Adrian Ratte

Adrian’s background is diverse, having gained experience with oil and gas exploration in the Canadian Arctic at Schlumberger, manufacturing of gas compression and generator packages in the oilfields of Alberta at Enerflex, and as a contract manufacturer applying prototyping and machining technologies at Alzar Industries in Ontario. He also completed a race car Mechanic training program at the Bridgestone Racing Academy near Toronto. Throughout University he was heavily involved in the Formula SAE team, where the students design and build a race car each year. Eventually culminating in a position as the team leader, his final year thesis project was the design, construction, and testing of a carbon fibre race car chassis. After completing his degree, Adrian joined Sereca Fire Consulting Ltd in Vancouver, BC in 2006 and for 7 years he performed engineering analysis following fires and other failure incidents. During this period he investigated fires, explosions, and other engineering failures in domestic, commercial, and industrial facilities. He has also investigated fires and failures in boats, heavy machinery and vehicles. This position included a focus on the application of Building Regulations, Standards, and Electrical and Gas Codes of Practice to identify defects, evaluate requirements, and analyse compliance. He has […]

Tom Peat

Tom graduated with a MEng in Aero-Mechanical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde in 2013. This degree incorporated numerous independent and group assignments, as well as an international research project at the Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain. Upon completion of his degree, Tom began work as a Supplier Quality Engineer with Jaguar Land Rover, located in Gaydon. This role included the review of suppliers’ manufacturing facilities to ensure correct process controls were in place to maintain part quality and protect the delivery schedule. One of his main projects involved the investigation of defective aluminium plates that were susceptible to splitting during the pressing process. The outcome of this investigation identified the primary cause of the failure and resulted in the implementation of new process controls to reduce the frequency of defective parts. This role cultivated an interest in materials science which led to the undertaking of a PhD in Advanced Surface Engineering within the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. The PhD project involved the development of an innovative surface engineering process to manufacture highly erosion-resistant composite surfaces containing ceramic and oxide reinforcing particles. The findings of this research were published in leading peer-reviewed academic […]

Paul Moody

Paul completed his undergraduate degree in Metallurgy at the University of Birmingham in 1990. During this time, he was sponsored by British Steel and gained work experience at Swinden Labs in Rotherham. Paul later completed his Doctorate at the University of Birmingham, researching the fracture properties of welded structural steels in relation to the oxygen content of weld metals. The work was sponsored by ESAB, headquartered in Waltham Cross in London. After completing his studies in 1995, Paul began his career at the Defence Research Agency as a Research Scientist, working on welding of high strength naval steels and investigations of failed components. Following this, Paul worked as a Metallurgist at a number of firms including Bodycote Materials Testing Ltd, Ingenco Ltd (formerly Scottish Power Technology), and Doosan Babcock Ltd. Paul’s experience includes facilitating contract materials testing for the offshore oil and gas services industry, performing remanent life assessment on boilers for power plants and petrochemical sites, investigating failed components, and providing support on materials related issues. Since joining Hawkins in 2017, Paul has worked on cases involving escapes of water, personal injuries, petrochemical sites and boilers for power generation. Paul’s boiler and petrochemical site investigations have taken place in […]

James Kingham

James graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2005 with a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, having completed an industrial placement year working in cryogenics for The Hymatic Engineering Company (now part of Honeywell Aerospace’s Defence & Space business group). After graduating, James returned to Honeywell Aerospace as a development engineer, working on Joule-Thomson coolers and Stirling Cycle Cryocoolers primarily for missile and satellite applications. This included customer driven development projects as well as R&D and investigative projects. In 2010, James took on the role of New Product Development Manager with ITT (later Xylem) Flow Control, overseeing the development of pneumatic and hydraulic valve actuation controls and actuators for use in severe service environments, including the oil & gas and rail industries. James was then promoted to Centre of Excellence Engineering Lead – Valves (Technical Manager) in 2013, becoming the senior technical contact at the Wolverhampton site overseeing product development, project management and product certification activities within the business. James is a Chartered Engineer and as such is a full member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. James also holds a Level 5 diploma in Management & Leadership and is a Six Sigma Black Belt.

