Neal O'Leary

Neal is the Programme Director for the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme.  He is responsible for the leadership and management of all infrastructure investment for education in Wales, which includes the Education Mutual Investment Model.

Neal is a Chartered Building Surveyor with over 30 years’ experience in property investment, construction and estate management across private, public and third sector organisations. 

Prior to returning to Education Infrastructure in 2019, Neal spent 11 years heading up Cadw’s Properties in Care, leading on conservation, strategic capital investment, FM and asset management.  During this time, he developed and implemented a strategy achieving a 43% reduction (2010-2019) in carbon emissions across 130 historic sites whilst visitor numbers and income generation reached record numbers. 

He is a former director, and board chair, of Cambria Maintenance Services Ltd., leading the company through incorporation to one of industry recognised success, employing 130 staff delivering over £20m in services annually.

Neal is a board member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Wales) and Ystadau Cymru.  The latter of which he chairs the Building Safety sub-group.

Neal sits on the ministerial-led Construction Forum.  He is the Welsh Government lead for the Buildings Sub-group, and the Decarbonisation and Procurement Sectoral Working Groups.

Starting out his career, Neal held property and estates management positions across a number of local authorities.