Andrew Payne

As one of the founding Directors Andrew has been instrumental in developing the company from being a traditional M&E Services designer to a highly technical consultancy offering integrated Building Physics, Passivhaus and building fabric performance led solutions, alongside innovative M&E solutions.

He has also understood the importance of the business remaining at the front of information technology based knowledge systems and CBG were early adopters of Quality Assurance, Business Support software systems, advanced thermal modelling and BIM.

Part of CBG’s success has been its people and culture in developing staff from graduates to ultimately becoming part of the senior management team. This is something many of our long-term clients have respected and in some cases assisted in.

Andrew is always keen to question the ‘normal’ approach to the design and delivery of projects and is currently working with our building physics team to consider how optimising the fabric design can greatly reduce the M&E loads and whole life cycle costs. He also believes that this knowledge can and should be developed across all sectors including transport.

What Andrew brings to clients is not only technical experience spanning over 35 years but a deep understanding of the importance of defining the project need, finding appropriate technical solutions, reducing complexity and removing risk to successfully deliver the project.

Graham Woodroofe

One of the founding directors of CBG, Graham is a Chartered engineer with over 33 years’ experience and has responsibility for large projects and their delivery across many of the sectors including multi residential, universities and education projects.

Graham’s experience includes schools, universities, student accommodation, multi residential, private residential, hotels, leisure facilities and historic listed buildings. The breadth of Graham’s experience means he know what works and what doesn’t. A champion of the use of BIM throughout all aspects of design development and pushes for full integrated design and modelling on projects. Each time his goal is to engineer services that integrate seamlessly into the architecture and similarly providing easy-to-use building services to create truly comfortable buildings. Graham believes that ultimately creating buildings are about people, they influence the way we behave and interact and producing a great building comes down to the individuals involved.

Leading the mechanical design and building physics/sustainability teams Graham has a keen desire for shaping environmental design including optimising building performance which includes the work on a series of sustainable building exemplars including the application of PassivHaus to large education buildings. A passion for passive design and understanding how buildings respond to their environment has been complemented by an interest in how people interact with the buildings that they occupy. Good design is about being absolutely appropriate to the client, the project and the wider environment.

With a similar keen interest in historic architecture, historic buildings and heritage assets Graham is able to apply experienced environmental design skills and practical knowledge of building services to implement designs that are both appropriate and are optimised for building conservation.

Also responsible for the Quality Assurance and Environmental Management Systems within CBG.

Nassif Bahou

One of the founding directors, Nassif is a Chartered Engineer with over 25 years’ experience.

He is responsible for complex and challenging projects. His expertise in building services originates from practical experience gained over the years leading on major projects across the various industry sectors both public and private.

Nassif dedicates his time to the development of the business specialising in modern design and contract management covering infrastructure, resilience, emergency services, energy efficiency and client focused solutions.

Working across healthcare, education, defence, industrial and housing sectors, he heads a number of successful frameworks maintaining a wide and varied client base. He is also the strategic leader for CBG’s Rail division, sharing his knowledge and expertise with the team whilst remaining very much ‘hands on’.

His positive attitude towards projects leads to successful completion of projects on time and within budget. He has a record number of repeat commissions and satisfied clients.

Bruce Kirk

Bruce worked and trained in professional theatre lighting for many years before becoming a theatre technician and lighting designer. Due to his expertise, he is a member of the technical panel of the Cathedral’s Fabric Commission for England, and the Historic Churches Committee for Westminster. In addition, he is a consultant advisor to three Diocesan Advisory Committees. He is also a Freeman of The City of London and a liveryman and member of the Court of the Worshipful Company of Lightmongers.

In the early 90’s Bruce formed Lighting Technology Projects, a systems integration company to work in the crossover market between theatre and architectural lighting. In March 2002, he formed Light Perceptions, an independent consultancy practice focusing on the specification and project management of lighting and associated control systems. In 2023, CBG Consultants acquired Light Perceptions and Bruce became part of the board.

His key project successes include project director for £6M of exhibition lighting and controls at the Millennium Dome, London. Due to his extensive experience in ecclesiastical and heritage, he was the project manager for the award-winning lighting scheme at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Chris Dicks

With over 20 years of experience in Electrical design and building services, Chris in his role as Associate Director leads a team of dedicated engineers.

