What led you to this career?
Previous experience as a Sonar Operator/Maintainer in the Submarine Service led to an interest in sound propagation underwater. Slightly different when dealing with ultrasonics, but some similarities.
What does your job role involve?
Project management of subsea projects in the UKCS region/Norway, Europe and West Africa. I take projects from cradle to grave and see them through all the cycles of inspection project processes. I liaise with the client throughout the project to ensure the end product is delivered. I am involved with business development and relationship building with oil and gas operators and vessel operators, to ensure a good understanding of our products to support subsea integrity concerns.
Can you give an insight into your working day at Sonomatic?
When going through a busy period with projects, my day is generally taken up with early morning client/vessel calls of progress offshore and liaising with the techs offshore to get an update on progress and any issues encountered. I ensure any data that is required to be reviewed back onshore, is sent to the relevant person and any spares are swiftly sent out to the vessel to ensure continued operation of inspection equipment. I manage the project documentation and deliverables to ensure they are sent to the client in a timely fashion and meet with the clients to discuss the results after the final issue of reports.
When project work is at a less busy period, my day consists of liaising with clients and meeting with them to understand any future, up and coming integrity concerns they may have. This involves understanding how we might be able to support by adapting our advanced inspection equipment to suit their needs.
What is the best thing about being part of the Sonomatic team?
Sonomatic is a smaller company than some of the other larger inspection companies in this field, and by being smaller, it offers a more personal working environment and greater support from the management team. Although our head office is in Warrington, we have fantastic support from them for the operations base in Aberdeen. The company is privately owned, and the owners are very supportive in pushing any profits back into the company to allow us to develop new technologies, to remain market leaders in our field.
What accomplishment have you made at Sonomatic that you are proud of?
I started off in the company in 2009 with very little experience as a field technician. After a number of years working offshore, I was offered the position of Subsea Project Manager to support the business from an onshore capacity. This I feel was a great achievement that the management felt comfortable offering me this position to manage their subsea projects.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
I enjoy keeping myself fit, I am a keen motorcycle enthusiast and I enjoy watching MotoGP.
