Thrive In Construction with Darren Evans

Ep. 83 Digital Twins & Resilient Leadership: Nathan Marsh on Infrastructure’s Future

• Darren Evans

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How do you lead teams, embrace technology, and deliver sustainable infrastructure in a rapidly changing world?

In this Thrive in Construction Podcast episode, Darren Evans talks to Nathan Marsh, Chief Digital Officer and a visionary leader in the infrastructure sector. From his early days in elite sport and military service to shaping major infrastructure projects, Nathan shares unique insights into resilient leadership, digital transformation, and purpose-driven careers.

Key Highlights:

Resilience & Leadership Lessons: Why winning, losing well, and optimism are essential traits for leading teams under pressure—lessons from the military and sport applied to business.

Digital Twins & Technology in Infrastructure: How digital twins, AI, and data governance are revolutionising construction by reducing risk, saving billions, and enabling sustainability at scale.

Purpose-Driven Infrastructure: Why infrastructure is more than a job—it’s shaping society’s future—and why young professionals should see it as a career with impact.

Faith & Values in Business: How personal values and belief systems can help leaders navigate uncertainty and build lasting success.

This episode is a must-listen for contractors, developers, engineers, policymakers, and tech innovators seeking to understand the future of construction and infrastructure.

If you want to see our other insightful podcasts, click here:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOHI_yaqB2U8KWbsfJDPCoYEfOh-TTnip

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Our Website: https://darren-evans.co.uk/

Links:
Nathan Marsh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nath-marsh-6320539/
Bentley Systems Website: https://www.bentley.com/
Bentley Systems LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bentley-systems/

#DigitalTwins #ConstructionInnovation #ThriveInConstruction #InfrastructureLeadership #ResilientLeadership #AIinConstruction #BuiltEnvironment #NetZeroInfrastructure #FutureOfConstruction

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Darren Evans:

With your experience in the army and your experience playing professional rugby. How has that shaped the way that you lead?

Nathan Marsh:

Taught me how to win, taught me how to lose, taught me how to lead a team, taught me how to be part of a team, teach you the power of determination and keeping game. You know, I've been 30, 40, 50 points down sport and in some I've ended up being 98 points down. That was against Lecce, that was horrendous. In other games you then turn it around so the win is always there. And again in the military, I think it teaches you how, not just how to win and how to lose gracefully, but also it taught me relativity. So, no matter how we're all feeling in life, we all have highs and low days. Oh man, can it get much worse? And sadly, some of the things I saw in the military made me realize it can get a whole lot worse. So it's taught me a bit of perspective and also probably taught me to be quite thankful and grateful for my little life and the little bit that I have, you know, seeing what I've seen. So yeah, it teaches you a bit, I think.

Darren Evans:

Talk to me about losing. How do you lose well, how do you lose?

Nathan Marsh:

well, how do you lose and come away with a healthy sense of respect and appreciation for yourself. It's hard, it's hard to swallow, it sticks in your throat. It's easy to say where out of every lesson, out of every loss, comes opportunity. And it does, by the way. What could I have done better? What did they do that made them come out on top? It taught me also to respect a superb performance, even if it goes against you. We respected our own performance when we won. We respected our own performance when we lost in some cases.

Nathan Marsh:

But I think teaching respect for that level of elite performance, whether it's in the military, whether it's in sport, whether it's in business, whether it's in life, I think that's quite a healthy ethic to have. But also, if you're and on occasion I was the captain of the side, obviously an officer in the army, you're very, very visible and your rank, particularly in the military, doesn't stop. So when you think you're not being watched and you think you're not on parade, you're always being watched. You're always on parade. So how I react to a loss or a setback is watched, and I learned that as well. Um, so, yeah, there's, there's quite a bit. I just take it as a bit of a deep responsibility.

Darren Evans:

I think losing well is almost as good, in some cases more important than one where what advice would you give, then, to someone that's in a leadership position and it feels like they're losing at the moment and they see themselves as, or they are, that person who's got their head above the parapet and everyone is looking at them. They're always on parade. What can they do? What specific things would you say that they can do to be conscious in that leadership so that they can lead that team to a win in the future?

