John Welch Reflects on Four Years as NEC Users’ Group Chair in His Final Editorial

NEC’s many successes over the past four years are a credit to all of us.

 
John Welch, NEC Users’ Group Chair, reflects on NEC’s growth, successes, industry collaborations, and milestones over the past four years.

In my final editorial as NEC Users’ Group Chair, I wanted to reflect on what has happened during the four years I have been in the role. At a macro level, we had a global pandemic, which in turn resulted in worldwide supply chain shortages and steep inflation. In the UK, we saw three changes in prime minister, a new Labour government and the Procurement Act 2023, which was finally implemented in February 2025.

Despite the above factors, NEC has continued to perform successfully in many ways. We have hosted some brilliant conferences with great speakers from across the globe, such as Ricky Lau from the Hong Kong Development Bureau, Teck Thak Heng from Singapore Building and Construction Authority and Andrew Jackson from Hinckley Point C.

We have launched the new NEC Users’ Group app and hosted a new podcast series with some amazing guests, such as Mark Simister from Sydney Water and behavioural strategist Emma Langman-Maher.

New sectors and countries

We have increased the use of NEC contracts in new sectors like manufacturing and facilities management as well as in new countries like Australia, Belgium and Peru, with more to come. We turned 25 and hosted our first Martin Barnes Awards ceremony, celebrating successes in many categories – including sustainability. We also saw our first NEC Users’ Group President, Rudi Klein, step down after leading us for 17 years.

When I accepted the position of NEC Users’ Group Chair, my objectives for the role were to increase NECs growth and usage globally as well as in different sectors like manufacturing, and we have certainly done that. A personal objective of mine has been to increase collaboration between all parties to resolve conflict jointly, increase efficiency and ensure projects and programmes succeed as a result.

I am really pleased to have been able to help facilitate the partnership between NEC and the Association of Consultant Architects (ACA) to work together using Framework Alliance Contract 1 (FAC-1) with NEC contracts. This goes a long way to show how serious we are about breaking down barriers and working together for the benefit of our industry.

Great NEC people

All that has been achieved is a result of some great people. I would like to personally thank Rekha Thawrani, Cheryl Waterman, Crystal Fan, Sheetal Mistry and Peter Higgins, plus all the backroom staff at NEC who undertake amazing work to help us succeed and deliver. It would be remiss of me not to thank my fantastic team at Crown Commercial Service for supporting me in this role. Lastly, I would like to thank you, the users, who contribute, engage, collaborate, feedback and continue to use NEC and hopefully gain great insight and experience by doing so. Thank you.

There is still plenty more to do to maintain and improve our industry, so I am delighted to welcome Tracey Tulloch, deputy commercial director at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Tracey will take over the role of NEC Users’ Group Chair from March 2025 and I confident she will do a brilliant job. That is it from me, I will remain close to NEC and look forward to see it going from strength to strength.