Nicola Bird

Nicola Bird is Chief Operating Officer of K W Bell Group, a third-generation construction and housebuilding business based in the Forest of Dean. Her work with Bell Homes and Bell Contracting gives her a perspective from both the housebuilder and the contractor on what it takes to get new homes built, from securing land and navigating planning to delivering infrastructure and finding skilled people. Nicola started in the family business in a part-time administration role and went on to lead health and safety and business development at Bell Contracting before becoming Group COO. She has stayed close to site teams throughout her career, and it was through that work that she saw the need for employers to play a bigger role in how people are trained for construction. Nicola began training apprentices in two Portakabins before going on to found and build AccXel in Gloucestershire, the UK’s first industry-led construction school and a £4 million, state-of-the-art training facility. Some of