Our Managing Director, David McGuire, has been working in the construction industry and as a management consultant for over thirty years in both client-side and contractor roles. Most recently David has been the Project Director on multi-million dollar civil projects for Defence, acted in senior Government roles on secondment and led the project teams of multiple construction projects in the education, retail and health sectors in Australia and internationally.

David has significant strengths in providing strategic and operational-level planning, risk management, feasibility studies, policy and training development and industrial relations advice to both government and private-sector clients related to all aspects of projects and team development. Recently David has worked with the Queensland Reconstruction Authority and other State authorities in planning for, responding to and managing recovery operations for major disaster events such as Tropical Cyclone Debbie. David also has extensive experience in working with Fire and Emergency Services in responding to and recovering from major bushfires over a thirty-year period.

David is a qualified training developer and instructor and has lectured at some of Australia’s leading training and management institutions. Further, David was the Project Director for Defence’s largest training continuum review in over forty years, resulting in a new ‘All-Corps Officer Training Continuum (ACOTC)’ for the Australian Army. The model has since been emulated by other services and defence forces around the world. David has also lectured at Bond University at most recently a QUT, where he delivers the ‘Fundamentals of Project Management’ Unit.

David is a graduate of the Australian Company Director’s Course and has served on the Boards of national project management companies, not-for-profit, charitable and professional certification bodies over the last fifteen years.

David established Gripfast in 2014 with Dr Annabel McGuire and they are now in their seventh year of operation.

David shares his time between the Queensland, NSW and ACT offices.

Annabel leads the research and development team at Gripfast. The team has had great success over recent years developing, project managing and reviewing research for both government, not-for-profit and private-sector clients both in Australia and internationally. The quality and importance of the research projects has been acknowledged through national and international awards as well as the loyalty of our return clientele. The nature of research and reviews conducted spans many disciplines including decision-making, veteran’s health, construction, high care accommodation, risk mitigation, stakeholder engagement and change management.

Most recently Annabel and her team have developed a guide to high care accommodation which is based on Gripfast’s extensive experience in managing the design, construction and maintenance of high care facilities for some of Australia’s leading not-for-profit organisations. The document is intended to provide a ‘best practice’ guide for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) recipients as well as service providers and developers, filling the gap between current NDIS guidelines and the specialised requirements of those with high-care needs. The team are currently working with industry personnel to put the ‘finishing touches’ on the document before it is released to the market.

Annabel and her team are currently providing change management and stakeholder engagement services to major tertiary education providers who are delivering new facilities across Australia as well as providing policy development support to Federal Government Departments. Her team provides the critical interface between the client, the stakeholders and the end users on all of Gripfast’s major projects across Australia.

Finally, Annabel’s team provide advice, development support and validation of community support programmes focused on recovery and building resilience after a crisis, such as natural disasters. The team draws on its experience with Defence, Federal Government departments and the Queensland Reconstruction Authority to identify practical and proven solutions to support government initiatives and to ensure that those that need support receive it in an appropriate, timely and cost-effective manner.

Annabel is an experienced leader and manager who understands the importance of building and developing a team. Further, she has demonstrated the ability to synthesise the goals and intent of an organisation’s senior leadership into outcomes and deliverables that are understood by all and achievable at the operational level. Her skills have been developed through both study and practical experience.