Nathan Marsh:

I think there's things that they can do for themselves and then for the team, and sometimes what you do for yourself then permeates out to the team. Be determined and keep going. That doesn't mean keep repeating things that might not have worked, but having a dogged determination that there will be a way. That, literally, is half the battle. Also thinking about what else have I learned elsewhere, in other scenarios, and that's hard when you're right in the thick of it. What have I learned from different instances?

Nathan Marsh:

I can bring that in Communicating calmly and clearly, kind of without blinking, without stumbling over your words, and it's hard when you're feeling the pressure that we will get through this. There is a way out, but I need all of you to pull your way out and I think that can then give you that inner resolve. When we move to the external communication and embodiment, being that kind of rock, also empowering others and slicing the problem or challenge to pieces, that's when you start to pull and pull in and then empower the team around you. And you know napoleon said bring me lucky generals, you need a bit of luck, but I think you can make your own luck if you get that inner core resilience, work out which way to solve the problem, and then also empower and pulling the team around you, you give yourself the best chance.

Darren Evans:

What about succession planning? As a leader, are you always looking for the next leader to come?

Nathan Marsh:

take your place. I think that's a really healthy thing to do. I think some find it hard because it might bring a sense of insecurity. Am I irreplaceable if I find, or am I replaceable if I find a replacement? We're all replaceable, but I think it takes a broad-shouldered and mature leader to say my job is, frankly, one of my jobs is to find the next me. I think it's a really healthy thing.

Darren Evans:

How do you go about identifying those people?

Nathan Marsh:

The right amount of similarities and the right amount of differences, I think, because the area in which they'll be operating will be different to the tenure that I might be in or other teams might be in. Also, it might be an extent of we need some succession because we need change. Has the situation changed or has the person changed? Also, I'm quite a big believer in chemistry, in terms of that kind of cultural chemistry as well. So teams mature Teams like Tide's ebb and flow in terms of belief, performance, etc. So it's the right leader for the right time. Think about it to rugby, you know is Martin Johnson the right? Or was Martin Johnson the right captain for England? Then, yes, is he the right? Would he be the right captain now, don't know. Different captains for different times, different leadership styles. So I think context is important interesting.

Darren Evans:

Yeah, I think the the thing that I've observed over the years of running my own organization and observing others and paying an active role in in trying to learn from other people as they run organizations, is that there is that sense of worth and value that resonates within everyone, and the whisper of actually you're not valuable, you're not needed, for some people is a real stumbling block.

Nathan Marsh:

Yeah, I think it is. I think it is. And that's when you need the strength within you and the strength from those around you, whether they be around you at work or family or friends. And I do kind of think, you know, particularly in business, we sink or we swim together and that's a nice feeling to bond the team. But you know, command and leadership can be quite a lonely position, and maybe it should be as well. So you've got those conflicting forces which I guess all make it worthwhile. It wouldn't be fun if it was dead easy. I was very fortunate to hear Colin Powell speak, who is a US general. He was D Sacker, the deputy supreme allied commander of Europe for NATO, a couple of times at Sandhurst and then obviously he was in post while I was in the military.

Nathan Marsh:

How do you build character? It takes time, it takes patience. I don't think. Well, I think there is a secret recipe. I'm not sure I know the secret, but you've got to be, I think, selecting and maintaining your aim, bringing others in around you, knowing when to share, knowing when to delegate, all of that builds kind of the bank balance of character, I think. And then you need it all in certain instances and almost emits like a fire hydrant when you need it. And that's when I touched on earlier about experiences from the military, experiences in sport, experiences of business, in life. All of that builds up and I think that gives you, it defines your own character, and then in some cases you need to all you know, at the point of need at one time, and sometimes it's enough, and sometimes it's not enough as well.

Darren Evans:

I'm just wondering now, if I'm listening to this and listening to you speak, and I would identify with myself that on my good days and I'm feeling it I can take on the world, but on those rainy, dark mornings, struggling to get out of bed, but I want to have the character to be able to do that. To do that, what practical steps or what things could you offer me, especially if I'm 18, 19, 20 years old, to develop and learn to walk?

Nathan Marsh:

that road to have the type of character that I'd really love to develop? That's a great question. I think there's the commitment you've made to yourself, and I think if you haven't, or if one hasn't made commitments to oneself probably should, so you've got some promises to yourself you can make. I will be at work, I will get ahead of it, I will be the best I can be today, I'll try and do it more right than wrong today. Even that's sort of small, it all just builds up the bang.

