Waterman appoints new Air Quality Lead

Published 9th November 2022

Iarla’s appointment is part of our strategic growth plans in this area, responding to intensifying public and private sector efforts to address the built environment’s impacts on the climate emergency.

Iarla joins us from the UK Government’s Office for AI where he led on international relations and applications of AI to climate change. He brings over twenty years’ professional experience leading teams in the environment, transport, and governmental sectors, with particular emphasis on air quality.

An atmospheric scientist by training, his consulting experience has included air pollution model development, air pollution modelling and forecasting at local, national and international scale, together with public communications on air pollution.

His extensive portfolio includes leading the development of the world’s first personalised air pollution alert service for mobile phones in addition to developing Defra’s guidance on air quality for Directors of Public Health. As the first consultant to apply the webTAG appraisal framework to local air quality measures, his team established cost effective air quality measures for the eight central London Boroughs. More recently, Iarla has held a number of appointments in the public sector. This includes heading DfT’s Office for Science, where he led the Government Chief Scientific Advisers enquiry into VW’s stated car emissions. In addition, he helped set the air quality modelling frameworks used in appraisal of Heathrow Airport’s third runway and the UK’s NO2 plan, as well as work on modular construction and hybrid aviation. Finally, as Deputy Head of the UK government Office for AI, he led on international relations and applications of AI to climate change.

Andrew Ferguson, Waterman’s Managing Director for Infrastructure and Environment, commented: “I am delighted to welcome Iarla into our senior management team. His expertise in air quality will play a key role in helping Waterman and our clients deliver significant environmental improvements supporting the journey to Net Zero and climate resilience. His wealth of leadership experience will see Iarla continue the development of our UK-wide air quality team, and his extensive technical knowledge will add value and bring additional leadership to our current strategic initiatives in this area.”

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