Born and raised in Ghana, in Kadjebi, to a farmer mother and cleric father, Salim was raised with 17 siblings. Despite humble beginnings, 12 of his siblings, including Salim, graduated university.
While he originally intended to become a farmer and study agricultural science, fate had other plans in store. Upon completing his secondary schooling, he followed in the footsteps of one of his brothers and studied geological engineering at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
“I quickly noticed that my interest leaned more towards civil engineering aspect. But fortunately, the geological engineering had several aspects, so I decided it would suffice as my first degree,” he says.
After graduating, Salim began travelling in the UK, where he secured his first position as an assistant geotechnical engineer with Norwest Holst Engineering.
“This enabled me to spend a lot of time in the field, which was very helpful for me because it formed the foundation for my career. While I was working, I developed an interest in water and environmental aspects, and applied for a part time Master's study at University of Surrey, Guildford. I was offered the water and environmental engineering postgraduate study, which I pursued while working,” he elaborates.
This led him to join the Mott MacDonald group as a geotechnical engineer, where Salim's role as a consultant was consolidated. It also enabled him to begin racking up achievements on significant projects in London, such as the Crossrail project and the Highways Agency Area 4 projects.
“A key project that I did while at Mott McDonald that I'm most proud of entailed stabilising 21-meter-high embankments along the A21 Highway near Stocks Green, which links the A2/M2 to the Channel Tunnel in Dover, into France and Europe. There was an area where the embankment was failing, and we needed to stabilise it” he explains.
“To achieve this, we adopted one of the cutting-edge and eco-friendly technologies in the field which used the electro-kinetic geosynthetic method of stabilising the embankment. It involved running electrical currents through the ground and then using steel rods and pipes to draw out the water from the embankment while the solid steel rods remained in-place as soil nails,” he continues.
After relocating back to Ghana, to help with his extended family, Salim secured a position with Knight Piésold, which opened a new chapter in his professional advancement, including becoming manager of a geotechnical laboratory for four years.
“One of my greatest achievements was expanding that laboratory and improving its revenue to the extent that we were able to quadruple its number of employees. We also introduced a full mobile laboratory where we could move the lab to sites and run tests for projects,” he notes.
After six years, Salim decided to move into a role as a freelance consultant, where he did a project for Golder Associates – just prior to WSP’s global acquisition of Golder - that caught the attention of Brent Bronson, at the WSP office in Denver, who then got Salim involved in the design aspect of a Tailings Storage Facility (TSF5). The project entailed geotechnical site investigation (including geotechnical characterisation and data analysis), construction quality assurance (CQA) engineer (for the earthwork/liner installation supervision), TSF5 starter tailings deposition/ commissioning oversight for the TSF 5 starter, TMLSA, Mauritania.
“At the conclusion of that project, Brent offered me the opportunity to join the WSP team full time and as the deputy engineer of record, which took me into a completely different world of engineering and came with some huge responsibilities. When Brent retired in 2022, he listed me as the engineer of record. It has been over a year since I've been handling the role, and is one of the most challenging, but fascinating aspects of my life,” he adds.
When not staying on top of engineering projects at WSP and managing the Ghana team, Salim spends his time in a variety of social activities with his extended family. He also enjoys playing football in friendly/social leagues and supports Liverpool Football Club in the Premier League.
“WSP has really opened up the next phase of my professional development in terms of moving into a senior role. I am grateful and have taken up those challenges with both hands,” he concludes.
