Rob Owen

Role: Planning and Preconstruction Services Director

Rob Owen has been a director of Mace since 2005 having joined the company in January 1997 to head up the planning function in the Manchester regional office. A key part of this role was to work with Manchester City Council as the strategic planning manager for the reconstruction of Manchester city centre following the IRA bomb in June 1996. By early 2000 the city centre had been re-opened to wide acclaim and Rob was asked to go to London to head up the planning function for the company in the UK and abroad.

Rob trained as a technical draughtsman and undertook a five year indentured apprenticeship with Babcock Power (formerly part of the British Steel Corporation). He then spent a couple of years in Saudi Arabia as a maintenance supervisor on a newly built PVC/VCM production plant.

On returning to the UK Rob went to work for his previous client at the Esso Fawley oil refinery for a year before joining Bovis Construction where he spent eight years working on projects in London such as Broadgate, Cannon Bridge and various projects around the UK for Railtrack before taking a position as senior planner in the head office. During this period Rob started an MSc in Construction IT which he continued after joining Mace. Rob has worked on some of the company's most prestigous projects including the RBS headquarters in Edinburgh, the London Bridge Shard, the 2012 Olympic Games and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. He has also provided independent expert advice to Crossrail (Tottenham Court Road), the Natural History Museum and various blue chip developers.