Chris was born in England, and began his working career in the Merchant Navy serving an apprenticeship as a Marine Engineer. He was later promoted to Second Engineer Officer on super tankers. He resigned from the Merchant Navy in order to attend the University of Wales, where he attained a Bachelor of Science Degree with First Class Honours in Mechanical Engineering. In 1973 he emigrated to South Africa and in 1982 obtained a Masters Degree in Business Leadership from UNISA
Since 1983 Chris has been consulting in the field of contractual disputes arising out of engineering and construction contracts, acting on behalf of clients in promoting or defending their claims through negotiations, mediation or arbitration
Chris is a registered Professional Engineer and from 1997 until 2010 served as Chairman of the Association of Arbitrators of Southern Africa and is an Honorary Life Fellow and currently a Director of that Association. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and, for four years, served as Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the Engineering Council of South Africa
Chris Binnington has, since 1996 when the New Engineering Contract was introduced into South Africa by ESKOM, specialised in the process of adjudication both from the perspective of training others in the process and in practicing in the field. He has developed a one-day training course on adjudication which has now been presented to over 400 people in Southern Africa. He is a member of the panels of adjudicators of Transnet, ESKOM, the South African Institution of Civil Engineers (SAICE) and The Association of Arbitrators (Southern Africa).
Chris has acted on behalf of Employers, Main Contractors or Sub Contractors, as counsel in more than 100 arbitrations involving, building, civil engineering (roads and earthworks) and process plant disputes. He has been appointed as arbitrator in some 30 arbitrations including an international arbitration involving the Government of Uganda as one of the parties under UNCITRAL Rules.
In May 2016, and after selling the practice he jointly founded, to an International Construction Group, he moved to Cape Town but continued to act as Adjudicator and Arbitrator. In November 2017 together with Civil Engineer and forensic delay analyst, David Jamieson, He formed a new consulting practice under the style and title “Binningtons”, operating out of the original Binnington Copeland & Associates offices in Rondebosch, Cape Town, which firm continues to offer professional services to the construction industry in the fields of claims and disputes and forensic delay analysis. In the latter part of 2017 Binningtons opened offices in Johannesburg.