Eleanor Jay

Eleanor graduated with a 1st Class Masters Degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Imperial College London. As part of Eleanor’s first degree, she was employed at Industrial Research Limited in New Zealand (now Callaghan Innovation). Here, she developed specialised ceramic filters for the use in hydrogen cells, assisting in the purification of hydrogen. Following this, her PhD work involved researching ceramic materials for nuclear fuel storage applications (requiring high temperature and pressure resistance). During this time, she worked closely with several nuclear establishments across the globe with whom she collaborated. Eleanor also spent time at Nanyang Technology University in Singapore, where she investigated ceramic systems for a variety of energy applications such as fuel cells, including lithium-ion batteries. After completing her PhD, Eleanor was seconded to the Government Office for Science and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to be part of the Nuclear Energy Research and Development Review Board, chaired by the then Chief Scientist, Sir John Beddington. The work was commissioned after the House of Lords published a critical report on the future of nuclear energy in the UK. She assessed the UK’s nuclear energy landscape, which involved close communication with stakeholders across the nuclear industry […]

Paul Hughes

Paul left Newcastle University in 2007 with a Masters Degree in Civil and Structural Engineering. As part of his course of study he spent a year at the National University of Singapore on a graduate exchange programme. He joined Royal Haskoning, Maritime Division, working from the design office on a wide variety of projects including ports, shipyards, dry docks, terminals and other maritime structures. During this time he was also seconded to BAM Nuttall, working on the London Olympic site overseeing the construction of bridges and retaining walls. In 2011, Paul joined 2H Offshore and over the next five years worked from London, Paris, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur on the design and management of specialist offshore projects. He expanded his engineering knowledge into subsea systems, specialising in the design, structural analysis and integrity management of riser and conductor systems. This included the design and construction of minimal facilities platforms and subsea structures for hybrid risers. Paul joined Hawkins in 2016 in order to further expand the civil engineering capability of the company.

Mike Hopwood

Mike’s civil and highway engineering career began at Parkman where he worked on several major projects, including the St Helens M62 link road and the A570 Ormskirk Bypass. Specialising in preliminary and detailed design work, Mike joined Giffords to work on the structural design of the Second River Dee Crossing. Mike moved to Cheshire County Council in 1994 and rose to the level of Principal Engineer. At the time, Cheshire was one of the largest UK local authorities and was also managing a large motorway network including the M6. During his progression, Mike led teams responsible for safety inspections, winter maintenance, streetworks and third party claims. Mike appeared in Court countless times as a witness for local government. Whilst with local government, Mike was responsible for the design, letting and construction of numerous large and complex civil engineering schemes. During this time, he gained particular expertise in all aspects of design, performance and specification of road building, drainage, construction materials and road and junction layouts including traffic management and road signs. Alongside his Engineering role, Mike was also a local government health and safety officer. He was responsible for workplace safety audits and risk assessments along with enforcement and the […]

John Holland

An Intel scholar, John graduated with a 1st Class Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin, Ireland in 2000. As part of his degree he developed an automatic moisture sensor for use in the peat industry for which he was awarded the Hewlett Packard national award for innovation in engineering. After a brief period with Schlumberger Oilfield Services in Peru, John returned to Ireland to take up a position with Teradyne Connection Systems, before joining Timoney Technology as a mechanical design engineer, where he specialised in the design and development of Hydropneumatic Suspension Systems for specialty off road vehicles. In this role he also gained considerable experience with computer aided engineering techniques such as Finite Element Analysis and Vehicle Multi-body Dynamic Analysis. John was appointed engineering manager with Timoney Technology and took over full technical responsibility for all engineering projects and products. Projects of note include the DARPA Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle, the USMC Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Vehicle and the Timoney ADT Independent Suspension Axle System manufactured under licence by Terex Equipment Ltd. John was also involved with the Ginaf Rally Power and DeRooy race teams for the 2007 Dakar Rally and has numerous automotive suspension patents filed […]

Richard Giles-Carlsson

Hawkins Civil Engineer Richard Giles-Carlsson

Hannah Fletcher

Hannah graduated with a first class degree in Civil Engineering from Imperial College London in 2011. Upon graduation, Hannah joined Laing O’Rourke and worked on both infrastructure and commercial construction projects. She supervised construction works as a Site Engineer at Beckton Sewage Treatment Works Upgrade and then, as a Senior Engineer, planned and managed works on 3 projects: Crossrail- Tottenham Court Road Station, Wood Wharf (Canary Wharf) and Southbank Place. During this time Hannah gained experience in reinforced concrete construction: in-situ, pre-cast, basement raft slabs, jump forms and suspended slabs. She also gained experience in temporary works, lifting operations, excavations and installation of pressure pipelines. In 2016 Hannah moved to New Zealand to work for Fletcher Construction as a Project Manager. She led the delivery of a 40 storey commercial office tower, part of the Commercial Bay project in central Auckland, where she gained experience in steel structures, building envelopes (curtain wall façade and roof systems) and structural fire protection. Hannah joined Hawkins in 2020 and since joining has developed her skills to include the investigation of fires. She has since investigated fires in both domestic and commercial settings, as well as construction incidents, water ingress and storm damage. She is […]