His experience includes significant large projects across many sectors including Education, Schools, Commercial, Residential and Transport. Lighting design and electrical engineering are his interests and with a special expertise in heritage projects. He likes to engage collaboratively in building design, working alongside clients, architects, engineers and contractors. He challenges traditional approaches to design, in particular the ‘tick-box’ approach to applying standards and design guides to project design.

“Good lighting and good engineering means working with our clients to understand their needs, beyond basic standards compliance and meeting the cost plan. That means their needs are not just met for the building today or in a year’s time, but over the next 10, 20, 30 years. How will our building adapt to serve their future requirements? How do we balance the current need and budget with future flexibility, but avoid catering for speculative ‘what if’ scenarios?  My challenge is to engage our clients in these questions, to understand their priorities, and develop a better building for them”.

Chris is the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) Home Counties North West regional representative and a member of the SLL Council.

Ian Law

Ian is a Mechanical Engineer with over 30 years’ experience in the consultancy environment and leads the Mechanical team within the London office.

He has worked on a variety of projects from commercial Cat A/Cat B offices, hotels, banking, retail, and restaurants throughout the UK including numerous off-shore banking projects in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, along with many projects in Ireland.

As an Associate Director, he has a great understanding of practicality, co-ordination and buildability which makes him a valuable member of any design team. He has also a good working knowledge of electrical engineering, public health and vertical transportation.

Ian is a determined individual who is passionate and diligent about his projects. He has a very approachable, positive philosophy along with a helpful, hands on “can do attitude”.

Umar Azeer

Umar is an Electrical Design Engineer with over 15 years’ experience in the consultancy environment and heads up the Manchester office.

As an Associate, he has a great understanding of practicality and buildability which makes him a valuable member of any design team.

Umar has shown his skills as a great communicator who is able to understand client’s needs and work proactively to get results. He is popular with clients and has a helpful “can do attitude”.

He has worked on a variety of projects, including Retail, Education, Healthcare, Industrial and Public Sector Buildings. Umar strives to ensure deadlines are met while at the same time ensuring the quality and standard of work is adhered to.

He regularly attends meetings in order to identify the client’s needs to design fully compliant buildings. He is a driven individual who is passionate about his projects and his team.

Henry de Lloyd

Henry has been with CBG for over 12 years and has worked his way up to a Mechanical Principal Engineer, managing his own team.

Henry is highly motivated and strives to deliver engineering excellence within his designs, knowing attention to detail is critical to a successful project. He takes the time to understand the clients’ needs and Architect’s vision to integrate the services into the building. This ability gives him a good reputation amongst clients and other designers.

Henry has very good project experience in new build and refurbishments from a diverse project range including Education, Heritage, Accommodation, Transport and Healthcare. A specialist in listed buildings and heritage assets Henry has worked with many Oxford colleges and historic building trusts such as the National Trust.

Zahid Ashraf

Zahid has over 15 years’ experience and leads the Sustainability team; he has a hunger for innovative solutions which makes him a dynamic asset.

His technical abilities enable him to make valuable contributions in all areas of sustainable design, from low carbon consultancy through to dynamic thermal modelling and energy assessment.

Zahid’s competences as a Sustainability and Energy Engineer include Value Management, Co2 Emission Calculation, Overheating Calculation, Heat loss Calculation, Daylight Modelling and Solar Shading analysis.

Clients appreciate his enthusiasm and ability to always listen and fully understand their requirements. A confident and well-motivated individual, Zahid is a highly qualified Engineer, with the ability to organise work efficiently and meet tight deadlines.

Hernani Neto

Hernani is a Chartered Engineer with over 15 years of work experience in the built environment. With more than 10 years working on-site, he had the opportunity to work on various complex projects on different sectors undertaking active roles, such as MEP installer engineer, ironworker, welder, form worker, renewable energies installer and also machine and crane operator.

In 2012, Hernani moved to the consultancy side and since then, he worked in the design of acoustic systems, oil & gas rigs, FPSOs, building services for high residential buildings, transport infrastructure projects, data centres, in a long and extensive list of interesting projects.

He is passionate about energy efficient buildings and is always looking for cost-effective & sustainable solutions in order to provide the far best services to his clients.

Hernani has key project management and engineering design skills that allow him to plan and execute every project effectively, on time and on budget. He engages and communicates directly with clients to make them aware of critical decisions during project stages to obtain better control over projects.

In recent years, Hernani has developed a strong portfolio of rail projects for Network Rail, HS1 & TfL LUL, acting as CRE and CEM, taking responsibility for M&E & Sustainable services.