Nathan Marsh:

Well, it's, secondly, commitments to others as well. What commitments are who's? Who am I going to let down if I don't turn up? Or if I turn up half cooked, um? And I think, thirdly, the how do I develop, how do I build that character and build my own ability to be a really high performer? And you know, at 1920 I had exactly those feelings, for example. And you just think, okay, I've made some commitments to myself, commitments to my parents, commitments to my mates, and actually I'd quite like to see how good I can be today and it'll be a bit better than yesterday, I hope Won't be as good as tomorrow. Keep the cycle going, but commitments to yourself, commitments to others, and then hopefully that's enough to get you out from under the duvet, how did you get into the construction industry?

Darren Evans:

We've spoken briefly about time in the army, time on the rugby field.

Nathan Marsh:

Yeah, I would love to say it was a completely calculated, considered, deliberate and beautifully executed pathway. If only I had no plan on that, by the way, in the military or in sport or business. So I learned in the military the importance of leadership and teamwork, and I think that's important for all industries Construction and infrastructure by its very nature, elements that are very hands-on and rely on a team. There's an element there Some aspects of my deployment in the military were post-conflict and obviously post-conflict brings in regeneration. So I learned a lot firsthand, particularly in the Balkans the importance of re-establishing layers of infrastructure to rebuild a functioning society a law enforcement layer, a built environment layer, an infrastructure layer which would include utilities, good governance. So you've got all these different layers. What I saw, like I said, particularly in the Balkans, was the importance of re-establishing critical national infrastructure as one of those layers to allow a society to rebuild after it wounded itself and been wounded.

Nathan Marsh:

That then took me on, when I left the military, to a US insurance broker and risk manager and I didn't know, I didn't deliberately predetermine this, but they put me in their infrastructure risks division Fantastic. So that was looking back at the built environment and back at infrastructure, but through risk management. After that I went into EY and I went into their infrastructure practice, but I was looking at management, consultancy, corporate finance, looking closer to the market, the act of construction or design engineering construction and understanding what needs to be true to get a successful major construction project up and running. After that I went into a global engineering firm and that really was then looking at designing and engineering pre-construction assets, so I was even closer. I was then headhunted into a tier one contractor, a construction contractor, so I was then the chief digital officer at a FTSE listed construction company.

Nathan Marsh:

Then I went to a global projects, projects and programs management business which looked end-to-end for construction and then most recently was asked by Bentley to join them and run their business in Europe, middle East and Africa. And, of course, bentley are our infrastructure and construction software business. I would love to say that was deliberate and all laid out. It's only when I pause and take a look back through the rearview mirror that allows me to see all those dots line up and tell the story. I've been very lucky. I've been surrounded by some amazing people and I've been pretty determined to keep going and I've enjoyed it. I personally feel incredibly privileged to work in a sector that's just so real. It just oozes reality and all its glorious imperfections as well.

Darren Evans:

What was it and this question isn't kind of aligned to get you to sell yourself. I'm just wondering here, just looking back now what do you think that the headhunters saw in you that made them say this is our man or this is our person. Let me at least speak to them, let me at least speak to him. Speak to them, let me at least speak to him, and then for them to say actually this is the person for me. What one or two things would you say would let them let them to that conclusion?

Nathan Marsh:

I think, what one or two things, what one might be a little more straightforward, which is to just experiencing elements of technical experience. It's quite an unusual and esoteric mix, that journey, but if you think about it, and as I was told by one or two in my journey, you bring an interesting mix of infrastructure, but you understand how it's risk managed and risk transferred, how deals are constructed, how to advise on it, how to design and engineer it, how to build it, how to project manage it and then, most recently, how to apply technology to improve its performance. It's not a bad cocktail, it's not's choice, but that was certainly one element. Another element, I think, comes from life and some of the lessons we discussed earlier in the military, in sport, around being pretty determined, being quite coachable, even listening and seeking feedback from 360 degrees, having an innate sense of optimism and probably having an optimism bias and that might have held me back in my career, by the way.

