McAdam Design was founded in 1963 by Fred McAdam, a prolific engineer who established the practice on projects such as dam building in Africa, alongside growing a portfolio of work in Northern Ireland.
Since those early days, the company has grown through several changes of ownership and office locations and substantial increases in staff numbers. The latest rebirth sees existing McAdam Design Directors take over the reins and rebrand the company as McAdam. Martin Hare, John Findlay, Fergus Kerr, Neal Kerr and Stephen Harding are all experienced, highly qualified and passionate construction professionals with the commitment and vision to steer the company through the current Brexit and Covid-19 challenges and onwards to a bright future.
“We recognise that the legacy of amazing and iconic projects across Northern Ireland and further afield, exist because of the talents and drive of over 400 previous and current McAdam Design employees,” said Martin Hare, Managing Director.
“Indeed, a wider breadth of service offerings have been developed over the past six decades, helping to establish the company as one of the largest independent multi-disciplinary practices owned and located in Northern Ireland. This is one of the reasons we have dropped Design from our branding.
“We all owe a debt to those who have gone before us,” admitted Martin, “for the relationships developed with key clients that have helped establish us as mainstays on a number of public sector frameworks and provided us with a corporate CV that enables us to pre-qualify for a huge range of opportunities.”
Over the past 24 months, despite the impacts of a global pandemic and Brexit, McAdam have continued to deliver high quality services to a wide range of existing clients. They have also established new clients in new sectors and in new regions, many of which will help maintain their current levels of turnover and staff and provide more opportunity for growth than is currently available within the Northern Ireland market.
Adjustment
Changes in ownership generally bring some form of organisational adjustment, but in reality the effects of Covid and Brexit have already challenged the new ownership group to review and re-evaluate some of the logistical aspects of their business and it is a credit to them, and moreover the support and dedication of their staff, that the company have adapted and weathered the initial storm of 2020 and survived with relatively few scars.
“It has highlighted how our management structure, size, systems and processes, whilst not perfect, were resilient enough to adapt to the challenges put in front of us last year,” said Martin.
The “disruption” caused by lockdowns has facilitated a rapid change and investment in the company’s IT systems and an ability to offer staff more flexibility in working methods.
Martin adds, “As we move forward into a new era for McAdam, we would like to thank all our staff and pay tribute to the way they have adapted during these unprecedented times. We value their hard work and dedication to the company and look forward to working with them to grow this great organisation to the benefit of us all.”
McAdam, 1c Montgomery House, 478 Castlereagh Road, Belfast, BT5 6BQ
T 028 9040 2000 – E: admin@mcadamdesign.co.uk
www.mcadamdesign.co.uk
