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I am a chartered civil engineer who graduated from Sheffield University in England with an honours degree in Civil and Structural Engineering.

I went to Totton Grammer School in Hampshire, near Southampton and left there with 3 good A level passes in Pure and Applied Mathematics and Physics to go to Sheffield.

Back in those days only about 3% of school leavers went to a real university and many of these were thrown off the course because of the massive amount of work and the the very high standards that were required to pass the exams at the end of every year.

Despite all the other distractions of University life (rugby, beer and women) I managed to graduate with an Upper Second Honours degree.

Me and my university pals - I am the James Dean look-alike on the right (please click to enlarge)

Early Career

I then went straight out on site to learn about how things were really built - I could not get there fast enough.

Eventually after 3 very educational years on site I went into various design offices, working as a design engineer, becoming a senior engineer after another 3 years. I then became a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE) that signifies Chartered Engineer status in the UK.

I then worked for another 6 years both in the design office and out on site on studies and design of marine structures and infrastructure facilities for the oil and gas industry. I also managed to pass the exams to become a Chartered Structural Engineer as well (MIStructE) at the first attempt - this was pretty rare at the time.

I played rugby for Sheffield and Yorkshire before moving to London where I continued to play for Blackheath and Kent and then Streatham-Croydon and Surrey

Senior Roles

In 1978 I helped Bob West set up Robert West and Partners a firm that is still trading as engineering consultants under the name Robert West Consulting Ltd.

Whilst there I was responsible for studies and the conceptual design for many major marine and industrial projects as well as the detailed design and construction supervision.

After about 7 years I left Robert West to set up the Pentacon group of companies. At Pentacon I led multi-disciplinary teams in both the design and construction of major infrastructure projects, commercial and industrial buildings, port, highways and drainage works.

I was responsible for works of value of approximately £60.0m for a variety of major clients including BlueCircle Cement, RTZ and the Rosehaugh Group. This included being “The Engineer” for the complete infrastructure of the Chafford Hundred new town in Essex. The project involved feasibility studies and master planning of roads, drains, underground services, schools, commercial centres on 5000 hectares of land.

The Pentacon group ceased trading in September 1990 when it became a victim of the severe credit squeeze to reduce inflation that was imposed by the government at that time.

During this period I stopped playing rugby when about 40 and started long distance running - over a period of 10 years I ran about 50 marathons as well as many ultra races up to 100 miles in distance.

Recent Career

I left the Pentacon group in 1990 and since then have been involved mainly in very large projects in the oil and gas industry. From 1995 to 2005 I worked as a consultant to KBR one of the largest engineering companies in the world.

I was mainly involved in feasibililty studies and planning during the early stages of some of the biggest projects in the world including:-

A 4000 hectare gas based industrial estate for the Northern Territories Government in Darwin Australia
A 300 hectare gas based industrial estate for an international development consortium at Sohar in Oman
Infrastructure studies for the off-shore Kashagan oil field in the northern Caspian Sea (the 5th biggest offshore field in the world)
Infrastructure studies for Tengizchevroil at Tengiz one of the biggest on-shore oil and gas fields in the world

Since 2005 I have been working on various projects including setting up a swimming pool business in France (www.bluepools.com) that is now managed by my oldest son Luke as well the setting up of the Piexe website. We are now already very busy on various feasibility studies.

Summary

In summary I have been working on the planning and study stages of all types of project both small and very large for about 35 years.

I believe that the combination of vast project experience, a very practical and down to earth approach to problem solving and very high level analytical skills makes me uniquely qualified to assess and recommend methods and tools for use in project managment.

I also have the same amount of enthusiasm and energy for work (and play) that I have always had. I cannot really understand why so many of my contemporaries from both School and University have retired - but that's their bad luck!

Hi and welcome to a potted life history

Education

Early Career

Senior Roles

Recent Career

Summary

PS - If you want to go take advantage of my Facilitation Service I look forward to working with you