Nathan Marsh:

But I believe that if one is optimistic and positive, not to the point of deluded optimism, bringing belief to the situation, not only does that fill my tanks but it can fill the tanks of others. So there's some technical and experiential elements that are quite functional but important. And then there's the. You know who is Nathan Marsh and how is he going to react. You know, like Colin Powell said, when it's three in the morning and it's uphill and it's dark, and you know, there's that character element. I think some of those two probably go some way to explain their journey.

Darren Evans:

So how, then, does the future of Bentley align with the future of Nathan Marsh?

Nathan Marsh:

I think it's an amazing time to be at Bentley. It's a huge privilege to have been asked to join them, particularly now. So Bentley's 40 years old. We've got a relatively new chief executive who is the first non-family member to lead the business. That's really exciting. We're growing.

Nathan Marsh:

Our applications, like our sector, are increasingly open. They're interoperable. They leverage proven technology. So we've got the right parts of the heritage, but they're also leveraging really pioneering technology like artificial intelligence, openness and interoperability, the use of digital twins, these cloud software as well, cloud enabled software. So it's a really interesting time in our evolution which mirrors, I think, where construction is construction. You still have sites that are pen paper and you know are passing on to site safety. You have other sites that are literally like something from the future and something to be really proud of. So I think our evolution is perfectly timed and pitched to mirror the sector construction and design engineering construction that we are designed for. Bentley is only ever focused on one sector and that's infrastructure. So our pathway across design engineering, construction and asset management, I think is perfect for the sector and it's a perfect time as we go on this technology adoption journey together.

Darren Evans:

And what about digital twins?

Nathan Marsh:

Talk to me about digital twins First of all, if you can just break down what digital twins are, and then if you a data and process and digital representation of a physical asset, and the physical asset will need let's say, a power station, will need to be designed and then engineered civil and mechanical engineering, but predominantly civil in our case It'll need to be built, constructed and you can do all of that real time. But with a digital twin, you can design it, you can engineer it, you can construct it, you can even model how to run it as a live asset without breaking ground. That's got to be good news. We haven't taken on any subsurface risk. We haven't taken on any ground conditions risk. We haven't taken on any construction risk yet because we are, with the right conditions, getting it all wrong and getting all right in the digital twin.

Nathan Marsh:

Then, when it's far more right than wrong and the risk is reduced and investor confidence is high and the consortium and the supply chain are lined up, then we can get going. That makes I'm even excited telling that story, because I think that's a really responsible way to make sure that you're ready and you've checked, you know once, twice, thrice that you're, that you're good to go. Then you can press, go on actually designing it, actually engineering and actually constructing it, knowing that most of that pathway you've undertaken a digital twin and of course it's then used and handed over with the physical asset with all that knowledge and all that data, all those practices in it to run the asset. So you get this kind of digital goldmine that you can then use to run that asset to a really high level of performance.

Darren Evans:

So what risks typically are mitigated because of the use of a digital twin?

Nathan Marsh:

I think it can help with foresight and help with prior planning. It can also help understand precise measurements and quantities in terms of duration, types of supply chain, depth and complexity of supply chain, volumes of commodity you might need, because initially you're estimating for a design, engineering construction project will be built on experience and built on benchmarking, but with a digital twin you can actually model and remodel and remodel and rerun the scenarios, so your precision gets a lot higher. Also, the adoption of a digital twin across the full supply chain means that you can have your designers, your engineers, your contractors across different tiers of the supply chain and your asset owners all experimenting and modelling and collaborating in it. So a big principle of Benley's as well is that open architecture and open applications so our digital twins can be accessed in a responsible and secure way by all parties. It's a great moment and a great opportunity to bring together the construction family before you kind of get going, and I do believe that it, by its very nature, de-risks the project. What is?

Darren Evans:

it that you're trying to help people do, or help people stop doing, or maybe just help people understand with more clarity than what they have at the moment?

Nathan Marsh:

I think where our sector is a little bit of it is about clarity and common understanding. We would say this, wouldn't it be being Bentley, but major infrastructure has such a complex construction phase that it just serves you right, really does serve you and serve you well, to set up and use a digital twin in which you can deploy all those rehearsals, those models, those scenarios. It allows you to collaborate with organizations you might not have worked with before. So what a great way to get together.

