The fourth annual Middle East Consultant Awards took place on 10 December, returning once again to the Ritz Carlton, JBR. 21 awards were up for grabs with Parsons and Hill International scooping up the two biggest awards of the evening – Multi-Discipline Consulting Company of the Year and Project of the Year respectively.
This year’s event set new benchmarks, welcoming over 300 professionals from across the GCC and receiving a total of 170 nominations across the individual, company and project categories.
The judges for this year’s event were Aly Diab from BK Gulf, Eileen Hill from CIOB, Roxana Allen from Al Futtaim Construction, Robert Marinelli from Airolink and Suhail Arfath from Autodesk.
The 2018 Middle East Consultant Awards were supported by: gold sponsors Pace and Hill International; silver sponsors Airolink, CKR Consulting Engineers, DeSimone, Hadley Group, Kingspan, LACASA, National Engineering Bureau, Rawlplug and Seed Engineering Consultants. WSP was the social media partner of the event, while AECOM and Faithful+Gould were networking Sponsors. The event was also supported by CIOB and RICS.
“We’re finishing 2018 with the most successful edition of the Middle East Consultant awards yet. No less than 170 nominations were submitted, and on the night, we welcomed more than 300 regional construction professionals. The testimonials for this event and all our 2018 calendar events has been very positive, signifying that the industry truly values and identifies with our events,” said Raz Islam, managing director of CPI Trade Media.
Parsons, Hill International and LACASA Architects & Engineering Consultant claimed the top three awards of the evening, Multi-Discipline Consulting Company of the Year, Project of the Year and Architecture Company of the Year respectively.
AECOM was also honored on the night, picking up an Editor’s Choice award on the basis of technical demonstrations and interactions with Middle East Consultant over the course of the year. This category was not open to submissions and was not voted on by the judging panel.
“We’ve noticed an appreciable increase in submission quality at the Middle East Consultant and Big Project Middle East awards this year, which is proof that the industry values the recognition they gain from winning at our award ceremonies. I offer my congratulations to the winners as well as to those that were shortlisted across our categories. My thanks also go to our valued partners and sponsors without which hosting events such as this would not be possible,” added Islam.
WSP hosted a selfie competition on Twitter during the award ceremony, which asked guests to tweet a creative selfie along with the hashtag #MECAwards2018, for the chance to win a brand-new Apple iPhone XS. AESG was announced as the winner of the smartphone ahead of the close of the night.
The full list of winners and short-listed nominees are:
ME Consultant’s Rising Star of the Year
- Eva Ayyoub – AECOM
- Katherine Bruce – AESG (Winner)
- Roby Oomen – WME
Women in Construction Professional of the Year
- Louise Collins – WME
- Mina Al Jubori – Aurecon (Winner)
- Suad Khawaja – Parsons
Executive of the Year
- Hamed Zaghw – AECOM
- Joe Tabet – JT+Partners (Winner)
- Saeed Al Abbar – AESG
Gender Diversity Champion of the Year
- CKR Consulting Engineers (Winner)
- JT+Partners
- Woods Bagot
Workplace of the Year
- CKR Consulting Engineers
- JT+Partners (Winner)
Start-Up of the Year
- Innertech Global
- Quantum Cost Management (Winner)
Specialist Consulting Company of the Year
- Cavendish Maxwell
- CKR IT Consulting
- Koltay Facades (Winner)
Technology Champion of the Year
- Mott MacDonald
- Parsons (Winner)
- WME
Smart Project of the Year
- Grand Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel & Residences Emirates Pearl – DeSimone Consulting Engineers
- UAE Pavilion, Expo 2020 (Winner)
Sustainable Consultancy of the Year
- AESG (Winner)
- BuroHappold Engineering
Sustainable Project of the Year
- Ducab Headquarters – Ramboll
- Swiss International Scientific School of Dubai – WME (Winner)
- The Block – Desert Ink
Editor’s Choice Award: Industry Innovator of the Year
- AECOM
Cost Consulting Company of the Year
- C-Quest
- Currie & Brown
- Omnium International (Winner)
Urban Design & Landscaping Company of the Year
- InSite
- Place Dynamix
- WAHO Landscape Architects (Winner)
Lighting Design Consultancy of the Year
- dpa lighting consultants
- Nulty
- Studio Lumen Lighting Design and Consultancy (Winner)
Project Management Company of the Year
- Aspect Project Management
- Faithful+Gould (Winner)
- Hill International
Structural Engineering Company of the Year
- DeSimone Consulting Engineers
- Kirby Building Systems
- Ramboll (Winner)
MEP Engineering Company of the Year
- Black & White Engineering (Winner)
- CKR Consulting Engineers
- WME
Architectural Company of the Year
- Killa Design
- LACASA Architects & Engineering Consultants (Winner)
- Pace
Project of the Year
- Hampton by Hilton – JT+Partners
- Louvre Abu Dhabi – BuroHappold Engineering
- Muscat International Airport – Hill International (Winner)
Multi-Discipline Consulting Company of the Year
- AECOM
- Parsons (Winner)
- WSP