John Tebbit is deputy chief executive of the Construction Products Association

John Tebbit

John Tebbit trained as a civil engineer with British Railways and gained membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers when working with Southern Water Authority, both in pre-privatisation days, so he is a bit older than he looks.

After a short time with a heavy civil and marine contractor, he discovered the joys of a five day week, working for Celcon, a manufacturer of aircrete blocks.

Many years later after time in business development and other non-technical areas, he left and after a spell as a consultant, joined the Construction Products Association in 2001.

He now gets involved in anything that isn’t economics or politics. The main areas are building regulations, zero carbon, sustainability and recently BIM.

He is a member of the government’s Building Regulations Advisory Committee and a non-executive director of the Zero Carbon Hub and Robust Details. Some four years ago he and his wife built their own house – a mid-life crisis, Grand Designs-style, white box with lots of windows but without Kevin McCloud. It still entailed plenty of angst and budget problems though.