Who is the Feasibility Study Expert Will Witt?

Abbreviated Biography

This is a short biography of my long complicated working life as a Civil Engineer and Feasibility Study Expert on some of the biggest and most complex projects in the world.

These included feasibility studies and master planning of aluminium smelters, gas based industrial estates and major oil fields.

I also managed to fit in the setting up of three successful construction based businesses - one went spectacularly bust after 6 years life and the other two are still operating today.

Civil Engineering Graduate from Sheffield University in the 1960's

I was one of the hundreds of very successful graduates produced by the Sheffield University Faculty of Civil and Structural Engineering that was run by the mercurial Professor Bill Eastwood in the 1960's. His enthusiastic and highly logical approach to engineering problems was transmitted to his students and has inspired many of us to reach very prominent positions in the UK construction industry and the universities.

Good Honours Degree and then out on site for experience

I managed to get a good honors degree and went straight out on site to learn about how things were really built - I could not get there fast enough! During the second half of those 3 years on site I was in control of a 10.0m euro (current value) manufacturing project - we were given lots of responsibility at a very tender age in those days!

3 Years on Site and then in the Design Office

After 3 years in muddy boots it was time to see what design work was all about. After 3 years in an office I became a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE) that signifies Chartered Engineer status in the UK and am still a member now. I also found the time to pass the Institute of Structural Engineers Examinations at first try and was a member for about 30 years.

Became the Office Guru at 30

After several years in different jobs as a Senior Engineer with companies involved in the onshore refinery and petro-chemical industry I joined a port and harbour works civil engineering consultancy in London. The firm was run a couple of pretty average engineers and so at the ripe old age of 30 I became the office guru on technical matters and found to my surprise that I had a real flair for understanding and simplifying very complex issues. It was here that I carried out my first feasibility studies.

Setting up Robert West Consulting

I left to set up a similar business as a partner of Bob West. He was good at getting the work - and I was pretty good at doing it. This was in 1978 when I started to use computers in engineering analysis in a big way for the first time. The firm was very successful and we did lots of master planning and feasibility studies on port and harbour and infrastructure projects and also built quite a few as "the Engineer".

Many of these projects like the West Bank container terminal at Ipswich Port are still in operation and include the infrastructure for the Lakeside shopping centre and the adjacent retail warehouse complex on the old Tunnel Cement works site in Thurrock, alongside the northern M25 approach to the Dartford Crossing.

Robert West Consulting is also still in business today. See www.robertwest.co.uk

Setting up a new type of UK business called Pentacon

After 7 years I became frustrated with working with Bob and the conventional consultants role and set up a design and construction business called Pentacon. I was the majority shareholder with 3 junior co-directors. I had total control of this business and quickly developed a very informal, very efficient, focused organisation that built all its projects to time and budget.

Large projects for major blue chip Clients

We did studies, design and construction of work to a total value of approximately £60.0m between 1985 and 1990 for a variety of major blue chip clients. This included being "The Engineer" for the infrastructure of the suburb of Chafford Hundred at West Thurrock in Essex.

This project was very involved and complex. It involved feasibility studies and master planning of roads, drains, utility services, railway station, schools and shops, on 5000 hectares of abandoned quarries, for a new suburb of 10,000 people - all undertaken over a 5 year period in close conjunction with Thurrock Borough Council.

All the housing has now been built and occupied and it is now a thriving community. (Just type Chafford Hundred into Google and you will see).

We also built offices, warehouses and industrial units for a large variety of developer, retailer and manufacturing clients throughout England.

Pentacon and the Credit Squeeze

We also undertook property development and this eventually caused the firm to go bust. Pentacon ceased trading in September 1990 when it became a victim of the severe credit squeeze that was imposed by the UK government.

We developed the Palmerston Business Park in Fareham, Hampshire. In Spring 1990 it was valued at $20m and 6 months later $10m - and the bank pulled the plugand then sold it all on at a massive profit - I have never trusted banks since!

This was my first setback and it was a big one! I had given personal guarantees to the banks and was eventually forced into personal bankruptcy in 1992. I got divorced at the same time - what a year!

Forced onto the tools

This was during the big construction recession of the 1990's and so I bought myself some tools and started building house extensions and garages etc - and taught myself to do all the building trades. I enjoyed the work - but not working outside in the UK winter!

Working as a consultant to KBR

In the mid 1990's the construction industry started to pick up again and so I abandoned the builder's tools and started to work as a consultant to Kellog Brown and Root (KBR) - back in the oil and gas business that I had worked in during my 20's.

Biggest projects in the world

Working at KBR turned into a fantastic opportunity and for 10 years I was involved with some of the biggest projects in the world including;

• The Darwin to Alice Springs railway in Australia

• The giant Tengiz onshore oil-field in Kazakhstan

• The D154 nuclear refueling facility project at Plymouth dockyard in Devon

• The massive Kashagan offshore oil-field in the Caspian Sea

• Master plans for two gas based industrial estates with their own ports, power plants and aliminium smelters in Sohar, Jordan and Darwin, Australia

• Various LNG plant schemes

• Dozens of other very large projects.

Ability to think "Outside the Box"

At KBR I always tended to be involved in the master planning and feasibility study stages because of my wide experience, statistical analytical ability, enthusiasm and inclination to think "Outside of the Box"

Last Project for KBR in 2005

Eventually I became a bit jaded from the perpetual travelling with KBR and did my last project for them in 2005. I had moved to France a couple of years before this with the intention of setting up a swimming pool business in partnership with my oldest son Luke.

Bluepools SARL

Bluepools SARL is now well established as the leading French builder of luxury swimming pools, primarily for British owners of French property. We have now built nearly 50 pools and now have so much experience that we mainly act as Pool Designers and Project Co-ordinators. Luke is the day to day manager of the Business and I just help with the marketing and the website.

Fully Detailed Cv

If you would like to download a fully detailed CV click on the following:-

Fully detailed Cv of Will Witt