Landmark's "Risky Business" seminar

Landmark's "Risky Business" seminar

Landmark's "Risky Business" seminar

Landmark's Risky Business seminar has become an annual fixture and this year's event was held in September at the Institution of Civil Engineers. The event attracted some high profile speakers, including Dr John Murlis, Chief Scientist at the Environment Agency, who talked about, "Outcome driven priorities – linking corporate risk management to environmental knowledge".

The seminar is designed for leading practitioners and attracts participants, who are well qualified to keep the speakers up to the mark with topical and penetrating questions. John Waters, a director of ERM and chairman of the EIC's Contaminated Land Working Group, again chaired the seminar, which focused on "managing professional risks".

Professor Paul Syms of Sheffield Hallam University followed Dr Murlis, talking about "Building homes on used land, a nine-phase approach to redevelopment, with ten case studies". Professor Syms is unusual among academics in that his acceptance of a university chair crowned a long and successful career in the property industry.

Anthony Buonicore, CEO of Environmental Data Resources, and Christopher Roper, a founding director of Landmark Information Group, were both on the platform for a second year. The former talked about "Lessons learnt from phase 1 litigation in the US and how environmental consultants are managing the risk"; while the latter addressed, "The way recent national developments are moving the collection and management of environmental data to centre stage, and how this will impact all professionals involved in environmental risk management".

The field is completed by Michael Morrison from Nabarro Nathanson talking about "Brownfield site due diligence – legal best practice" and Kevin Deady, commercial manager, Property Division, Asda Properties, providing a "Property developer's perspective on environmental investigations".

Stuart Pearce, Landmark's sales and marketing director emphasised that the Risky Business seminars had succeeded because they are an ideal forum for information exchange and debate. He said:

Landmark is committed to best practice and the provision of quality information and we hope that this seminar will stimulate further debate among environmental professionals to reduce the risks that they are increasingly facing in their profession.