Meet Glider’s leadership team

In 2016, Nick co-founded Glider after over 10 years at board-level in one of the UK’s leading commissioning management consultancies.

Having previously managed the commissioning and handover of large complex buildings all over the world, Nick channelled his management and technical expertise into hacking business growth. With his no-nonsense and common-sense approach (to most things in life…), Nick is passionate about developing disruptive technology and thrives on creating solutions for difficult problems.

With specialist knowledge of software design and engineering for smart buildings and infrastructure projects within the digital built environment, Nick expertly heads a team of designers and developers who produce world-leading software solutions.

Nick firmly believes business leaders have a responsibility to put people ahead of profits and that a little humility goes a long way in an organisation. Nick is committed to remaining a learner, to think and reflect on how to be a better human being all round.

In October 2023, Nick was recognised as ‘One to Watch’ in The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders Programme 2023.

As Glider co-founder and Technical Director, Steve’s career to date has spanned 17 years, throughout which he has developed software across multiple sectors, from telecoms to hospitality, ending up quite by accident in construction technology!

Steve’s construction industry journey began in 2014, when a six-month contract to fix an iOS app took on a life of its own.

A life-long software engineer, Steve first learned to program on the BBC micro at eight years old, before moving on to PC programming shortly after. Today, he leads the software development team at Glider and sometimes even has time to contribute code himself.

As a skilled business professional with experience in business operations, risk management, compliance and leadership, Henry is responsible for the day-to-day operations across the Glider organisation.

Before joining Glider, Henry led the Quality, Risk and Compliance team at a top 50 law firm. As an ISO Accredited Lead Auditor, he also ran his own consultancy, which provided ISO compliant systems for several construction industry clients in Information Security, Quality Management and Environmental. The work completed by Henry has transformed many underperforming companies.

As well as his professional experience, Henry is a keen golfer and cyclist, providing the draft for our Managing Director as required!

Henry is also married with one energetic 2-year-old.

John entered the industry via a traditional architectural education, but his career to date has been anything but traditional.

Working as an architect across a variety of public and private projects with a focus on modern methods of construction and green technologies, John became a well-known figure on the North East construction industry scene, and typically cycled to meetings to not undermine his green design philosophy.

John discovered Building Information Model (BIM) whilst working for a local authority which changed his career path. Reading PAS1192-2 cover-to-cover on the bus to work and reading it again on the way home, it was clear this new way of working was a leap forward and as it was supported by a new government mandate it genuinely felt like a turning point.

Based on the implementation of the emerging BIM standards, John added software product management and product ownership certification qualifications to his skillset and embarked on a rapid development into one of the world’s leading thinkers in the field of Common Data Environments (CDE), whilst working for an international construction software leader.

Alongside the design and delivery of an industry leading OpenBIM technology platform, John was working with contractors, clients and government departments across Europe and the USA to deploy BIM processes and technologies.

Combining his passion for modernising the industry through digitisation, a deep knowledge of BIM standards and processes, and pragmatic and engaging communication style, John is one of the most recognisable BIM evangelists who has been invited to speak across the globe.

John’s profile brought him to the attention of Glider who saw his skills and experience as an ideal fit to lead the gliderbim® product direction as well as being a strong voice promoting the Glider methodologies for information management.

Delivering talks on behalf of the UK BIM Alliance as well as Glider, John uses his platform to be a conscientious disruptor, with a positive and challenging stance to increase BIM adoption and improve information management standards across the industry.

Outside of work, John is a family man with a collection of vintage road bikes from legendary North East frame builder Denton Cycles. John also keeps chickens as they make great pets and the eggs are fantastic.