MORE THAN
CONSTRUCTION COST MANAGEMENT
Our Team
Mark Stevens
BSC (Hons), FRICS
Managing Director
After graduating from the University of Reading in 1993, Mark’s career commenced at Gardiner & Theobald in London, where he primarily worked on prime residential projects for high-net-worth individuals. In addition, he provided very early cost advice on several large-scale mixed-use masterplans (including Paddington Basin and Broadgate). Following this, Mark then spent 15 years in Northampton and Bristol as a Partner of a mixed discipline practice, GSSArchitecture, where he specialised in the cost and contract management of projects in the education sector, including schools, colleges, and universities. Being a QS Partner in an architectural practice means he has a thorough understanding of the design process, and how early intervention by the QS can successfully manage costs.
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In 2013, he joined Gleeds in London, where he was a director in the residential team, delivering a diverse range of residential projects. These ranged in value from £10m to in excess of £1.1bn.
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He joined Ward Williams Associates in 2017 as a Partner leading the newly established Salisbury office, specialising in cost management and independent monitoring surveying for construction projects ranging in value from £100k to £150m.
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Having successfully built up two offices from a ‘standing start’ in both Bristol (GSS Architecture) and Salisbury (Ward Williams Associates), QSetc was launched in February 2023.
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Mark is an avid music buff and has an eclectic Vinyl and CD collection. He enjoys reading and you can follow his 'reads' on Good Reads. His other interests include gardening (especially vegetable growing), plants of all varieties (indoor and outdoor), cooking - especially curries using mixes from The Spicery. His tipple of choice is red wine and don't ever offer Mark cakes or biscuits - he's not a great 'sweet' eater, hence the trim waistline!
Mark is a keen advocate of 'giving something back' and his voluntary roles have included:
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BITC Prince of Wales Ambassador for the South West 2012 - 2014
Mark was elected to this role by the Prince of Wales in recognition of his work in Bristol supporting charitable and community organisations, as well as addressing the lack of professional services, work-based opportunities, for children from some of the less affluent areas of the City.
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Governor Devizes School 2012 – 2017
Mark was part of the Governing Body at Devizes and during his last two years chaired the premises committee, where he worked closely with the Bursar in successfully securing funding for replacing the outdated oil-fired boiler system with a modern gas alternative supplemented by an array of PV panels, in addition to a rolling window replacement project at the school.
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Trustee, EQUA Multi Academy Trust 2018 – 2019
Mark was a trustee for the EQUA MAT, which was established on the 1st April 2019 and includes Lavington School in addition to five primary schools based around Devizes in Wiltshire. Mark has a particular role looking at the improvement of the MAT’s estate, and how sustainable technologies could be embraced to reduce the heating bills at each of the schools.
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Vice Chair, Salisbury NDP Steering Group 2018 - 2021
Mark was elected to join the Steering Group for the emerging Salisbury Neighbourhood Development Plan, where he worked with other volunteers and the City Council in developing a plan for the future of Salisbury City.
Sarah Brogden
CIPD, RSA III Diploma
Director
First and foremost, as a 'Mum', a lot of Sarah's time has been spent supporting her children in their endeavours, whether at School, or now, in the workplace.
Sarah does her bit to support charities, whether it's popping in to browse and purchase items from the array of charity shops in Wiltshire, making direct donations to good causes and she has even picked up a paint brush and roller to help revitalise the walls in a local charity shop.
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Sarah's leisure time activities include dog walking, cooking, knitting, reading and swimming. As a keen swimmer, having swam at County level in her youth, she does her best to try and swim a mile-and-a-half Mondays to Fridays.
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Sarah spent many years Scuba diving as an Advanced PAADI scuba diver and was proud to call herself a "warm water diver"; there was no way she would dive in UK waters!
As a trained Silversmith, she spent 3 years producing silver and semi-precious stone jewellery pieces, something that she thoroughly enjoyed, despite a certain lack of natural design ability and in a competitive market.
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Sarah enjoys helping her friends with their own businesses, by providing logo designs, website content/design, and general ideas for growth.
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Sarah's tipple of choice, after a long day in the office is a G&T with a slice and squeeze of pink grapefruit!
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Being taken 'out of her comfort zone' is something Sarah is keen to embrace, moving forwards. With that in mind, she is heading off to Malawi in April 2024 on the Women's Partnership Challenge, run by Orbis Expeditions. She will be undertaking some fundraising to donate to the local school and/or Malawian business women.
Sarah commenced her career in London, working for the Burton Group and Ratners plc, specialising in Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. She then moved into Financial PR, working for Brunswick and Hudson Sandler, where she provided advice and support to a number of FTSE 100 companies, across several sectors, including house builders and private property developers.
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Sarah worked in Bristol at KPMG in the Transport Department at the time of the privatisation of the national railways, which saw her working 24-hour days at times!
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A move back to Wiltshire and a slightly slower pace of life, meant a new role working as an Administrator to support the running of a private estate and two farms (Dairy & Arable), alongside the provision of administrative services to a local Agronomist.
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A stint with a couple of Estate Agents, one an independent, and the other Strutt & Parker, saw Sarah provide marketing and administrative support for both. Sarah then set up her own administrative & marketing consultancy to provide support to small businesses in Wiltshire, spanning a 10 year period.
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For 8 years, Sarah ran her own successful pet care business, SnuffleWuffle, with a team of up to 25, providing a range of services to private clients in and around Wiltshire. Upon the launch of QSetc, Sarah felt that she could not continue to run this business alongside her work at QSetc, so took the sad decision to close the business, although she has facilitated the continuation of her team working for what are now SnuffleWuffle's ex-customers.