Rob Clifford

Rob Clifford has more than 25 years’ experience working within building services and has spent the last five at Wates Group, as the MEP Director for Residential, before being promoted into the national MEP Director role for Wates Construction.

He began his career as an electrical apprentice at Lorne Stewart, before quickly working his way up the ranks at engineering specialists NG Bailey, MJN Colston as regional MD for the North West, and Imtech Engineering as Projects Director for London, where he was responsible for overseeing operational delivery of numerous high profile projects in the capital.

Since joining Wates in 2015, Rob has established himself as a strong business leader, he has spearheaded the strategic growth of Wates Building Services (WBS) and has lead the Development of WBS into a market leading internal services solution for Wates Construction.

Rob has played a major role as a senior leader. Chairing the MEP Leadership Board, he is also a member of both the MD Construction Board and the Prism Strategic Leadership Board, as well as a key contributor to Wates’ sustainability steering group. Rob has a passion for driving performance and awareness around sustainability, and continually promotes innovation to reduce the impact of construction on the environment.

He brings an enhanced understanding of operational effectiveness techniques and has implemented various business improvement initiatives over recent years. These have seen MEP business performance improve consistently, and become seamlessly integrated into Wates’ overall Construction business. Most recently, Rob was selected to lead the Wates Group Construction team to deliver one of the business’ most ambitious projects to date – a major expansion at Royal London Hospital. Delivered in five weeks and under extreme conditions, this critical project was required to support the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rob’s new role will see him lead the internal MEP delivery group ‘Wates Integrated Construction Services’ (WICS) which will include Wates Building Services, SES Engineering Services and Prism Design and manufacturing services. Intelligently connecting up MEP capability from across our Construction Group will modernise our approach to building, while creating significant value to our customers, and Rob is determined to deliver this vision.