law Analysis of Government by Contract which was published by Oxford University Press in 2001. Her book The Public Law of Government Contracts, a wider examination of public procurement and public/private partnership contracts from a public law perspective, was published by OUP in 2008. She continues to write about government contracts and public service delivery more generally, and chairs the Oxford POGO Club for the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford.