What do you do?
As a Bid Manager working within the Business Development team, my primary role is to help the business to win work across the Middle East region – to develop, formulate and deliver winning proposals that set WSP apart from it’s peers.
It is a highly collaborative role requiring a team approach at local and global levels. Locally, engaging with business unit leaders and disciplines to ensure selected prospects are targeted and aligned to our strategies. Globally, I work with and reach out to counterparts in other regions to provide our clients, new or existing, with the right expertise to deliver their project’s scope.
Where are you originally from?
I am originally from the UK, where I spent 25 years split between the Leicestershire and Surrey counties. It was here that I first started my journey working within the Built Environment for Skanska, a Swedish contractor tendering MEP services to private developers, and Power and Wastewater contracts to some of the UK’s largest government authorities. The experience was fundamental to understanding the mechanics of a project’s life cycle and who contributes where.
How long have you been with WSP and in the region?
I recently celebrated half a decade in Dubai having arrived in January 2015. Originally joining Faithful+Gould, a global project and cost management consultancy. I then joined WSP eight months later and have been here for the past four and a half years.
What got you into engineering?
The built environment has always excited me, ever since a young age where I would create toy train sets or Lego block models of a design that came into my head.
Studying Architecture at degree level was a natural fit. Developing conceptual sketches and functional schemes, that met the client’s requirements, through to creating physical models excited me, and still does today!
What has been your best accomplishment at work?
Fortunately, with each company I have worked with we have won multiple projects, they are all accomplishments. It is personally rewarding to meet people who are working on those projects whether that be in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar or further afield!
What are you passionate about?
Architecture has always been a passion and working with our global architectural partners – many of which I researched during my studies – this creates a drive to do more and to showcase what WSP offers.
What is it you do outside of work that you feel most proud of?
Those around me know I talk (a lot) about triathlons – Swim. Bike. Run. A sport, a hobby and a lifestyle that I started three years ago to improve my quality of life and provide an external goal away from the workplace. At the weekends, you are likely to find me watching a sunrise from the sea or from the saddle of my bike. Besides the 4am alarms, it is an opportunity to switch off from the events of each week.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I hope to have started and be able to support a family. I will continually push myself to the next level and have set myself many goals, from managing and leading a team – which thrives on fostering new collaborations – to pursing further education and professional membership accreditation related to project management.
What do you think the future of engineering looks like?
Technology is advancing and changing all the time. As we slowly start to see in other industries, automation will begin to have a wider impact on how we operate and deliver engineering projects – through processes, techniques and tools. There will also be advances to the types of materials used, prolonging a building’s life span.
