Pick Everard

Matt Hall

Collaborative Delivery Champion

Matt Hall, National Director of Project Management, brings experience spanning construction, consultancy and project management, shaped by years on construction sites and across the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand. His approach combines practical judgment, close attention to clients and stakeholders, trust in his teams, and lessons drawn from experience across different project environments.

Seeing the Project beyond the Build

Working across different countries has taught me that there is seldom a single formula for tackling a contract. Since the languages and cultures differ, the way people communicate changes, and so do the contractual arrangements that hold the work together. Each time I come across a new client or think of a new opportunity, I make an effort to find out what is underlying the brief. What is the building intended for? Who is it meant to serve? What does it need to achieve? Those questions matter because a project is never just a structure rising from a field.

It is easy to reduce construction to that simple image, bricks being laid one after another, for a client who has commissioned the work. Behind them is a workplace that needs to function, a hospital programme that needs to support a service, a school extension that needs to serve its pupils, or a heritage project carrying a different set of expectations.

Understanding that purpose gives me a clearer sense of what the project is really trying to achieve and, in turn, what decisions will help it get there.

My experience has given me two ways of seeing that process. Construction sites taught me what delivery looks like at ground level. Consultancy gave me the distance to see how those decisions connect with clients, stakeholders and wider objectives. I bring both perspectives to every project. I can step back, grasp the broader context, and then return to the practical actions needed to keep delivery firmly on course.

Creating One Team and One Goal

As National Director of Project Management, balancing commercial performance, project quality, client expectations and team development is a constant juggle. I have never seen that balance as something one person can manage alone. I have a leadership team, a director group working closely with me, and junior resources supporting quality control and management. My role is to coordinate and orchestrate that capability rather than try to carry every part of the job myself.

It begins with setting a clear vision and making sure the team understands the end goal. Once that direction is clear, the people around me know what needs to be done and can work together to deliver it. That is the basis of my one team, one goal approach. Everyone does not need to perform the same role, but everyone needs to understand the bigger picture.

I have come to see leadership as helping other people build their careers. One of the most rewarding parts of leading a project management discipline is watching people develop from apprentices and graduates into experienced professionals. Recently, a graduate left a consultancy to move into construction. Retaining good people matters to a business, but career development is bigger than retention. Moving to the contractor side gave that individual the chance to see another part of the industry and follow a path similar to mine, seeing both sides of the fence. Seeing that progression, and knowing I played a part in it, matters to me.

Project delivery depends on the same understanding. Good outcomes come when people understand their roles and how those roles connect. The more complex the project, the more important that shared understanding becomes. My responsibility is to set the direction, create clarity and trust the team around me to carry the work forward, knowing what we are trying to achieve together.

Projects That Leave a Legacy

I have stayed involved in project delivery since I was brought up in the construction industry and always enjoy seeing things built. There is satisfaction in leaving a legacy of buildings that assist stakeholders in carrying out their services. In my role at Pick Everard, my teams across the UK deliver projects from small school extensions to major hospital programmes and massive heritage projects. The scale varies, but the desire to leave something useful behind is still a major motivation for me.

One project that continues to stand out is the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre at Mt Cook, New Zealand. I worked on it early in my career as a construction manager. We built it through a bitter New Zealand winter in the mountains, thawing out concrete trucks so construction could continue. We all lived at Mt Cook for the best part of a year, and the job demanded teamwork. Subconsultants, contractors, glaziers, tilers and every trade person involved had to stay on the same page about what we needed to get done through that harsh winter. I was part of the management team that led that fight over the line. I returned a couple of years ago on holiday, and seeing the building still there and looking good 20 years later was pretty cool.

Projects can serve people long after teams deliver them, and that permanence is one reason I remain closely tethered to the industry.

The biggest lesson I carry from that experience, and from my career more broadly, is to zoom out. Before I say something, send an email or respond to an issue, I try to step back and take in the full picture, considering everyone affected by the decision, why it matters and how it serves what I am trying to achieve. I need to understand the consequences for all the stakeholders around me and make sure the decision supports the outcome I want to achieve.

When projects become complicated, it is easy to focus only on the immediate issue. I try to step back and understand the larger impact before making decisions. For me, that is what it means to zoom out: recognize the people around the project, understand its purpose and consider how a decision will affect the outcome before moving forward.