Keynote speakers

Prof. Emmanuel Adinyira

FOSHA; FGIOC; MGhIS; PET.IET(Gh); MISDS, BSc. (Kumasi); Cert.OHS-ICM(UK); PhD (Kumasi)
Professor of Construction Project Management

Department of Construction Technology and Management

Faculty of Built Environment

College of Art and Built Environment

Professor Emmanuel Adinyira is a distinguished academic and professional in the field of construction project management, currently serving as Dean of the Faculty of Built Environment (FBE) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana. His Faculty is one of the foremost Built Environment Faculties in Africa, hosting the Architecture, Construction Technology and Management, Planning and Land Economy departments, as well as a research wing - the Centre for Settlement Studies. Professor Adinyira served as the chairman of the local organising Committee for the 2024 Joint CIB Safety, Health, and Well-being in Construction (W099) and People in Construction (W123) International Conference, held at KNUST. He is a two-time fellow of the Brown International Advanced Research Institute in the USA and a Fellow of the Occupational Safety and Health Association, UK.

Dr Fred Sherratt MCIOB C.BuildE MCABE AMICE

Joint Coordinator of CIB W099 Safety, Health and Wellbeing in Construction

Founder Straight Talk Safety Ltd.

BIO: Dr Fred Sherratt is an internationally recognized, world-leading academic in the field of construction safety and the founder of Straight Talk Safety.  A Chartered Builder and a Chartered Building Engineer, she has over ten years’ experience working on UK construction jobsites, with over another ten working as an academic in UK Universities.  Her last role in the UK was as a Professor of Construction Sociology, and she moved to the US in 2022 to continue her work in the science of construction safety.  Fred is currently joint coordinator of the international CIB research commission W099 Worker Health, Safety and Wellbeing in Construction, and has presented her work to academic and industry audiences around the world.

Keynote Title: “It Gets Where Water Wouldn’t!”: How Technology is shaping Safety, Health and Wellbeing in Construction Research and Practice - and why we should care

Description: Technological solutions are now leading the drive to better protect workers from harm on our high-hazard jobsites, proffering remedies to problems that have surrounded the industry for decades.  Yet the hope, optimism and determinism driving this technological revolution may be misplaced, as unintended consequences are already beginning to emerge.  In this Keynote, Dr Sherratt unpacks the ways in which technology is shaping not only how we ‘do’ construction HSW management in the field, but also how we now research it, what that means for the validity, reliability and rigor of our every-growing body of knowledge – and why that really matters.

Dr Silvia Riva is an Associate Professor of Psychology at St Mary’s University, London, and a HCPC-registered clinical psychologist whose work investigates stress, emotional wellbeing and decision-making across diverse environments, including the construction and healthcare sectors.

A former Marie Curie Research Fellow (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015) at the University of Wolverhampton, Silvia led a project exploring how stress and personality influence wellbeing and decision-making within the construction industry. This work continues to underpin the development of interventions that enhance resilience, psychological safety and adaptive performance in high-pressure occupational settings. One example is the PROSPERH EU Horizon project, which aims to improve mental health in organisational environments—including the construction sector—through the use of innovative digital technologies.

Silvia’s wider academic portfolio integrates construction-related wellbeing with sustainability and human factors. She contributes to cross-sector initiatives such as the NHS R&D Forum Sustainability Working Group, which investigates the intersection of health, environmental demands and human behaviour. Her research places particular emphasis on how psychologically informed design and educational interventions can foster safer, greener and more emotionally supportive environments for workers and communities. 

She leads the Biopsychosocial Health & Wellbeing Cluster at St Mary’s University and trained at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, where she completed her BSc, MSc and PhD (Doctor Europaeus). 

To be updated