Scott is a Chartered Professional Engineer with over 30 years of experience in a wide range of highway engineering and management projects.

He has worked extensively with both public and private sector clients in Australia, United Kingdom, the Middle East, United States, Eastern & Southern Africa and Europe advising and implementing Best Practice asset management principles, processes and systems. His wider skills and experience also include strategic and business planning, road safety review, works programme management, procurement and contract management, organisational reviews and recommendations for change. He also specialises in Performance Based Contract development, implementation and training.

Scott’s recent years have been spent providing strategic asset management consultancy services to clients seeking greater return and value from their infrastructure assets, and has embraced the ISO55000 series asset management standards and to guide industry Best Practice. As an accredited Certified Asset Management Assessor (CAMA) Scott brings a strategic, business and operational view to infrastructure management organisations requiring better asset performance.

He also provides extensive training and tuition on the full range of asset management and procurement practices, incorporating strategic, tactical and operational aspects. Scott works closely with the International Road Federation (IRF) to provide support and training to roads agencies to improve asset management processes and systems, road safety design systems and contract implementation. Since mid-2016, he has completed training courses in Washington DC, Fiji, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Uganda, Mongolia, South Africa, Eswatini, Croatia, Dubai, Portugal, Nigeria and online courses through with a full training programme planned for 2025.

Scott’s experience and work preference has a strong bias to collaborative working and he specialises in advising clients on improving client – service provider interfaces. To anchor this partnership approach, the establishment and monitoring of effective design and delivery programmes underpinned by business performance measures, and alignment of operational and organisational objectives is a key skill.

He is currently providing consultancy and training services to clients based in Australia, United Kingdom, Central America, regions of Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific Region, including the development of asset management frameworks for national governments, local authorities, and supporting the delivery of strategic asset management services to the United Kingdom highways market as well as asset and network management contracts in the Middle East and Australia.

Cassandra, as co-owner of Essency, brings a broad range of experience and organisational consultancy skills to our organisation. Her work within private and public sector organisations in Australia and the United Kingdom allows her to bring a diverse understanding and view of organisational culture and behaviours, brought about through her varied roles in all levels of management. She is able to apply this experience and understanding in her current consultancy roles and is highly regarded by clients who have engaged her services.

She has developed a diverse expertise in organisational development and human resource management and applied this in roles working as an external consultant. She has undertaken several strategic and operational management positions during her working experience and can apply a practical, hands-on approach to providing improvement. She has worked with clients advising and managing communication and customer service challenges. Having worked within the Construction Industry for most of her professional life, she understands the challenges faced with providing effective and efficient stakeholder and customer communication in order to ensure smooth project delivery.

Cassandra’s key skills lie in her ability to understand and communicate with a wide range of people. She uses those skills to recognise what issues require resolution, and she works proactively towards seeking an appropriate way forward. She is a mentor to many individuals across several companies, and she provides strategic advice on business development issues and business improvement opportunities. Her long-serving role as a Governor of a local community primary school (The Beam Trust) demonstrates her commitment to strong values and leadership.

Danny has worked within the Local Government environment for over 40 years, mostly spent within the Merseyside and Cheshire region. Throughout his impressive working life Danny has amassed an extremely high level of skills and knowledge of how the local government sector works, having fulfilled front line operational roles through to senior strategic roles and eventually Directorships. His experience has seen him lead and facilitate large scale contract and organisational reviews and transformation programmes and he is highly regarded in the region for his strong personable relationships with elected members, Mayors and Senior Officers. Danny has been an active member of the regional authorities leading on Best Practice Asset Management & Procurement, having taken an active role implementing recommendations and guidance developed by HMEP, ADEPT, APSE, UKRLG and currently LCRIG in the North West.

During his extensive working experience Danny has developed excellent knowledge, in depth experience and skill application for major road construction and maintenance projects, providing strong leadership and guidance over these projects.

Danny has an excellent knowledge of local government legislation and policies, and has developed and deployed numerous term maintenance contracts and network performance contracts throughout his working life.

Danny’s experience and personal work preference has a strong bias to collaborative and partnership working and his knowledge of operational highways management practices places him in a strong position when engaging with the Supply Chain.

Danny joined Essency in November 2020 and has helped the company to grow significantly in that time. He has been influential in helping to build a solid team of diverse, knowledgeable and experienced Consultants who are able to provide an extensive range of professional services to our clients.

In her 40+ year career, Elaine has worked across both public and third sector organisations working over 20 years in Education in a Further Education College, 11 years as an Adminstration Manager for a National Social Care charity and latterly as a HR Project and Operations Manager within the NHS.
Although her roles have varied in this time, Elaine was always maintained and enjoyed a cohesive link between staff, managers and users of the services she has managed.
During her extensive work experience Elaine has developed excellent IT and communication skills, is proficient in team management and has a wide knowledge of HR Processes in particular within an NHS environment.
Elaine continued to study whilst working and as well as being a qualified NVQ Assessor, she gained higher level qualifications in Business Information Technology, Business Management and HR Management.
In 2024, having worked ful-time through-out her career, Elaine decided to have a little ‘downtime’ and relished the opportunity to help and support with her new grandchild. However, she still wanted to be part of the world of work and the flexible apporach as Business Support Manager with Essency, is allowing her the perfect work life balance. Elaine supports Scott and the team in a number tasks, but fundamentally, co-ordinates the Essency Training function working with the Essency trainers, our clients and the course delegates.

Fernando is a Chartered Engineer with extensive experience managing highly complex projects and working on road asset management schemes, with a strong background on the design and management of highways structures.

