CIOB Board of Trustees

James Wates has worked in the construction industry all his life, starting on site as a schoolboy during holidays.  He read Estate Management at college after which he joined Wates Construction as a management trainee, progressing through line management to running sites before taking on a General Manager role in 1989. Since then he has progressed through the company to Deputy Chairman of the main Group Board.

Outside the Group, he is involved with several industry bodies.  He is President of the Chartered Institute of Building, Chairman of ConstructionSkills, Chairman of the UK Contractors Group, a Vice Chairman of the CBI Construction Council, a Board Member of the British Council for Offices and a Commissioner for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.  In addition, he is a Trustee of the BRE (Building Research Establishment) Trust, a Governor of Emanuel School, Vice Chairman of Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for the Disabled and he also sits on the London Regional Council of The Prince’s Trust.    Finally, he is a patron of the Wates  Family Enterprise Trust.