The Industry Funding committee advises the CITB Board on the implementation of CITB's Industry Funding strategy and policy and gives the Board assurance that the investment funds are applied effectively.

Purpose

The Industry Funding Committee will advise the Board on future direction of the strategy, including reform of the Grants Scheme based on their assessment of the impact of funding decisions and to provide independent review of the funding decisions in regard to exception cases requested by the CITB Executive Management Team.

Membership

Current committee members (as at September 2026) are:

Stephen Gray - Committee Chair and CITB Trustee

Holly Price - CITB Trustee

Sophie Seddon - CITB Trustee

Hannah O’Sullivan - Head of Learning and Development, VolkerWessels

Hannah is the Head of Learning and Development for VolkerWessels UK, a leading multidisciplinary contractor that delivers innovative engineering solutions across the civil engineering and construction sectors including rail, highways, airport, marine, energy, water, and environmental infrastructure. Along with her team, Hannah works to offer opportunities for everyone to develop to their own potential - for both their own benefit, and that of the company.

Hannah is a passionate, innovative and dynamic learning and talent strategist, with a track record of adding bottom line value to a business. She is a strategic thinker who uses a broad network of peers to challenge the norm.

Over her 26-year career, across a number of different industries, Hannah has honed her skills as a performance management specialist, with proven returns on investment, and she has also delivered culture change programmes which include people development strategies and implementation.

Hannah is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD) and is particularly involved in external peer development - especially in coaching and mentoring. Currently Chair of the CECA Training & Development committee, and a member of the Build UK CITB Reform group.

Clare Smithson – Head of Human Resources, Lovell Partnerships

Clare Smithson is the Head of Human Resources at Lovell Partnerships. Lovell is a partnerships housing expert and leading provider of innovative residential construction and regeneration developments. They build homes for sale and rent, sourcing land and investing in communities alongside, local authorities, housing associations and other partners. Clare looks after around 1200 highly skilled people, who are employed directly, at every stage of the project, from architects and designers to building trades and customer care teams. Lovell take on a wide range of trainees and apprenticeships each year and offer the opportunity to move within the organisation so people can progress within the company. All of this is supported by a high degree of investment in training.

Clare has a wealth of human resource management expertise, most recently as HR Director at the Weston Group and previously having spent 7 years as Group Head of HR at Hill Group, where her work helped the business win a Housebuilder Award for their partnership with Women into Construction. Clare has also worked in senior human resource roles at DS Smith plc, NEST Corporation and BT plc.

Clare has a keen interest in the attraction and retention of talent in the housebuilding industry and in particular investing in the skills and careers of the next generation.

Meetings

2026 Meetings

• 29 January

• 30 April

• 30 July

• 22 October