Degree in Civil engineering. Optional subjects focused on water supply and environmental engineer along with highways and traffic engineering.with the

This was mainly a distance learning course that covered both the engineering and community management aspects of undertaking water supply, sanitation and urban infrastructure projects in developing countries.

Within the Infrastructure Marketing Centre (MC-Infra) I am responsible for the marketing of the BorSafe polyethylene pressure pipe grades together with providing support and advice to Application Marketing Managers responsible for other polyethylene and polypropylene pipe grades. My key duties include:
• Collection and analysis of intelligence from a range of sources to identify market needs and trends
• Marketing input in to the identification and development of new grades and applications together with drafting and implementing the associated launch plans
• Assist in the development of the MC-Infra Business Plan and marketing strategies covering all grades
• Development of BorSafe marketing strategies based on in depth understanding of the market sector
• Production and updating of the BorSafe marketing plan based on the approved strategies
• Annual planning and organisation of marketing activities through tools such as the 4P or SAVE Plan
• Undertaking regular activities such as exhibitions, writing of technical papers and articles for conferences and trade publications, technical seminars and training workshops
• Extensive interaction with and provision of marketing and technical support to the BorSafe value chain
I am also actively involved in initiating, managing and providing technical support for water supply and sanitation projects undertaken through the Borealis and Borouge Water for the World CSR programme.

After being made redundant by ADDC as part of their ‘Emiratisation’ programme I joined Halcrow as the director of their water and energy group in Abu Dhabi. Halcrow had a matrix management structure and my duties varied widely including managing individual projects and packages of work, undertaking the role of project director on several projects and being the resource manager for a team of 40 technical staff. Most of the projects concerned the utilities design for development projects in Abu Dhabi and hence I had to refresh my design skills and learn about new subjects such as gas and district cooling networks.

After completing the reorganisation of the ADWEA Water Projects Department I accepted a position with ADDC, the local water and power utility and established the new asset management division, which eventually comprised 120 staff and was responsible for the asset management of both water and power distribution systems. The challenge involved the introduction of modern asset management practices such asset register and performance, whole life cost analysis, asset standards and policy, system modelling and risk management.

Following the successful establishment of the Asset Management Division I took over the Projects Division in January 2007. Up to that point ADDC only managed minor projects and for them to take over the management of all water and power supply projects the division had to improve its project management, engineering design and developer liaison capability. Key elements of the transition include the agreement of new work flows and procedures with stakeholders and the establishment of a project and document management system. My regular duties include stakeholder liaison, programme management, introducing and implementing new KPIs, policies and procedures, resolving problems on critical projects and managing 45 staff in 3 departments, who in turn managed an annual capital programme of over US$ 1.2 billion.

My brief as an advisor was to identify and implement ways by which the performance of the authority’s project management directorate could be enhanced. This task involved a detailed analysis of the directorate’s structure, job descriptions, activities and procedures, together with identifying key performance indicators. Following a change in government policy, several developers commenced work on large scale projects in Abu Dhabi and I was given the additional role of being ADWEA’s development projects coordinator.

Following the completion of the study the authority was restructured and I was appointed as water projects department manager to implement some of the enhancements identified in the study. I was also tasked with reorganising the department and preparing it for its eventual break-up and distribution amongst the three operating companies. As head of department I was responsible for 26 staff and the management of more than 40 projects having a value of over US$1.1 billion.

First appointed as the Design Team Leader, responsible for running a multi-disciplinary design team and project managing several water supply projects. These included Abu Dhabi’s first leakage management project, the detailed design of the 455 Ml/d Shuweihat Water Transmission Project and the emirate’s first PE100 water supply network. The position primarily involved technical, project and general management of the team.

In 2002 I took over the management of all Mott MacDonald water and environment activities in the UAE along with an engineering and environmental team that grew to over 80 staff. We undertook a wide variety of water supply and wastewater network projects together with large scale water transmission, desalination and industrial seawater cooling projects. Duties included extensive interaction with clients, local government bodies and other stakeholders, business development, the preparation of proposals, programme and general management of the office and its staff.

During this 4½ year period I was based in Cambridge, UK and worked in a wide variety of design and construction supervision positions at several locations in the UK and overseas. Most of the design positions involved running teams working on water supply and wastewater treatment projects. These included the Hyderabad Water Transmission project in India, which involved a 615 Ml/d, 135 km long, twin 2.6 m dia. welded steel pipeline and the Al Masarrat Water Supply Scheme in Oman, a complete scheme designed to supply 150,000 people from two desert wellfields. This 2nd project was notable as it was the first in Oman to adopt the large scale use of PE100 pipe systems for water distribution networks.

The site supervision positions included acting as Principal Resident Engineer on the Al Masarrat scheme on two occasions and as a water and sanitation engineer for Oxfam, when I took some time out to work for the NGO in Albania. In between major projects I worked on a variety of smaller ones such as a 3 MW hydro power scheme in Scotland and a UK government water supply study for the city of Lucknow in India.

Anglian Water is the largest (by area) water utility in the UK and I joined their Lincoln engineering office as a graduate engineer. I trained ‘under agreement’ on an Institution of Civil Engineers scheme, becoming a chartered engineer and environmentalist in 1995, following which I became a project engineer. During my 8 years at Anglian Water I undertook the design, construction supervision and project management of wide variety of projects including:
• Eight PE, uPVC and ductile iron pipeline projects including some of the first PE100 projects in 1993
• Extensions to three sewage treatment plants and associated sewerage systems
• Preliminary design of a 5 Ml/d water treatment plan
• The 50ML Grimsby service reservoir and associated pipelines
• Two large scale water network modelling and analysis studies
I also worked overseas, undertaking two leakage management projects in Dublin, Ireland and Tamil Nadu in the south of India. The work in Tamil Nadu was very challenging as it involved daily leakage detection work in the field, but on return to the UK I found that I missed the challenge and decided I wanted to work overseas.