He has worked extensively with both public and private sector for clients in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England, advising and implementing Best Practice business principles and contracts, including strategic and business planning, programme management, asset and contract management, organisational reviews and recommendations for change. He specialises in major projects delivery management.

Fernando’s recent years have been spent providing strategic direction for the delivery of a highways improvement portfolio for a value of £500m. As a qualified engineer with large experience on all stages of project development, he brings a strategic, business and operational view to project management, helping organisations to achieve best value.

Fernando has an excellent knowledge of local government legislation and policies and has developed and deployed numerous programmes and projects throughout his working life, including developing GIS platforms for the management of works planning and delivery.

He also has experience in managing highway structures assets, including managing programmes and delivering inspection, assessment, design and construction supervision services.

Fernando’s experience and work preference has a strong bias to collaborative working and he specialises in assisting clients on improving client-supply chain relationship, developing robust and reliable supply chain through the implementation strong management principles. To support this collaborative approach, his knowledge of contract management and administration ensures effective management of commissions and value for money.

Fernando joined the Essency team in June 2022. As well as working on a number of projects for the organisation, he has recently been appointed as the Client Project Manager for a multimillion pound project to repair a listed and scheduled monument in the UK North West.

Steve is a chartered civil engineer with over 25 years post experience within the field of highways, active travel, traffic engineering, as well as geotechnics and environmental schemes. He is an Associate Director for Essency Consulting responsible for the delivery of a range of projects in the UK and Ireland, as well business development across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

At Project Director level he has previously led a design office for Amey Consulting in Liverpool delivering highway and professional services functions for a wide range of local authority clients across the region.

His experience covers a wide range of projects, including a number of award-winning Active Travel schemes in Liverpool. He has also worked on a number of large highway schemes in Northern Ireland including the £120m A4/A5 Highway Improvement scheme (Dungannon to Ballygawley), Belfast Rapid Transit, and tge A32 Cherrymount Link (Enniskillen) where he was the NEC project manager on site during construction.

He has considerable experience acting at Highways Technical Lead / Project Director level across a wide range of highway schemes as well as leading the design team and acting as main point of contact for clients. He has previously been a Supervising Civil Engineer for Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and undertaken the role of an External Examiner for the Civil Engineering undergraduate course at Liverpool John Moores University.

Kieran has worked within the Local Government environment for 40 years, most spent within the North Wales, Cheshire Counties and laterly in the private sector. Throughout his impressive working life Kieran has amassed an extremely high level of skills and knowledge of how the local government sector works, having fulfilled operational roles through to strategic senior management, eventually becoming the Highways Commissioner with Cheshire West and Chester Council.

His experience has seen him lead numerous teams (Client Statutory Obligations, Public Rights of Way (PROW), Flood Risk Management, Asset Management, Network Management (Utilities), Road Safety and Third-Party Claims Management. He has also led on numerous transformational reviews and service redesign to deliver efficiency savings and customer service improvements, by undertaking business process re-engineering and lean reviews particularly of the customer journey, customer interfaces and modernising workflows.

In addition, he has also acted as a critical friend to numerous Tier 1 and Tier 2 Term Services providers to ensure that their contract bids are as good as they can be.

He is highly regarded in the region for his strong personable relationships with elected members, and Senior Officers and was Lead Officer to the Local Highways Committee.

During his extensive working experience Kieran has developed excellent knowledge and skill application for road construction and maintenance projects, his senior levels providing strong leadership and guidance over these projects.

Kieran has an excellent knowledge of local government legislation and policies, and has developed and deployed numerous term maintenance contracts and network performance contracts throughout his working life.

Kieran’s experience and work preference has a strong bias to collaborative working and a “partnering approach” to deliver successful outcomes both for clients and service providers.

Stephen is an accomplished civil engineer and Project Manager with over 30 years’ experience in both the public and private sectors. Over the last 10 years, he has successfully delivered a range of high-profile, civil engineering schemes, including the Liverpool City Centre Connectivity Project worth over £50M, Birmingham Cycle Revolution worth £57M and more recently Project Gigabit - a £108M government backed investment for broadband rollout across Cumbria.

He is an experienced NEC PM and Principal Contractors PM and has managed a portfolio of prestigious, award winning major civil engineering schemes across Liverpool over a period of 4 years, including the high-profile demolition of Churchill Flyover in Liverpool City Centre in 2019/20, The Strand and Lime Street in 2020-2022.

He brings extensive and specialist knowledge to successfully deliver complex, time critical projects collaboratively and prides himself on developing relationships with clients, stakeholders, and delivery partners alike, including key supply chain suppliers, with a proactive, ‘can do’ approach applied to every project.

Recent Awards

Churchill Way Flyover Deconstruction
• ICE North West Civil Engineering Award 2020 Constructability
Lime Street
• CIHT North West Transportation Project of the Year Ward (2023 winner)
• Highways Awards Active Travel Scheme of the Year (winner 2023)
The Strand
• CIHT National Healthy Transport Award 2022 (winner)
• CIHT Creating Better Places Award 2022 (highly commended)
• CIHT Infrastructure Award 2022 (commended)
• CIHT North West Transportation Project of the Year Award 2023 (highly commended)

Luke Jones currently works as Admin Support at Essency, where he plays a key role in supporting managers with a wide range of administrative tasks. His responsibilities include managing invoices, processing timesheets, and ensuring the smooth running of day-to-day operations.

He holds a Computing degree from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), combining technical knowledge with practical experience. Since 2017, Luke has also been actively involved in voluntary work across several community initiatives. This includes helping to run the Burtonwood and Winwick Community Bus, as well as volunteering at the Changing Lives store, where he has supported stock control, managed eBay listings, assembled furniture, and assisted with warehouse operations and deliveries.