Anthony C EATON M.Q.S.i., I.C.I.O.B.  

CAREER HISTORY

Tony Eaton began his career in 1973 on a solid footing as an indentured trainee quantity surveyor with Willett Limited, part of the Trafalgar Group of companies. Throughout this time he worked on large housing developments, then as an assistant surveyor on low rise flats, mixed development housing, on to reinforced concrete town projects and high rise office blocks. In 1980, he was promoted to project surveyor on the refurbishment of a luxury hotel, followed by a commercial development project in St John's Wood and a reinforced concrete bank distribution centre with a vault.

In 1983 Tony was transferred to Trollope & Colls Management Limited. As a senior package surveyor, he worked on the £86 million new build reinforced concrete commercial development for Williams & Glynns (Royal Bank of Scotland) bank at the Angel, Islington. By March 1985, Tony was appointed Senior Project Surveyor on a £16 million 600 dealer-desk fit out on the Broadgate development.

Joining Balfour Beatty building in 1986, Tony headed up a team of three surveyors as senior project surveyor on a £36million management contract fitting out 300,000 square feet of offices for Merryll Lynch Europe. By 1988 he was promoted to Area/Managing Surveyor resident on a £120million seven storey office development known as ‘Five Acre Square’ heading up a team of ten surveyors. During this time, Tony honed his knowledge and expertise, particularly in the field of building contracts and contract law, but also in tendering and procurement, bonds and warranties, extensions of time and submission of loss and expense accounts. His final role for Balfour Beatty was Commercial Manager as part of commercial team on the £100million A1 Galleria project at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Following redundancy in the 1990’s recession, Tony made use of the opportunity to start up as a freelance/consultant QS working on a succession of projects for different companies, when in 1992, he got his first direct litigation experience, producing claim documents for inclusion in the ‘points of claim’ of an arbitration involving a dispute between a major main contractor and M & E subcontractor, successfully playing a significant part in the negotiated £1.5million settlement.

In 1993, Tony joined the Laing Management (LMK Joint Venture) team on the £750million Glaxo Research & Development Campus in Stevenage, Herts. His main achievements there include responding to major claims from a BMS controls contractor to a negotiated settlement, and; the successful recommendation and agreement of a £3.6million roofing and cladding account. During this time he made extensive use of computers, using spreadsheet software, data processing and data base programme for management accounting.

Proving his worth as a trustworthy freelance QS, Tony was appointed in 1996 by Heery International Limited as their Senior Commercial Manager, heading up the commercial team on a £56million construction management/design management baggage handling upgrade project, at Terminal 3, Heathrow Airport. He also became Heery’s ‘framework’ commercial champion.

In 1998, following the success of the T3 project, Heery commissioned Tony to run their £40 million new Multi Disciplinary Research Building project for Imperial College. He became responsible for the implementation of the Public Works Contracts Regulations 1991 procedures conforming to the OJEC (now OJEU) rules and regulations.

During the latter part of 1999, Tony agreed to become the group commercial director for the Alandale Group, a multi-discipline contractor with turnover in excess of £30 million per annum including general contracting, fitting out and logistics.  His achievements during this time included, inter alia; production of a new project control procedure for subcontract procurement and development of revised cost value reconciliation process. With a commercial management team of fifteen site surveyors and estimating department of three, Tony augmented the preparation, presentation and successful negotiation of all claims for contractual entitlement.

After the collapse of the Alandale Group in 2002, he returned to consultancy work and set up Eaton Consultants Limited. He won a commission with Ibex Interiors Limited on the JCT98 Olswang project in Holborn, London, generally assisting the site project team to set up commercial control procedures and systems. This was followed by a commission from Sir Robert McAlpine Limited on the refurbishment of a difficult Grade II listed building project in the Chancery area of London EC4.

In 2005, Tony was appointed senior consultant QS for SRM on their £175million O2 Arena project, (formerly the Millennium Dome), and became responsible for creating the agreed and utilised method of cost reporting and change management, and he set up the variation pricing procedure for SRM on this noteworthy design & build project.

August 2007, saw Chorus Group Ltd commission Tony to head up their 20 week programme £23million fit out project for Fortis Bank SA/NV as Commercial Manager. He was fully responsible for all aspects of the financial management of the project. In 2008, the commission was extended to head up the commercial section of the Group’s ‘Interiors’ division, developing the department and building the commercial team.

With the ‘credit crunch’ and subsequent recession biting, Tony drew on his wide experience and versatility to obtain an appointment to work for a specialist claims firm. Pontin Consulting engaged him to prepare loss & expense accounts with responsibility to produce and present documents and reports to adjudication standard. This led to further commissions on inter alia, the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery in Margate which involved the presentation of reports and analyses on two-stage tender packages, reports on value engineering savings with cost plan comparisons in a £6million High Court action dispute involving the client’s designer and Kent County Council.

Early in 2010, Tony was appointed to carry out claims work on the Syon Park Hilton Hotel in Brentford, providing advice and analysis on the revised programme for project completion, and the identification of changed production rates with consequent loss of productivity for recovery of loss & expense. Tony also drafted and presented contractual notices and applications for reimbursement of prolongation costs. The value of the M&E subcontract on this project was £7.5million.

Late 2010, first quarter of 2011 , a commission was gained to act as Commercial Manager for IOR Group Limited on the £12 million fitting out of the new European headquarters for the Russian energy giant; Gazprom Marketing & Trading at Regent’s Place, Marylebone. The four floors of Cat ‘B’ fit out were successfully completed in stages to allow the Client to move in as desired, with the final account completed and agreed with equal success.