Nathan Marsh:

It's the ultimate icebreaker, but it's a perennial icebreaker that allows us to collaborate on projects, projects. So I would love our industry to move by default and almost mandate the use of an infrastructure digital twin as best practice across these major construction and infrastructure projects. I don't see how life can get worse without one. Uh, I certainly don't see how how life can possibly get any better when you can't get any better when you do use one, because they just make such a big difference to how projects are designed and engineered and they bring the supply chain together.

Darren Evans:

So is this one of the reasons why projects just run over budget and I'm thinking now of HS2 just because I saw it whilst I was traveling into Paddington this morning? Is this one of the reasons why projects start off at one fee and then they get doubled and tripled and it just becomes an astronomical figure that no one really believes? Is that one of the things that digital twins kind of help in that area?

Nathan Marsh:

I mean there's a rather trite saying that projects don't go wrong. Projects start wrong, and I think it's a lot in that um. And again it goes back to the principles of a digital twin, which is the ultimate version of measure thrice cut once, if that, if that makes sense, and I think you know, understand that using a digital twin to understand how you want the project to run, how you want the supply chain to act, what the supply chain can look like, what the different scenarios are around, you know where to position tunnel boring machines, you know all those elements, you can get far more right than wrong and then get going. So I think it really does focus on bringing the risk down, bringing that construction community together, and I think it should be a bit of a um. You know almost a license to operate on construction and infrastructure projects.

Darren Evans:

So I'm seeing it as a really exciting step and I'm just very proud that you know bentley is very committed to its core, to our, to our business the experiences that I've had with the many people that I've not just spoken to on the podcast, but the clients that I've got from the consultancy that I have. Everyone wants to do the right thing, everyone wants to be involved in a project that they look back on and they're proud of, or that they can tell someone look, I'm working on this, isn't it great? And especially around the sustainability element as well, I tried to frame it in terms of a waste thing that no one gets happy or no one feels an innate sense of joy.

Darren Evans:

When there's a large amount of waste going on, whether you're on a construction site or at the back end of a kitchen in a restaurant, and there's waste going out in the bin, there's a sense of loss or we're losing something. And so when it comes to embodied carbon or whether it comes to net zero whatever phrase someone uses the thing that's in my mind is waste. This is waste. You're wasting energy. That's why there's loads of carbon that's going up. Or that's why there's loads of embodied carbon in a specific material or an approach is because you just use so much energy to to create this thing. It's just a. It's just a waste. What is there that we can do to reduce the waste, because it makes us feel good when we reduce waste. But I think, think, coming back to my point, is that I think that there's an ability issue as opposed to a knowledge issue, because we know what waste looks like, we know that we want to reduce it. Actually, how do we reduce it? I think that's the thing that the industry struggles with.

Nathan Marsh:

I think that's right. The level of data and the level of computational power that we have to calculate where is the waste, whether it's economic waste, time waste, resource waste, environmental waste, through commodity or material waste. Quantifying where it is and how much it is is something which we've got a lot better at, so we have far greater precision now. Recovering it, stopping the decline and then recovering it and creating value and turning it back into value is hard. That's partly because of how some contracts are set up on construction projects. What's gone in the past has gone in the past. It's also hard because of ability as well and tooling.

Nathan Marsh:

So again, I think a digital twin certainly isn't the answer to all the prayers here, but it can be used as a safe and digital and virtual environment in which to identify, to reduce, I mean to prove and demonstrate how one might get rid of waste. Then you get going. That's not a bad mission to bring into a project. I'll deliver my waste identification and reduction strategy, virtually get it as right as I can, then execute it with the commitment from the supply chain. That's a great mission to be part of.

Darren Evans:

So what is the barrier, then, for there not being a greater or 100% uptake of using a digital twin?

Nathan Marsh:

I mean some quite straightforward reasons. There's a range of digital twin providers in the market. So think about when I was a contractor and engineer. Who do you go to? I think that's getting clearer. There are a few major market leaders. Secondly, how do I use it? How do I get past? There's a lot of's getting clearer. There are a few major market leaders. Secondly, how do I use it? How do I get past? There's a lot of hype on digital. Well, there has been in the past. I think, mercifully, that hype is clearing.

