OUTSTANDING CATEGORY
Will Kennedy-Cooke
Managing Director (South East Asia)
WT Partnership
WT Partnership (S) Pte. Ltd.
18 Cross Street
#15-06 China Square Central
Singapore, 048423
Tel: +65 6533 0822
www.wtpartnership.asia
As Managing Director (South East Asia) of WT Partnership (WTP), Will oversees the roll-out of an enduring and responsible business expansion model for delivering consistent and reliable consultancy services across diverse jurisdictions in an evolving economic landscape.
WTP is an independent international provider of quantity surveying and construction cost management services. Founded in 1949 and with a presence in Asia since 1962, it is highly regarded in the region, with unprecedented growth in South East Asia (SEA) over the past decade.
A Chartered Surveyor, Will is from London, where he worked on landmark waterfront developments at London Bridge City and Chelsea Harbour, before joining WTP in Melbourne in 1989.
A Director since 1999, he is highly regarded for cost planning and management with the combination of both QS and commerce training providing expertise in all areas of feasibility, due diligence, whole of life costing and master planning.
Will helped pioneer WTP’s ‘whole of life’ facility management services and, prior to relocating to Asia, was involved with several high-profile projects. Construction of Melbourne’s Federation Square had already started when he assumed responsibility to Government to establish a realistic forecast end cost. Renegotiating a changing management contract arrangement, with construction time at large, reimbursable preliminaries and distressed sub-contractors, Will successfully reorganized the commercial framework and delivered the balance of this iconic civic project.
Since returning to focus on business in SEA in 2006, after an earlier period in Singapore in the 1990’s, he led WTP’s Financier’s Agent Services for Marina Bay Sands and remains involved with the delivery of large-scale mixeduse developments & infrastructure projects in several ASEAN locations.
WTP’s SEA business in 2006 comprised 40 staff in two offices. Today WTP employs more than 200 staff in SEA, in eight offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, working on projects across ASEAN. In that period revenue has increased by more than six times and will continue to grow with staff numbers targeted to be 300-plus in three to five years.
Subject to legal requirements, WTP preference is to own its subsidiaries, although licence arrangements have been used where foreign ownership is prohibited.
“We are very strategic in each location, harnessing home-grown talent with international expertise where and when required, but without losing sight of being a local business able to support local developers,” Will explains. “Our Singapore office is a hub that supports the region from which we can add management expertise to any location, together with sharing resources in specific sectors.
“We play to our strengths, work with the clients and partners that are a best fit with our people and are structuring a business that is built to last. We do not need or want to be the biggest, taking on all opportunities without regard to suitability. However, we do strive to be very good at what we do, to be an employer of equality and choice, to grow while retaining quality of service, to aspire for continuous improvement and to care for how our clients optimise value from their development investment decisions.
“Short to medium term, we grow from our core competences; continuing to do what we do well,” Will explains. “We’re careful about the model for each location, to the extent that when we do enter new markets or provide new services, we have the best chance to get it right. That’s about people and network. It’s about understanding the market and not overstretching our management capabilities. It’s about structuring a business that is sufficiently flexible, agile and mobile with capability to both deliver to the local market expectations, as well as the requirements of our international clients in different locations.”
Will’s model for growth has several stages that can either be replicated in, or adapted to suit, new locations as and when the opportunity arises.
“The future is really quite exciting, but we will only continue to be successful with the same careful execution of well-considered business plans, together with the further development of our most important asset - people.”
The foundation is to build a secure financial position with strong cashflow supporting the introduction of appropriate expertise and increased headcount. In Singapore this was initiated by focussing on high intensity fast-tracked projects, such as corporate fitout for banks, at a time when one of the country’s own objectives was to be a regional centre for financial services.
Thereafter, WTP started to work with other corporates and IT companies that in turn led to significant involvement in additional sectors such as data centres. By then, they also had the resource base to take on the much larger developments as per WTP’s profile of work elsewhere.
More recently, WTP has broadened their service offering to include facility management consulting and providing specific solutions for the infrastructure sector. Taken as a whole, WTP can now roll out our PPP/PFI/P3 services in SEA to compliment those that we already deliver to Australian, North American and UK markets.
