Denise Bower

Denise Bower serves as Visiting Professor at the School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, and Executive Director of the Major Projects Association (MPA), specializing in infrastructure advisory and complex project delivery. Her expertise centers on strategic infrastructure advisory, project/programme management, and procurement strategies, notably through the Infrastructure Procurement Routemap developed with IUK.

She holds a BEng in Civil Engineering and PhD in Project Management from UMIST. Her educational leadership includes developing competency frameworks for the Institution of Civil Engineers and teaching Advanced Project Management.

Research focuses on systemic approaches to infrastructure decision-making, resilient construction delivery, public sector client effectiveness, and intelligent asset management. Her work emphasizes socio-technical systems analysis for infrastructure initiation and procurement, particularly through the £3.5M iBuild project investigating future business models.

Awarded National Teaching Fellow status and Honorary Fellowship by the Association for Project Management, she contributes to sector advancement through these recognitions.

As Principal Investigator for the EPSRC/ESRC-funded iBuild project, she examines infrastructure business models while chairing the ICE Capacity Building Panel to shape civil engineering lifelong learning. Her industry engagement spans the Infrastructure Client Group and Construction Industry Strategy Advisory Council.

She directs the Major Projects Association to enhance project delivery through cross-sector knowledge sharing and serves on the Construction 2025 strategy development and Infrastructure State of the Nation Scorecard Steering Group, driving national infrastructure policy.