Answer extracted from the Pegasus Radio podcast — listen to the full episode below.
What partnership backgrounds brought Accaloft's co-founders together?
Accaloft was built by three co-founders with distinct expertise in major contracting, procurement, and social value delivery. Jamie Hillier brought nearly 20 years of tier one contractor experience; John led procurement activities with technical depth; and Ellie contributed social value and engagement background from main contracting and construction innovation work.
The partnership emerged from aligned professional journeys spanning a decade-plus of prior collaboration. Jamie's evolution from site QS to pre-construction director gave him a unique vantage point across estimating, digital design, planning, and site operations—the full pipeline from aspiration to delivery. His two co-founders each specialized in complementary disciplines, creating what they set out to be: a bridge between strategic vision and on-site reality.
As detailed in the episode, this background diversity was intentional. The founders recognized that construction projects often suffer from a disconnect between boardroom ambition and ground-level execution. By combining contracting rigor, procurement discipline, and genuine social value expertise—rather than treating ESG as a checkbox—Accaloft positioned itself to embed better practices at the earliest stages of project development.
The three-strand service offering they built—social value and ESG, modern methods of construction (MMC) and industrialisation advice, and commercial management—reflects this founding trio perfectly. Each thread traces directly to one founder's domain, and their 10–15 years of working together before formal launch meant the model was grounded in shared experience, not theory.
"Within Amazon, they have a spare chair to represent the customer. We try and look at things from different angles of different stakeholders."
Jamie Hillier — Co-founder and Partner, Accaloft. Over nearly two decades at a tier one major contractor, Jamie progressed from site quantity surveyor to pre-construction director for the major projects business, managing estimating, digital design, planning, and site-related activities. He co-founded Accaloft with two partners in November or December 2019 to bridge the structural gap between strategic ambitions and on-site delivery, leveraging his deep contracting background to shift how early-stage project development is conducted.
For a fuller picture of Accaloft's operating model and how that founding structure translates into day-to-day operation, explore the full Pegasus Radio episode, where Jamie also discusses the business's deliberate growth constraints and longer-term vision for the construction industry.
See also
How does Accaloft differentiate itself from larger multidisciplinary engineering firms?
Accaloft differentiates by having a relatively small team of senior individuals who can translate between aspiration and reality, offering depth of thinking and agility that larger multidisciplinary firms cannot match.
What is the current headcount and operating model of Accaloft?
Accaloft is sub-10 in terms of directly employed staff but runs an associate model that allows scaling up to about 20 people, providing flexibility to bring in expertise as project demand requires.
When was Accaloft founded and what prompted its creation?
The business was founded just before the pandemic in November or December 2019. Jamie left his major contractor role because he recognised the industry needed better integration of strategic thinking and on-site delivery at the earliest project stages.
Key takeaways
- Accaloft's three founders each brought a distinct pillar: Jamie's pre-construction and contracting depth, John's procurement expertise, and Ellie's social value and engagement background.
- The partnership was built on 10–15 years of prior collaboration, so the service model emerged from lived experience rather than theory.
- Their core service offering—social value and ESG, MMC and industrialisation advice, commercial management—directly mirrors the founders' complementary specialisms.
- The founding vision was to close the gap between boardroom strategy and site-level execution by embedding better practices earlier in project development.