Nathan Marsh:

I'm now getting onto proven, practical, tangible examples of where a digital coin has created benefit. How can I actually prove the value created? How do I actually return value to either the project bank account or back to my enterprise bank account? That's getting better as well, because as technology improves in capability and we might focus on time wastage or resource time, we can identify processes that can be optimized. We might identify a digital twin, optimize them and say right to do that same task and stimulated by AI, what might have taken three days now takes three hours Brilliant.

Nathan Marsh:

What do you do with the other two and a half days? You've created Because there's value to it and you might want to say we're going to have less people or less time to do the task, or just do more work and we'll bring the schedule forward. You're always kind of creating time, as it were. So I think there is, there is a pathway with the right tools, with the right approaches and with the right ambition to use a digital twin and automation and artificial intelligence in the right, responsible way to create economic value in projects.

Darren Evans:

and again, another super exciting mission, mission that I love being part of so, breaking this down in its really simple components, if we have got someone that wants to get from point A to point B, distance is really great. They've just happened upon a rocket or a jet. They're sat in the jet, sat in the rocket. There's lots of switches, lots of buttons. They know that this thing, if operated in the right way, is going to get them to where they want to go really quickly, but they've just got no skill set to be able to operate this really fast piece of apparatus. Is that a fair reflection of what a digital twin would look like? We've got this ability now to go from point a to point b really quickly, but there's a training and a skills gap here for me to be able to use it I mean we are in in halfway through 2025, you know, our most digital decade, yet less digital than the next decade.

Nathan Marsh:

We are, as a society and as a species, incredibly literate at technology. You know the processing power and ability to do functional software tasking through your iPhone, through your iPad, through different applications, is pretty commonplace. Then you get more advanced around technical scenarios like design and engineering. The capability is building there.

Nathan Marsh:

The only thing I would say is that digital maturity, particularly in the construction sector, is mixed. There are some absolute pioneers and both globally as well as in EMEA, there are those that need to invest more time and it's a real commitment to Bentley's to not just provide the software but we provide training, education, sponsorship to build that knowledge. We have digital delivery days. We have demonstrators running. I'm sure we have a demo running at some point, probably every day of the year around the globe, of not just how to use the tool to build that knowledge that you mentioned and strengthen that capability, but also how the tool can be used, if that makes sense. So here's the functional instructions, but here's how that tool is applied on a suite of water projects or early stage engineering projects or energy projects offshore wind, for example. So there's different scenarios that we apply the tool to your base knowledge on how the item works, how the asset works, and then how it's used in a in a live project environment.

Darren Evans:

I think that's a great attribute of a company like ours that we can not just provide it, but provide the skills, provide the training, provide the training, provide the coaching, then provide the smarts that you need to get the most value out of the software as well I think the thing for me with data is that, um, it needs to be filtered, because data in and of itself, yeah, is just noise yeah, and there's so much noise in the world now but applied through the right filter, the data can be the most powerful thing and the most valuable asset. You look at the most valuable companies around the world they're data rich, they've got a great filter. So, applying that to Bentley to get an outcome of infrastructure that we want and that we need, and it's also connected around progressing in a more sustainable and environmental manner. What would you give examples there?

Nathan Marsh:

Yeah, that's a great grand challenge for our sector. Our sector, like most sectors, has no shortage of data and you're right, when it's unstructured and ungoverned, it's just noise, it's just noise. And, of course, every application, every engineer, every contractor, every organization brings with it many things, one of which is more data. So your project will have less data today than it does tomorrow. Fact Doesn't need all of it Every time to make every decision. So governance, structuring, hierarchy, information security, data security is absolutely crucial. So cost, data safety, data, project data, pricing, data is delivered in the right format at the right point to deliver the right outcome or answer the right question. Data governance and data rules and data structures are therefore mission critical in construction projects. Having a data strategy on major projects is also important Targeting what sort of data and training your AI to get the right data to you at the right point in time.

Nathan Marsh:

So we want to answer a complex scenario on embedded carbon on a major rail project how much is there in a particular phase of track or line or tunneling, and how do I reduce it? Well, don't go sifting into the data lake. Get the machine to obey the data rules and provide me the data that I need to answer that specific question. So it's organized, it's governed and it's curated. It won't answer the question for me, but it'll equip me to answer the question.

