Career in focus: Lee Rowswell

As Group Director of GKR Scaffolding, Lee Rowswell has spent more than three decades shaping not only one of the UK’s most successful scaffolding businesses, but also influencing how the wider trade approaches safety, innovation and professionalism.

GKR Scaffolding was founded in 1993, operating from a modest yard in Gravesend with just two lorries. Rowswell took over the business from his father, Graham, with a clear focus on raising standards and proving what a specialist scaffolding contractor could deliver on complex, high profile projects.

Today, GKR is the largest independently owned scaffolding company in the UK, employing more than 350 people and delivering work across more than 50 live projects at any one time.

A large family business

Despite that growth, the business has retained a distinctly family feel. For Rowswell, this has never been accidental. In an industry where reputation is earned on site, not in the boardroom, maintaining close relationships with operatives, managers and clients alike has been central to how GKR operates.

That approach is reflected in the company’s strong levels of repeat business and long-standing client relationships. Trust, Rowswell believes, remains the foundation of successful scaffolding delivery, particularly in London’s complex and congested built environment, where access challenges are rarely straightforward.

Rowswell’s perspective is rooted firmly in personal experience. He began his career on the tools and understands first-hand the physical demands of scaffolding work. That early grounding has shaped his leadership style and his long-standing focus on health as well as safety: he knows how physically demanding scaffolding can be and he has constantly highlighted the need for more health focused initiatives in the industry, to put health on the same footing as safety. This belief has influenced many of GKR’s operational decisions.

While safety compliance has long been a given within the industry, Rowswell has consistently pushed for a broader view - one that recognises the cumulative impact of manual handling, fatigue and long-term musculoskeletal strain on scaffolders’ careers.

Innovation has played a major role in addressing these challenges. Under Rowswell’s leadership, GKR has developed and delivered bespoke scaffolding solutions on some of the UK’s most technically demanding projects. At Battersea Power Station, the company erected what was once eight linear miles of scaffold tube. At Canary Wharf, GKR delivered a complex cantilevered scaffold that proved to be the only viable access solution during the tender process.

Perhaps the most widely recognised innovation associated with Rowswell’s career came during work on The Shard. Faced with the risks associated with working at extreme height, GKR worked with developers to create the Elimin8 tethered scaffold fitting, allowing all components to be tethered when working at height.

Rowswell chose not to patent this product. Instead, it was shared across the industry so other contractors could benefit from the safety improvement. For many within the trade, this decision exemplified Rowswell’s wider approach: competitive on delivery, collaborative on safety.

The importance of training

Training and development have been another consistent focus. GKR introduced an award-winning virtual reality training platform designed to help operatives prepare psychologically for high-risk situations before encountering them on site.

The immersive system marked a shift away from traditional classroom-based training and towards experiential learning. This was followed by the launch of the GKR Academy, an internal accredited training programme aimed at upskilling project managers and operational leaders. Developed with a neurodiverse approach in mind, the academy reflects Rowswell’s openness about his own neurodiversity and his belief that the industry benefits from recognising different ways of thinking and learning.

More recently, GKR became the first scaffolding contractor to implement artificial intelligence backed monitoring to improve health and safety outcomes, partnering with Soter Analytics to address manual handling risks.

The technology provides real time insight into movement patterns, allowing early intervention to reduce musculoskeletal injuries across both yard and site operations.

The initiative has attracted attention from clients and regulators, with Rowswell taking an active role in sharing lessons learned, including hosting webinars alongside the Health and Safety Executive. For Rowswell, however, technology is only valuable if itdelivers real world benefits and genuinely adds value to his people and his business.

Beyond health and safety, Rowswell has also positioned GKR at the forefront of sustainability within the scaffolding sector. Anticipating the implications of the Paris Agreement, the business achieved net zero across Scope 1 and 2 emissions and signed up to the Science Based Targets initiative, with a defined roadmap to achieve net zero Scope 3 emissions by 2045, GKR was the first scaffolding contractor in Europe to make such a commitment.

Rowswell’s influence extends well beyond GKR. He has held senior roles within NASC, including four years as London and South East Regional Chair, and currently serves on the NASC Audit Committee. He regularly brings senior leaders together on major projects and is widely regarded as a go-to figure for advice on non-standard or technically challenging scaffolding schemes. Those who have worked alongside him point to his willingness to share knowledge and support others across the trade.

In a competitive sector, Rowswell has consistently argued that raising standards collectively is essential to maintaining the UK scaffolding industry’s global reputation.

Having navigated economic downturns, material shortages and the unprecedented challenges of Covid 19, Rowswell has led GKR through each period with consistency and long-term focus. The business has emerged stronger from each challenge, supported by loyal teams, trusted client relationships, and a reputation for delivering complex work safely and professionally.

For Rowswell, success is not measured solely by turnover or landmark projects. It is reflected in the careers built within the business, the safety improvements shared across the trade, and the professional standards he has helped embed within the industry.