Speakers
James Brierley
Business Management
James Brierley is Founder and Managing Director of Rose System Scaffolding, which he set up 2017. He leads the company’s strategic direction, supported by a strong management team overseeing day-to-day operations. Rose is an award-winning company recognised for delivering safe, reliable and innovative scaffolding solutions across a wide range of sectors.
Having started his career in the early 1990s, James brings extensive hands-on industry experience, progressing from practical site roles to business leadership. He also holds an MBA, which helped equip him with the tools and knowledge to grow a business now employing 100 full-time staff. As an entrepreneur and industry advocate, James has built a strong reputation for combining commercial insight with a deep understanding of workforce challenges, compliance, and operational delivery.
Lee Marley is Founder & Chief Executive of Lee Marley Group. Lee began his working life as a bricklaying apprentice, completing his training at North Devon College before setting out to build something of his own. By his early twenties he was already running a small team, and at 24 he founded Lee Marley Brickwork, today known as Lee Marley Group, one of the UK's largest integrated masonry and scaffold companies.
Over almost three decades, Lee has grown the business into a specialist contractor of genuine scale, integrating brickwork, scaffolding, stonework and façade systems into a single service model. The company employs more than 1,200 people, including over 100 apprentices, and delivers projects across London, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Lee has always believed that how you build a company matters as much as what you build. He is candid about the realities of operating at this scale: the decisions nobody prepares you for, the lessons learned the hard way, and the importance of investing in people at every level.