Mike Forster

Director, Forster Associates

Mike has extensive senior executive experience in the Airports and Aviation sector, and in leading large construction projects. Mike now leads a consultancy advising organisations with large infrastructure developments on their strategy, master planning and project briefing. Recent commissions have included evaluating the emerging design for a large Middle East Airport, working with companies which supply the aviation sector and reviewing the effectiveness of project delivery within a construction company.

Career details and achievements

Skill detail, track record and services provided

Prior to setting up Forster Associates Mike was the Infrastructure and Sustainability Director BAA Airports Limited and a member of the BAA Executive Committee, and his primary responsibility was the development of the Master plan and future investment plans for Heathrow, including the third runway at Heathrow. This included not only the airport itself but the surface access to it and the airspace requirements for expansion. It also required the development of appropriate mitigations for the impacts of expansion, a business case that met the needs of all stakeholders and significant stakeholder management at political and regional level .

Mike’s previous role on the Executive Committee was the Strategy and Regulation Director for the BAA Group reporting to the Chief Executive.  His achievements included setting up the strategic framework for the business, creating a set of 20 KPI’s around which the business was, and still is, run
and reviewing and restructuring governance across the business

Mike also brings to the projects he undertakes experience drawn from roles such as:

•    Strategy and Development Director - BAA Heathrow (which included the development of the Heathrow Transformation Strategy for rebuilding or renovating all of Heathrow following the opening of Terminal 5, setting out and gaining agreement to a sequence of airline moves which moved 54 airlines between terminals, and developing the Heathrow East concept for completely rebuilding the east half of the airport to match Terminal 5)
•    T5 Design and Development Director -  BAA Heathrow (which included the development of the brief and detailed requirements for the operational processes, the design response and all engineering and IT systems, and driving value for money to ensure the project met its budget)
.    Group Development and Design Director – BAA Group ( which included the responsibility of ensuring the proposed developments across all BAA’s airports, including smaller airports such as Southampton and Aberdeen, were fit for purpose )
Mike is also a qualified architect and before BAA was a partner in a large London practice. Significant buildings from his architectural career include the GSK Medicines Research Centre at Stevenage and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre at Hinxton, Cambridge which was responsible for mapping a portion of the human genome.