Nathan Marsh:

I might then ask it back to run a few scenarios how do I turn X into X? Now we're getting somewhere. Now we're getting somewhere. I've got a more precise answer, more precise options, because I've asked a better quality question to a better trained machine, which has given me a better quality answer. What it should do, then, is provide me a small number of options that allows me, as a human with real intelligence, to make the right decision on how to get that carbon out, how to keep it out and how to prove that it's out. That's the power of organized data applied to a really worthy task and then delivering a material and economic or environmental impact. I think that's what success looks like.

Darren Evans:

Can you give me an example of where you have done that for a client or where you've seen that applied really effectively?

Nathan Marsh:

We've seen a great live example on High Speed 2, which is a significant project which has a series of different complex stages tunnelling, bridging, track sidings, let alone the interchanges which are hyper-complex. On the tunnelling scheme, bentley software, amongst other partner software, was used to do exactly that On the tunnelling phase is to work out precisely how much carbon is in the current plan, so the amount of carbon in which components in the current plan. Then the question was asked can it be reduced? So different methods of construction, modular, different components, a different type of concrete, different types of steel, without risking any of the structural integrity of the project and of the asset. What a great way to use the computational and auctioneering power of AI in a safe space, a digital twin, to discuss and try and crack a really live world problem.

Nathan Marsh:

I've also seen with our friends at HS2, the levels of carbon showed as bars coming to. Because visualization is an important part of telling a story. It's easy to show it as a series of elements on a spreadsheet, but visualizing it on top of the asset, before and after it, doesn't get more real than that. So you now have the answer, with a bit of work, to go and turn that bar on that part of a scheme to that bar and you will materially reduce the carbon. This is exciting stuff and it's all happening virtually and digitally.

Darren Evans:

Digitally that's the power of a digital twin, and so this is the filter, isn't it that we're talking about? The data here represented in a bar, is is a filter because it, it looks good, we can understand it, and it and it looks great. What other projects come to mind that you have been involved with where you've seen a significant reduction in uh embodied carbon as a result of the use of a digital twin?

Nathan Marsh:

there's a great example, a live example, in China, in the Yunnan province, the WISDRI Engineering and Research Incorporation Limited. They were delivering a iron and steel production facility close to three natural nature reserves. So hyper-complex engineering amongst a really protected environment. They wanted a digital twin to understand how they could do that responsibly and also how to realize green operations as well. So not just not damage the nature reserves but make the asset in itself, which typically those assets do pollute, to make that as green as possible. So a massive iron and steel facilities modernization project.

Nathan Marsh:

We partnered with the general contractor and it's got four major components, this asset. So each of them had to be designed, constructed. They used modern methods of construction, off-site and more modular approaches. They used our project-wise capability to deliver a smart, eco-friendly and low-carbon delivery schedule. So finding the carbon in the supply chain, looking at alternative methods of constructing, so moving to modular and bringing it on site, and then also looking at lower carbon components.

Nathan Marsh:

The common data environment that ProjectWise provides firstly created project efficiencies and the design efficiencies were up to 35%, so a huge level of quality and time saved in the design. The digital construction management reduced the construction phase by almost 100 days. So true time saved, which means less time on site, which means less risk, which means less emissions because of this activity. Part of that was off-site design, a part of that was modular. It saved over 48 million chinese currency in terms of economic cost. But the real killer is that the digital twin then reduced annual carbon emissions by over 345,000 tons. That's a great CV for any organization to think that their software, amongst others, has played a great role in delivering economic benefits and environmental benefits.

Darren Evans:

So significant, and it's not just one measurement of saving or one measurement of impact. Just the saving of time as well is really significant.

Nathan Marsh:

I think so we are. You know many things in our society, but you know the numbers do have to balance. Safety has to be a priority. We have to, you know, to deliver the asset by a particular time scale, but then the asset might be there in some instances for 20, 50, 100 years. So we've got to think short-term to get the construction right, medium-term and also long-term as well, from a legacy to the next generation. So it's fantastic to see that example, using software at every stage of that, but thinking short, medium and long term and delivering economic benefits, delivering time savings, supporting safety, promoting modern methods of construction and reducing a significant amount of carbon every single year and protecting the three nature reserves and protecting the three nature reserves.