“Most of our work traditionally has been in the core building sectors, but we now have a flourishing infrastructure division working on roads, rail, airports, renewable energies and utilities (including water, waste, power and district cooling), together with the full range of land reclamation and other large-scale infrastructure.
“Originally, we became involved with how to achieve certain pre-set sustainable standards in terms of capital expenditure, but we now examine the cost implications for the building’s whole operational life. Over the economic life, with an appropriate planned maintenance regime, are we better with this system or an alternative one? Establishing life-cycle models and completing whole-of-life studies are an emerging requirement, harnessing both our sustainability and FM consultancy expertise.
“We are also now becoming involved with reviews of how existing buildings can be improved in energy management to the long-term benefit of a building owner and the occupants. We aim to provide value in minimising waste through design, construction and operation. We look at how the total product can still be cost effective but become leaner without compromising time or safety while improving sustainability.”
WTP is certainly not standing still or resting on their laurels, with active initiatives to deliver tangible productivity gains, including:
• Improving the existing ways WTP delivers services and to transform the way staff work
• Developing IP that ensures WTPs leading market position
• Increasing partnerships with education providers and leading industry partners to enhance existing graduate programmes
• Exploring how WTP uses:
i. Augmented Reality
ii. Virtual Reality
iii. Robotics
iv. Artificial Intelligence
v. Machine Learning
• Developing software and interfaces to reduce time for delivery and increase quality of information
Will says “the future is really quite exciting, but we will only continue to be successful with the same careful execution of well-considered business plans, together with the further development of our most important asset - people.”
“Our people are our key asset and deserve much of the credit for the success of the business in SEA over the last 12 years.”
Will is a keen supporter of diversity in an organisation having seen first-hand the associated benefits from six years pro bono work as a Board Member for United World College of South East Asia and he leads the work that WTP is actively doing towards being a great place to work, together with providing continuing staff development, team building, social activities and philanthropy.
OUTSTANDING CATEGORY
Will Kennedy-Cooke
Managing Director (South East Asia)
As Managing Director (South East Asia) of WT Partnership (WTP), Will oversees the roll-out of an enduring and responsible business expansion model for delivering consistent and reliable consultancy services across diverse jurisdictions in an evolving economic landscape.
WTP is an independent international provider of quantity surveying and construction cost management services. Founded in 1949 and with a presence in Asia since 1962, it is highly regarded in the region, with unprecedented growth in South East Asia (SEA) over the past decade.
A Chartered Surveyor, Will is from London, where he worked on landmark waterfront developments at London Bridge City and Chelsea Harbour, before joining WTP in Melbourne in 1989.
A Director since 1999, he is highly regarded for cost planning and management with the combination of both QS and commerce training providing expertise in all areas of feasibility, due diligence, whole of life costing and master planning.
Will helped pioneer WTP’s ‘whole of life’ facility management services and, prior to relocating to Asia, was involved with several high-profile projects. Construction of Melbourne’s Federation Square had already started when he assumed responsibility to Government to establish a realistic forecast end cost. Renegotiating a changing management contract arrangement, with construction time at large, reimbursable preliminaries and distressed sub-contractors, Will successfully reorganized the commercial framework and delivered the balance of this iconic civic project.
Since returning to focus on business in SEA in 2006, after an earlier period in Singapore in the 1990’s, he led WTP’s Financier’s Agent Services for Marina Bay Sands and remains involved with the delivery of large-scale mixeduse developments & infrastructure projects in several ASEAN locations.
WTP’s SEA business in 2006 comprised 40 staff in two offices. Today WTP employs more than 200 staff in SEA, in eight offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, working on projects across ASEAN. In that period revenue has increased by more than six times and will continue to grow with staff numbers targeted to be 300-plus in three to five years.
Subject to legal requirements, WTP preference is to own its subsidiaries, although licence arrangements have been used where foreign ownership is prohibited.
