Our leadership team
Our business is led by a group of dedicated industry professionals who bring together a wide range of skills and experience that provide clients with the peace of mind that their projects are in safe hands.
John Cox
Managing Director
John Cox
Position: Managing Director
John joined the business in 2021, having previously been managing director of VolkerFitzpatrick’s rail and infrastructure division since 2014. Prior to this, John worked for VolkerRail as projects director from 2012-2014. John graduated as a civil engineer from Queen’s University, Belfast in 1987. Having previously worked for Laing O'Rourke for ten years, John, a chartered member of the Institution of Civil Engineers has a wealth of experience on a number of complex and multi-disciplinary infrastructure projects in marine, rail, energy, utilities and airports.
Gavin Hancock
Commercial Director
Gavin Hancock
Position: Commercial Director
Gavin joined VolkerStevin in 2018 initially as a senior commercial manager before taking on the role as commercial director for the Environment and Water business. He started his career with Birse as a trainee quantity surveyor before moving to Alfred McAlpine (who became Carillion) holding positions from quantity surveyor right through to senior commercial manager.
In nearly 30 years of working in construction, Gavin has gained extensive commercial and risk management experience, he has worked with major clients such as Scottish Water, Highways England, Sellafield and the Ministry of Defence, delivering high profile projects and frameworks, with values in excess of £250m in value.
Gavin’s experience of working on large value complex individual projects and frameworks, enables him to diligently manage large scale teams of people, negotiate and agree work packages and deliver in line with both the clients and company values.
Nicola O’Keeffe
Finance Director
Nicola O’Keeffe
Position: Finance Director
Nicola is a commercially focused financial director and a chartered accountant with extensive knowledge and experience of leading and transforming finance teams. She is an inspirational leader with experience in transformational change, system implementations, business improvement and mergers and acquisitions.
She began her career with Ernst & Young after securing a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Modern Languages and Accounting. Since then she has gained over 25 years of experience in financial management at major engineering companies operating across Europe in the nuclear, energy, oil, gas and civil engineering sectors.
Nicola is an honorary treasurer for the Nuclear Institute, responsible for financial review, governance and oversight.
Elaine Johnston
Pre-Contract Director
Elaine Johnston
Position: Pre-Contract Director
Elaine is a Chartered Civil Engineer with over 30 years’ experience working across the fields of marine, infrastructure, wastewater treatment, flood and coastal defence.
She joined VolkerStevin as a graduate engineer in 1990 and worked throughout the UK on multiple technically challenging design and construct projects to Project Manager level before moving into a Pre-Contract position and taking up the role of Pre-Contracts Director in 2013. She has spent periods overseas supporting other VolkerWessels businesses both in Canada and the Netherlands.
In her current role she leads very experienced and talented work winning and design teams and is responsible for successfully securing work across our VolkerStevin businesses throughout the UK.
Simon Barker
Divisional Director
Simon Barker
Position: Divisional Director
Jon Benton
Operations Director
Jon Benton
Position: Operations Director
Jon is an accomplished Chartered Civil Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. With over 25 years’ experience in the construction industry, he has gained the knowledge and management expertise to lead projects through ECI, design and construction phases. He has significant experience in multiple sectors including defence, energy, marine, earthworks and remediation.
Jon is passionate about engineering and developing the next generation of talent, having served as CECA southwest chairman for two years, a contractor representative on the ICE’s southwest regional committee, an industrial advisory committee member for the University of Plymouth, and an industrial liaison panel member for the University of Bath.
Ian Cussons
Operations Director
Ian Cussons
Position: Operations Director
With over 30 years of civil engineering experience, including 22 years with VolkerStevin, Ian stands as a testament to effective leadership in infrastructure development. He has overseen the delivery of major infrastructure projects, working on prominent sites such as Port of Felixstowe, the River Thames in central London, and the Royal Navy’s Glen Mallan Northern Ammunition Jetty in Scotland.
Ian is renowned for his collaborative leadership style and problem-solving skills, reflected in his excellent relationships with key team members, he moulds high-performing and aligned teams that consistently leads to seamless project delivery.
James Worth
Contracts Director
James Worth
Position: Contracts Director
Graduating from the University of Plymouth in 2002 with B-Eng (Hons) Civil and Coastal Engineering, James has worked for major civil engineering contractors and in sub contract environments across a wide range of specialisms. Leading major highways and rail schemes, water treatment projects, hydro generation, EHV and coastal defence schemes.
He is a Chartered Civil Engineer (MICE) as well as a member of the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation (CIHT).
James joined VolkerStevin in 2015 and as Contracts Director, he is leading and developing VolkerStevin’s UK energy business, including our Extra-High Voltage cable / civils projects and our specialist business unit Volker Trenchless Solutions, providing complex HDD solutions to the UK market.