Geobear is delighted to announce the appointment of Lord (Anthony) St John of Bletso as Chairman of the Advisory board.
The appointment demonstrates Geobear’s commitment to helping governments to reduce their infrastructure maintenance-related costs by providing innovative ground engineering solutions to minimise downtime during maintenance.
Politician, businessman and solicitor, Anthony St John is an Independent Non-Executive Director and a Crossbench Member of the House of Lords, as well as Lord-in-Waiting to HM Queen Elizabeth II. Having qualified as a lawyer in South Africa, Anthony St John spent over 30 years serving as a Director of many UK and internationally listed and unlisted companies. Emerging markets, infrastructure and fintech are Anthony’s primary area of expertise and he has worked closely with numerous political and business leaders and provided advice to the UK Government on a wide range of related issues.
Lord Anthony St. John says, “The Department of Transport predicts 55% growth in traffic levels by 2040 with congestion levels rising up to 85% in the same period, caused by urbanisation, climate change and population growth. A significant amount of congestion is caused by ongoing maintenance works; the ongoing road, rail and utilities maintenance will be under pressure like never before to enable this dramatic shift.
New ways of working will be a must, at the same time civil engineering and construction’s rate to embrace innovation has room for improvement. Solving the problem will require the collaboration of the whole supply chain. The delivery capacity of top tier contractors, the precision of leading engineers and architects, clear direction from end clients and agility and innovation from SMEs will be required. Geobear or any other SME with a value-adding innovation cannot contribute towards the desired transformation in large scale without industry collaboration. I am pleased to be associated with Geobear and believe they can make a difference in the way infrastructure maintenance is carried out.
Geobear CEO Otso Lahtinen says “It is a great honour to Geobear that Lord St.John chose to Chair our Advisory Board, he knows every angle of the government and has an unparalleled network on the private sector, which will really help us to deliver value for the whole value chain. ”