HBPW’s Senior Partner, Paul Withers, is to step back from day-to-day management of major civil engineering projects and take up an internal consulting role.
Paul, who originally set up the civil engineering practice with Chris Clarke in 2000, has worked on some of the UK’s most important engineering infrastructure projects, and has been associated with public and private sector clients as diverse as Associated British Ports, Network Rail, AmcoGiffen and the Ministry of Defence.
He was instrumental in leading the engineering design at Immingham Renewable Fuels Terminal (IRFT) and has done work at Gladstone Docks, Drax Power Station, developed flood prevention measures in Sheffield and, most recently, played his part in the over-arching £1billion scheme to transform Dundee City Waterfront.
But he has decided that ‘knowledge transfer’ is the way forward for HBPW as he seeks to offer greater professional support to colleagues, particularly those at the beginning of their career.
“We have gone from fledgling beginnings in 2000 to around £4m turnover in just over 20 years with key specialisms in marine and rail engineering. It’s been an amazing journey.
“You amass a lot of knowledge in that time and, unless you take planned steps to ‘cascade’ it to the next generation, it is invariably lost. If you are still ‘hands on’ and working at the coalface, so to speak, then you have limited time to consult and advise because you are too busy ‘doing’!
“With that in mind I have taken the decision to step back from hands on project management and take on an advisory role.”
This, said Paul, would not only involve supporting his Partners – Paul Monaghan, Jon Livesey, Emyr Parry, Tommy Ng, Helen Haynes and Martin Todd – but also being close at hand to advise engineers in their mid-20’s onwards.
“People talk about ‘value engineering’ – occasionally saving someone millions of pounds at the stroke of a pen – but that knowledge takes a lifetime to acquire and confidence to implement. It is that knowledge that I must now pass on so that I can imbue others – particularly young engineers – to grow in professional confidence.
“This move will give me the space to help and inspire other members of the HBPW team, certainly those who are part of the company’s graduate training programme. I am not quite the ‘oracle’, however, I am looking forward to the role of ‘teacher’ rather than ‘doer’, and I sincerely hope that I can bring value to the next generation of professionals.
“My father was an engineer and used to say that when a person died it was like burning a library. I was lucky enough to enjoy his conversations at the dinner table every night and was able to take some of the knowledge from ‘his’ books. It’s now my job to donate my ‘library’ to the next generation!”