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Modest, unassuming, possessing a sharp logic - these are qualities that appear to have served Stan Hornagold well. Since turning his hand to project management in the mid 1970s, when the profession was in its infancy, 54-year-old Hornagold has gone on to found a 170-strong firm and played a key role in drawing up the tube PPP modernisation, described by former Transport for London chief Bob Kiley as "the most complicated contract system in Western civilisation". The softly-spoken Hornagold, senior partner at Hornagold & Hills, has a slightly different take on the contract, which has now been in operation since 2003. "It was well thought through," he says, adding that how the contract works in practice is a model of Egan principles of partnering (see factfile on PPP).

The approachable Hornagold, who you could hardly imagine closing a file loudly much less banging desks or raising his voice during a working day, has now turned his attention to the next upcoming mega-project, the Thames Gateway. Given the roots of his firm, in the deepest bowels of Essex, it's unsurprising. "When you look out of the conference room from our Brentwood office you can see the site," Horngold explains. Given that the scheme is still being bounced around Whitehall as well as myriad local bodies, Hornagold saw a need for a clearer picture of what is required to get it done. Hence the report published last week, Laying the Blue Line (see right), which has already received national attention, not least an appearance for Hornagold on the political agenda setting forum that is the Today breakfast show on Radio 4.

Hornagold admits to putting a vast amount of time and resources into the venture - a year of work as well as £100,000s of cash. The firm did not stay in an ivory tower and muse over the best way of achieving the ambitious initial target to create 200,000 houses in the next 10 years, but interviewed key individuals involved in the region. "Our job as a PM is to tie people together," Hornagold explains. "We had to do a lot of detective work. We wanted to contribute to the debate."

Key points that emerge from the report include the urgent need for a figurehead to lead the programme through its various twists and turns, as well as a vision statement. "There are targets in terms of numbers but the vision has to be clear and worthwhile. There's not a single sentence that sums it up yet." Hornagold goes some way to fulfilling that brief. "It's about creating a new economy for the east side of London. Historically it was seen as the side where all the labour was, the back room of the Empire." And Hornagold believes that attracting economic activity will not be a long-term problem. "Look at Canary Wharf. Twenty years ago it was like (the sitcom) Till Death Us Do Part. Now look what's happened."

Hornagold has clearly dug deep from nearly 30 years of project management experience to offer the cogent analysis of what is required up front for the gateway vision to fly. Having started as a QS in the late 1960s via a correspondence course, he ended up at Beard Dove in 1975, just months after the firm was formed. It was a period when project management was just starting to emerge as a stand alone service offering, led by industry figures such as Francis Graves (founder of the eponymous Midlands practice). "Cliff (Beard, the founder) was getting really excited about PM," Hornagold recalls. "I'd just qualified and he asked me whether I'd do this PM job. No-one knew how to do it. I said I thought I needed more experience as a QS. He told me to give it a try until we get someone else." That someone else failed to appear and Hornagold left QSing behind.

His first experience as a PM was in the health sector. "The NHS, post-second world war, was going on average 100% over budget and a year or two late. They decided to change the conventional team so it covered content as well as time, cost and quality." It came as quite a shock for Hornagold. "The first day I started at Great Ormond Street I was told I had to sort out the installation of the equipment. My first thought was it's nothing to do with me, I'm the buildings guy. It was the first time I realised that it had to be part of the project. You must make it operationally complete so everything is weaved together - equipment, recruitment of staff for the premises, how to move patients and so on." Such lessons lead you to challenge the brief, he adds. "The client should not write the brief. It's a team working process. Too many people say give me the brief and we will achieve it. That's naïve."

Just as we were getting going the recession came. I thought there was a chance we would go under

Stan Hornagold

Hornagold became a partner at Beard Dove by 1981 but later in the decade decided to split and form his own business. "Running a QS and PM firm didn't work for me then," he says. "Being a QS was much more back room then, a greater percentage of people needed to produce the detail. It's changed a lot since." It was 1987 and Hornagold began lacking something in the confidence department as a one-man venture.

"I wasn't certain how to take it forward. I jumped before I decided whether it would work properly. I half expected that I would end up going to another firm."

A turning point came when ex-colleague David Hills, who Hornagold recruited to Beard Dove, came on board in 1989 and the firm began to pick up some chunky commissions such as work for London Underground and advising on the Conservative Government's new right-to-buy policy for council tenants to buy their council houses. It was short-lived. "Just as we were getting going the recession came. I thought there was a chance we would go under. We didn't have enough of a client base to survive it. It was a reasonably grim time." The firm relied on its leanness (it only had 12 staff) to survive as well as concentrating on working for big clients.

A decade and a half later and the outfit has a £13m turnover, five offices and is working in 17 sectors. Hornagold is keen to expand into more sectors, such as the energy and pharmaceutical markets and retains a bullish and boyish enthusiasm for the job. "If you're a safe pair of hands there's no limit to what you can do," he says. "The stuff we do is exciting. It's a hobby as well as work. It's mind blowing - everywhere we go we learn about our client's business."