chris midgley
chartered project leader · applied ai · founder, proevo.ai & built around us · independent advisor
uk based · in person preferred
mail@chrismidgley.com
+44 7516 252340 (whatsapp)
builtaroundus.com · proevo.ai
open to work · independent advisor · uk based, in person preferred
▾chris_midgley/
├─▾ summary/ // the short version

chartered project leader (chpp, mapm). 10+ years delivering complex projects across construction, energy, and infrastructure. four years building with applied ai. year two running my own business.

non-technical builder. i do not ship production code. i ship things that work, then i make sure people can use them. trained interview techniques in the cid in my early career, refined since. i listen, deeply, broadly, often uncomfortably. i translate between c-suite and engineer in the same conversation.

i automated myself out of a £100k+ contract at hinkley point c, the largest mega-project in europe, inside six months. before agents were cool, inside a regulated environment already rife with shadow ai nobody at the top knew about. that pattern is what i do for a living.
├─▾ proof/ // hpc
automated my own role · hinkley point c, principal contractor
6 months
replaced a £100k+ contract scope with a microsoft power platform solution i designed and shipped. architecture in one week. the rest, the part that mattered, took six months. before agents were a category, inside a regulated environment rife with shadow ai nobody at the top knew about.
  • senior stakeholder engagement up to programme director and tier-one principal contractor leads
  • third-party integrations across a regulated mega-project supply chain
  • motivational interviews with 40+ staff to map role impacts, identify what to preserve, and design adoption
  • ux and change work so the system was used after i left, not shelved
├─▾ experience/ // 2024 — present
founder · proevo.ai
2024 — present
local-first, model-agnostic, governed ai for project delivery. usb to cde. designed, built, and shipped product. v2 ui, seven interactive demos, live website. alpha live, waiting list open.
founder · built around us
2024 — present
human-first ai advisory. positioning: should you before how. helping clients decide what to automate, what not to, and what to do with the time back. clients across construction, professional services, real estate, and the public-adjacent sector.
  • ai readiness diagnostics, role-impact mapping, governed pilot design
  • evaluation frameworks for llm-backed workflows, prompt and agent design
  • change-side delivery, the part most ai consultancies skip
├─▾ earlier/ // pre-2024
project management consultant · construction & energy, uk + europe
2018 — 2024
client-side project leadership across regulated capital projects. mega-projects, commercial, residential, mixed-use, public-adjacent. uk and european practices. delivered through ambiguity, at pace, with senior stakeholders and supply-chain integration.
project manager, then senior · construction & software
post-2010
various experiences in multi-stakeholder programmes on commercial projects - in IT and construction. managing teams, sponsors; delivery, contract, t/c/q, risk and the things that don't appear in case studies.
police service · front line and time in the cid
early career
front line response and time in the criminal investigation department. trained interviewing, suspect and witness, became the foundation of how i listen now. patience, structure, observation, comfort with silence. discipline. directly transferable to discovery, adoption interviews, and executive listening.
├─▾ skills/ // human + technical
  • applied ai: claude api, claude for enterprise, claude code, mcp, prompt design, agent architecture, evals, governed deployment
  • solutions architecture: non-technical builder, developer mindset. design, scope, ship. local-first, model-agnostic patterns. integration with enterprise stacks
  • customer-facing: i listen, and talk with anyone in the room. discovery, demo, technical objection handling, roi framing. sector agnostic
  • change & adoption: motivational interviewing, role-impact mapping, ux for adoption, training, post-launch operation
  • regulated industries: construction, energy (nuclear-adjacent), infrastructure. comfortable with audit, traceability, classification, shadow-it remediation
  • tooling: microsoft power platform, 365, cursor, n8n, zapier, common llm ops tooling. read python, write light python, ship through agents
applied ai solutions architecture change management enterprise adoption regulated industries claude mcp evals governance behavioral analysis stakeholder leadership
├─▾ credentials/ // chartered
  • chartered project professional (chpp) — association for project management
  • full member, association for project management (mapm)
  • masters — buidling surveying qualification
  • uk national, resident in the uk for >5 years. eligible for sc clearance
  • full uk driving licence. willing to travel uk-wide and internationally
├─▾ writing/ // in progress
  • lessons of the past, and yesterday [working title] — book in progress, three-part informed-but-personal arc on adopting ai without hollowing out the organisation that adopts it
  • what is a data centre? — lesson one of a course in progress at builtaroundus.com
  • conversation cards — prompts for the conversations most boards skip
└─▾ principles/ // how i work
  • the model is the easy part. integration is the challenging part. adoption is everything
  • should you, before how. half of what clients ask for, they should not build
  • i do not ship production code. i ship things that work, then i make sure people know how to use them
  • typical scot, i do not like spending tokens. i optimise
  • i back myself to solve any problem given the chance