Best of the year: Top interviews from 2011

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In the course of last year, CW spoke to a range of contractors, consultants and other industry professionals from across the GCC. Here is a reminder of some of the most prominent interviews of last year

Miceál Sammon, founder and CEO, Sammon Group
For specialist school builder the Sammon Group, constructing educational infrastructure is simply part of its daily routine.

Having focused on this sector since the mid-1990s, the company, which is headquartered in Ireland, has developed a wealth of expertise in this industry and a unique capacity to advise education departments within governments.

Indeed, it was this expert knowledge and experience in the sector that put the Sammon Group in a good enough position to take advantage of Abu Dhabi’s Future School Building Programme.

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For founder and CEO Miceál Sammon, winning a third of the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) project (Phase 1), the equivalent of five main construction contracts and over 93,000m² worth of schools, was in fact one of the company’s biggest achievements to date.

“To some extent, our focus on school building has been our saviour during this downturn. In any country where they have an economic downturn, governments put money into the education and medical sectors.

“This is where we have won out – we have grown our business every year, including the last two years during the recession, because we concentrate primarily on educational and social infrastructure,” said Sammon.

“The Sammon Group is a great ambassador for Ireland within the UAE. It is encouraging to see it bringing its expertise to the region and collaborating successfully with ADEC to transform the vision of education standards in the UAE.”