Pete Curtis of Briggs & Forrester has been appointed President of the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) for 2025/26. In his inaugural address, he called on industry professionals to take personal responsibility for improving safety, sustainability, and compliance in the construction sector.
Speaking at the Oxo Tower in London, Curtis urged members to support the Association’s new Member Pledge, which commits companies to embed competence across their operations and encourage similar action throughout supply chains.
“When faced with something truly seismic, truly transformational – you have to break it down into manageable pieces,” he said. “For someone working in our industry, that means looking at what parts of a project or process they can influence.”
Curtis encouraged the sector to move beyond relying on government intervention and instead focus on practical actions, such as investing in training, improving digital capabilities, and ensuring competence across the workforce.
“We must ask ourselves: What training are we doing to address our skills shortages? Are we compliant? Is everyone who works for us competent to do the specific job for which we have appointed them? And can we prove it?” he asked.
With over 35 years’ experience at Briggs & Forrester Group, Curtis has a background in contract management, people development, and organisational performance. He currently serves as group services manager, reporting to the board.
A University of Northampton graduate and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Curtis has long advocated for the development of craft and technical engineers. He identified the industry’s ageing workforce and the decline in training provision as key risks to growth.
“Many training centres have stopped delivering building services courses due to historic low demand and a lack of qualified trainers and assessors,” he noted. “This is a fundamental problem that undermines any progress we make in promoting the sector to young people.”
Curtis plans to expand BESA’s ‘Skills Legacy’ programme during his presidential year. The initiative encourages experienced engineers to support apprenticeship delivery by sharing their expertise with training providers and students.
“So, by offering to share it with a whole new generation, more mature engineers will be making an enormous contribution to the advancement of our industry,” said Curtis. “I, personally, can’t think of anything more fitting for me to champion in my presidential year.”