“We are very strategic in each location, harnessing home-grown talent with international expertise where and when required, but without losing sight of being a local business able to support local developers,” Will explains. “Our Singapore office is a hub that supports the region from which we can add management expertise to any location, together with sharing resources in specific sectors.
“We play to our strengths, work with the clients and partners that are a best fit with our people and are structuring a business that is built to last. We do not need or want to be the biggest, taking on all opportunities without regard to suitability. However, we do strive to be very good at what we do, to be an employer of equality and choice, to grow while retaining quality of service, to aspire for continuous improvement and to care for how our clients optimise value from their development investment decisions.
“Short to medium term, we grow from our core competences; continuing to do what we do well,” Will explains. “We’re careful about the model for each location, to the extent that when we do enter new markets or provide new services, we have the best chance to get it right. That’s about people and network. It’s about understanding the market and not overstretching our management capabilities. It’s about structuring a business that is sufficiently flexible, agile and mobile with capability to both deliver to the local market expectations, as well as the requirements of our international clients in different locations.”
Will’s model for growth has several stages that can either be replicated in, or adapted to suit, new locations as and when the opportunity arises.
WT Partnership
WT Partnership (S) Pte. Ltd.
18 Cross Street
#15-06 China Square Central
Singapore, 048423
Tel: +65 6533 0822
www.wtpartnership.asia
“The future is really quite exciting, but we will only continue to be successful with the same careful execution of well-considered business plans, together with the further development of our most important asset - people.”
The foundation is to build a secure financial position with strong cashflow supporting the introduction of appropriate expertise and increased headcount. In Singapore this was initiated by focussing on high intensity fast-tracked projects, such as corporate fitout for banks, at a time when one of the country’s own objectives was to be a regional centre for financial services.
Thereafter, WTP started to work with other corporates and IT companies that in turn led to significant involvement in additional sectors such as data centres. By then, they also had the resource base to take on the much larger developments as per WTP’s profile of work elsewhere.
More recently, WTP has broadened their service offering to include facility management consulting and providing specific solutions for the infrastructure sector. Taken as a whole, WTP can now roll out our PPP/PFI/P3 services in SEA to compliment those that we already deliver to Australian, North American and UK markets.
“Most of our work traditionally has been in the core building sectors, but we now have a flourishing infrastructure division working on roads, rail, airports, renewable energies and utilities (including water, waste, power and district cooling), together with the full range of land reclamation and other large-scale infrastructure.
“Originally, we became involved with how to achieve certain pre-set sustainable standards in terms of capital expenditure, but we now examine the cost implications for the building’s whole operational life. Over the economic life, with an appropriate planned maintenance regime, are we better with this system or an alternative one? Establishing life-cycle models and completing whole-of-life studies are an emerging requirement, harnessing both our sustainability and FM consultancy expertise.
“We are also now becoming involved with reviews of how existing buildings can be improved in energy management to the long-term benefit of a building owner and the occupants. We aim to provide value in minimising waste through design, construction and operation. We look at how the total product can still be cost effective but become leaner without compromising time or safety while improving sustainability.”
WTP is certainly not standing still or resting on their laurels, with active initiatives to deliver tangible productivity gains, including:
• Improving the existing ways WTP delivers services and to transform the way staff work
• Developing IP that ensures WTPs leading market position
• Increasing partnerships with education providers and leading industry partners to enhance existing graduate programmes
• Exploring how WTP uses:
i. Augmented Reality
ii. Virtual Reality
iii. Robotics
iv. Artificial Intelligence
v. Machine Learning
• Developing software and interfaces to reduce time for delivery and increase quality of information
Will says “the future is really quite exciting, but we will only continue to be successful with the same careful execution of well-considered business plans, together with the further development of our most important asset - people.”
“Our people are our key asset and deserve much of the credit for the success of the business in SEA over the last 12 years.”
Will is a keen supporter of diversity in an organisation having seen first-hand the associated benefits from six years pro bono work as a Board Member for United World College of South East Asia and he leads the work that WTP is actively doing towards being a great place to work, together with providing continuing staff development, team building, social activities and philanthropy.