Nico Zurcher
Prior to becoming an investigator, Nico worked in a international environmental consultancy where he was involved in a number of major government marine projects in Hong Kong, as well as oil and gas, and mining projects around Asia. In 2011 he joined HFS-Asia in Hong Kong, where he worked as a fire investigator and consulting scientist. In 2015, Nico moved to London where he joined Hawkins to bolster our growing International and Shipping Incidents team. He continued investigating a broad range of land-based and marine incidents, both in the UK and internationally. He was also a member of our contamination team, taking on cases in the UK and Europe. Hawkins acquired HFS-Asia in 2016 and in 2020 Nico returned to Hong Kong to head the office he helped to build several years earlier. Nico has investigated several fires in large industrial plants, as well as in commercial and residential premises. On the marine side, he has investigated major fires on container and general cargo vessels. He has worked on numerous cases of bulk cargo spoilage, involving grains, oil seeds and seedcake. Nico has also worked on cases involving the carriage and storage of mixed chemical cargoes, and the contamination of […]
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 […]
Graeme Drysdale
Graeme joined the Glasgow Claims Department of Commercial Union in 1982 and left to join Thomas Howell Selfe as a trainee loss adjuster in 1986. Over the ensuing 16 years Graeme worked variously for Cunningham Hart, Willis Corroon, THG, Davies, Crawford & Co and GAB Robins, including a period of self-employment trading as Whittle Drysdale & Co. In 2002 he joined AXA Corporate Claims, Ipswich handling Major Loss First Party & Casualty losses. He also enjoyed a short secondment increasing his knowledge of EL/PL and Motor Injury claims. Graeme was attracted by the lure of the bright lights and in 2010 left to join Zurich Global Corporate in London as a Senior Adjuster, handling some of the highest value property damage claims in the global market on a lead basis. Graeme found this the most challenging and technically interesting job in his career so far. Graeme joined Hawkins in May 2013 as Business Development Manager and brings his extensive contacts and experience of the workings of the London, UK and International Insurance Markets. He is based in Cambridge and has desks in our Glasgow and London offices. Graeme travels extensively meeting existing and potential customers. He attained the ACII Diploma […]