Darren Evans:

I'm wondering now what message you would have to the people listening from Bentley and I'm thinking here specifically of the people that you don't know or that don't get the opportunity to speak to you or maybe even ask you this question. That's you know. I've I've been working at this organization for x amount of years. I've seen these changes going on. We've got a change at the top. Nathan is a is a guy I've I've seen and I've heard I I don't get opportunities to ask him any questions, but if you had a moment where they were sat next to me, what would you say to them?

Nathan Marsh:

Having been a customer and a user of Bentley's in the past, having come from industry and holding Bentley in extremely high regard, and now working here for a year and a half, which I'm unbelievably proud of, I would say to them you just have to realize how fantastic not just our business is, but how, how it's such an exciting part and point in our evolution, key part in our journey, a key point of our evolution. The best days, weeks, months and years of Bentley are just ahead of us. They're just about to come. It also needs every single person in the business to believe that and to support it. We're at a real point of inflection in terms of the next evolution to the openness and interoperability in our technology. We've got a really strong capability that helps us understand the context, the actual live projects. We've never been as engineering and construction savvy and industry savvy as we are at the moment. We're well capitalized, we're well led, we've got the key ingredients. I think we're really fortunate to work in our organization at this time in this industry.

Darren Evans:

That's great. I love that. I think that from listening to you, it sounds as though you're not just passionate about what you do but, going back to what you were saying before, you have that optimism and belief in in what you're doing and those people that are around you as well, in that, in that team. That certainly comes through from what you're saying.

Nathan Marsh:

Yeah, thank you. I mean, look, I am incredibly proud to continue to work in an amazing sector of infrastructure design and construction. Working at Bentley is the cherry on top of the career and it's just a privilege, frankly, to be looked at and asked to support the design, the engineering, the construction and the management of what I would consider are the crown jewels of national assets water utilities, energy, transport. These are mission-critical things on which societies function and rely. It's pretty cool. It's always cool enough to be able to tell your kids or tell dinner party stories, but maybe I won't get that far.

Darren Evans:

There are going to be young people finalizing their plans for university In the not too distant future. There are going to be people that are going to come out of university. Why would they want to, or what would you say to them to encourage them or persuade them to come join what you are doing in your organization, and why would they choose that above all of the other options that there are in the world right now?

Nathan Marsh:

That is a fantastic question and I think it's about relativity and maturity. So I've worked for a series of different organizations, but largely in one sector. Other sectors have appeal that ebbs and flows throughout time, as does ours In 2025, with the demands that are put on infrastructure as a sector, from climate, from population, from migration, through the opportunities of technology, through the importance of post-conflict regeneration. All of these things, or any one of these things, is a worthy mission to commit your career to. We see it all. It doesn't make it easy. We have a deep responsibility. So, for anyone thinking about what next in terms of career, or even early stage in terms of career, construction being just one phase in infrastructure is a great industry, but it's really changing as we're seeing modern methods, digitization, et cetera, off-site and really progressive methods of setting up supply chains. When you lay that against the full infrastructure lifecycle, it really is a job for life. It's an industry for life. These things take time to design, to engineer, to build, to operate. They're naturally long-term fabric of society assets. The technology we're using is hyper-progressive. These drones drones, the use of subsurface scanning to see through the ground, to make the unknown known, the use of artificial intelligence in modeling and predicting.

Nathan Marsh:

Tell me what's going to happen on the next cycle. Look around the next corner. For me, remove my surprises, reduce my risk. This is really exciting stuff and once it's there, you can take your friends, family and kids come and see it. Come and see what I'm involved in, what I have been involved in. Take a walk on the bridge. Look at that. You know I played a tiny role in. That's something to be proud of. Um, and it's got some super, super exciting startups right through to the more established players. It it's got it all.

Darren Evans:

Nathan, it's been great having you on the podcast. I can see that you love leadership and I don't see that or say that from a grandulizing way to say, look at me, aren't I important? But I think just the time that we've spent together I can see that the people that you have charge over matter to you and them coming with you matters to you and just encourage you to keep going in that and thank you for all you're doing.

Nathan Marsh:

It's a pleasure. Thanks very much for having me.

Darren Evans:

Thanks for watching to the end. I think that you'll like this, but before you do that, just make sure that you've commented and liked below and also that you've subscribed.