Meet the new Land Condition Early Careers Network Steering Group

Nicola Dawson

Nicola is a Senior Consultant at E3P with over six years of experience in the geoenvironmental sector. After graduating with a BSc (Hons) in Geography, she has developed a broad technical skillset with a focus on managing and delivering ground investigations, risk assessments, and remediation projects across residential, commercial, energy, and infrastructure developments. Her work spans from greenfield assessments to the complex remediation of contaminated brownfield sites, often involving close collaboration with regulators, local authorities, and clients. She is passionate about supporting early-career professionals through mentoring and is working towards Chartership with the IES. With additional training in project management, risk assessment, and ground gas, she is committed to sharing knowledge, raising standards, and fostering an inclusive, supportive industry. 

Rohan Gardner

Rohan is a dedicated Geoenvironmental Consultant who strives to deliver a positive impact to his projects, clients, and the wider contaminated land community. He completed a master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Bath which included a 12-month industrial placement with a pharmaceutical company. Rohan then joined Arup in 2019 and has spent the last six years working in the Land Quality and Contamination team in London.  

He has worked on various multi-disciplinary projects in the UK and Europe across the infrastructure, energy, aviation, residential and commercial sectors. Has expertise in assessing sites for due diligence purposes and for potential redevelopment and has gained experience across various stages of contamination assessment, including desk-based studies, site investigation, detailed risk assessment, and verification. Rohan also has experience in materials management and environmental, social and governance due diligence. More recently he has enjoyed the challenge of PFAS risk assessment and undertaking detailed analysis of PFAS profiles at sites with contaminated groundwater and surface water. Rohan looks forward to joining the Early Careers Group and wider Land Condition Community where he hopes to collaborate with industry peers to continue developing his skills and support other early career professionals.  

Annie Harding

Annie has been working in the land contamination and remediation sector for 7 years. She originally completed a geography degree, followed by a master’s in environmental consultancy before beginning her career as a geo-environmental consultant. Over the course of her career, Annie has been involved in a range of land quality projects including large scale earthworks remediation projects, site conceptualisation and risk assessment, and ground investigation projects for school redevelopment schemes. Annie is currently working as a Senior Geoenvironmental Consultant at Arcadis and is involved in a number of exciting land quality projects within the nuclear industry.  

She is looking forward to joining Land Condition Early Careers Network Steering Group and having a chance to empower the next generation of consultants in the land condition sector and help early career professional connect to resources, networks, and knowledge that can support their growth. 

James Kellett

James is a Graduate Engineer with Card Geotechnics Limited (CGL).  In his role, based in CGL’s London office, James has gained hands-on experience in a range of projects. His work spans both geoenvironmental and geotechnical disciplines, and he gets to enjoy a mix of complex ground investigations and interpretative reporting. Currently, Jame’s work leans more geoenvironmental, and he is involved in lots of remediation projects, ground investigations on contaminated land, human health assessments, and waste assessments. It is his goal to eventually become a Chartered Environmentalist through the Institute of Environmental Sciences. Before joining CGL, James was a student at Imperial College London, where he studied an Integrated Masters in Geology. James absolutely loved his time at Imperial, and it instilled a love for the industry, and sustainable practices. In his spare time, James enjoys playing in orchestras, and got to chair the Imperial College Wind Band whilst at university. 

As an existing Associate Member of the Institute of Environmental Sciences, James is excited to take on a more active role in the Land Condition Community. He is sympathetic to the evolving expectations placed on new professionals, and hopes to bring fresh ideas for technical workshops, communication initiatives, and mentoring schemes that reflect the needs of today’s graduates and young professionals. 

Alexis McCauley Pearl

Alexis is a Project Manager at CL:AIRE specialising in the creation, expansion, and completion of sustainable land management projects, particularly as they relate to the Definition of Waste: Development Industry Code of Practice (DoW CoP). Recently, she coauthored the first joint communiqué of the International Soil Reuse Forum and began delivering training courses on behalf of CL:AIRE. In addition to routine project management activities, Alexis steers international working groups, drafts technical documents, and assists in new training course development. She works to align the construction and development sector with current scientific good practice and regulatory standards. In doing so, she hopes to highlight the importance of good onsite material management and increase sustainable reuse of soils. Alexis holds an MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation from The London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in Environmental Policy from Colby College. She is an associate member of the IES and a graduate member of IEMA. In her free time, Alexis enjoys hiking, reading, learning French, and knitting.  

Siân Silcock

Siân is an Environmental Consultant specialising in contaminated land and environmental risk assessment, approaching 6 years of experience within the geo-environmental consultancy sector. She graduated with a BSc in Geography in 2018 (University of Sheffield) and an MSc in Volcanology & Geological Hazards in 2019 (Lancaster University). Throughout her career so far she has been involved with a broad range of projects, including fuel & gas sites, timber treatment facilities, landfills, and residential developments, undertaking a variety of assessments and investigations in order to support the clients’ needs. Siân has been associated with the IES since 2021 and is currently working towards her application for Chartered Scientist, and looks forward to playing a more active role in supporting other early careers professionals within the Land Condition Community. 

Sarah Harris, Chair

Sarah is a Lead Specialist Advisor for Hydrogeology for Natural Resources Wales, and previously spent 8 years within remediation consultancy and contracting for a large environmental and engineering consultancy. She is a specialist in Controlled Water risk assessment, and is currently working alongside consultants and contractors in the nuclear and brownfield regeneration sectors. She is a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) with the IES, and recently worked within the SoBRA working group to deliver the guidance on how to implement the Climate Change within Controlled Waters risk assessment, which won two awards in the 2023 Brownfield Awards. She has a passion for helping the development of early careers professionals, and has led the RemSoc Early Career Practitioners sub-group for the Remediation Society (RemSoc) since its inception in 2017. She is looking forward to bringing her experience from this to the IES Land Condition Community in the role of Chair of the Early Career Network, and is excited to help re-establish and grow this group. 

 Leanne Carr, Vice Chair

Leanne is a Senior Geo-environmental Consultant within the London Decommissioning and Restoration team at Worley Consulting, and has over 9 years’ experience working within the contaminated land field. During her career she has worked with various sectors including rail, commercial and residential, and has experienced a range of challenging sites, from large scale regeneration projects on infilled docklands to gasworks, landfills and petrol stations. Leanne became a Chartered Scientist through the IES in November 2023 and is a Registered Risk Assessor with SoBRA (human health and controlled waters), and she is hoping her experiences as a female engineer within the industry can help those starting out in their careers.

 Olivia Jackson

Olivia has been working in the industry for just over eight years for both consultancy and remediation contracting firms. She is now a remediation manager and focuses on the design and build of brownfield developments. 

We also would like to say a big thank you and fond farewell to Jessica Ho and Hannah Taylor who will be stepping down from the ECN at the end of their terms in November. They have been valued members of the Land Condition ECN and we would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contributions and wish them all the best for their future endeavours.