Our team
Meet our founder & chair
Paddy Forker
Founder & Chair, Forkers
From rural Ireland to the bright lights of the West Midlands, Paddy Forker’s journey is a testament to hard work and dedication. Following several years working as a specialist tunnelling subcontractor, he set up P Forker Contractors Ltd in 1972 and with his ‘can do’ approach soon established a reputation for problem solving and innovation.
Meet our leadership team
Ian was appointed Joint Managing Director in September 2022, with responsibility for overseeing all commercial and construction aspects of the business at Forkers.
He joined Forkers in 1996 as a Surveyor, following earlier roles with Tarmac Construction and Mowlem Civil Engineering. Ian studied Civil Engineering Surveying at Trent Polytechnic and has progressed through a number of senior positions, including Framework Manager and Commercial Director.
In addition to his executive responsibilities, Ian represents Forkers as a board member of CECA Midlands and is an Associate Member of CICES.
When I joined the family business in 1986 at its then Head Office in Sutton Coldfield there were only four other people based there. In my role as office junior, I quickly learned the ropes about how a business operates, providing support for accounts, payroll, HR, admin, estimating, buying, surveying and plant hire, and not forgetting the most important role of the office junior at the time – making a good cup of tea!
I have been fortunate to work with some fantastic mentors and have also experienced the transition from using manual systems to the technologically advanced world we live in today. Now, as company secretary and director, my role is varied and I oversee the accounts/payroll/HR/IT and admin departments within the business, as well as keeping up to speed with what is going on in the business on a daily basis.
Mark has over 40 years’ experience in the building and civil engineering industry. He started in 1985 at RM Douglas Group (now Tilbury Douglas) on its quantity surveyor career training programme and completed his qualifications ONC, HNC and BSc in Quantity Surveying. He joined Forkers in 1993 as quantity surveyor and progressed to a commercial manager.
Through the 2000s, Mark was instrumental in leading Forkers into new business sectors working for blue chip clients like National Highways via the SMP Alliance, BMW, Honda, Porsche, Red Bull F1, Mercedes GP, RES UK & Ireland and developers such as Bellway Homes and Homes England. This enabled the civils division to expand into other sectors, become a medium-sized contractor, and deliver key projects valued up to £5m and with some individual schemes exceeding £20m.
He joined the board of directors in 2015 and was appointed joint managing director in 2022. His responsibilities include client relationship management, overseeing and supporting continued growth, stability, and achieving success through existing and new frameworks/clients.
My journey with Forkers started back in 1994, working as an assistant to the buyer, in our small, but busy head office. Invariably, there was much multi-tasking, and this variety of roles and duties provided the ideal introduction and springboard to life in the construction industry.
Through the late 90’s I progressed to Buyer and by 2001 I was ready to embark on the next chapter of my career as a site-based trainee engineer. Whilst juggling part-time university over the next 3 years, I gained invaluable experience on site with time-served industry mentors and continued my progression to site manager and then project manager, overseeing a variety of complex and challenging projects.
In 2013, the calling to my current role with our Ground Engineering division came, resulting in me taking up the role of contracts manager. Now a director, I am still very much involved with the operational day-to-day running of our Ground Engineering division, and very much enjoy the challenges and satisfaction that the role brings.
My first taste of working at Forkers came through school work experience in 1990, followed by working on site as a general labourer. Being on site gave me a good understanding of what it’s like working at the sharp end on a project, so when I took up subsequent roles at Head Office I was able to appreciate the importance of the efficiency required from Head Office to provide support to our teams working on site.
I head up the Forkers Buying Department and am responsible for all material procurement, as well as being a Board Director for P Forker Plant Hire Ltd.
I have spent many happy years at Forkers, and it’s fair to say every day offers a different challenge! These challenges are met with the help of the fantastic and loyal team we have here at Forkers.
My association with Forkers goes back to the early 1980’s when the company was carrying out the projects at Bilston Steelworks. I was a young teenager at that time and I would frequently accompany my father in his low loaders to move equipment around the vast site. I worked for my father’s company for many years as a HGV driver and mechanic/plant fitter and when given the opportunity to join Forkers as Transport Manager in 2003 I didn’t hesitate.
I was appointed Director for P Forker Plant Hire Ltd in 2015.
I am responsible for the management of our Plant Yard in West Bromwich, as well as managing our HGV fleet, vehicles and maintenance and repair of our plant.
Dave Cartwright
Construction Director
A chartered civil engineer, Dave has over 30 years’ experience in the civil engineering industry. Dave leads the civils construction division delivering a diverse portfolio of work predominantly within frameworks for Severn Trent Water, United Utilities, Environment Agency, Canal & River Trust and National Highways.
Dave takes the lead on safety, health, environment and wellbeing ensuring we capture valuable lessons to learn and share across the business and framework communities we engage with.
I graduated from Sheffield Polytechnic in 1994 with a degree in Civil Engineering. Subsequently an opportunity arose and I joined Forkers on 31st July 1995 as a trainee Quantity Surveyor. I was immediately deployed to Hurst Hill, Sedgley where we were undertaking a large scale limestone mine infilling job. This gave me an immediate ‘hands-on’ site opportunity undertaking some engineering roles and an insight into the methods and techniques used for this interesting work. I have worked on both ‘sides’ of the company, civils and ground engineering but predominantly and, now solely, the latter. I gained my QS degree in 2000 and continued in this role, then moving on to Commercial Manager and later Director in 2015, now dealing with all aspects of the commercial life of a contractor. Over the course of my 30+ years with Forkers I have been involved with over 3500 projects, completed up and down the length and breadth of Great Britain.
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