Director of Operations

Responsible for overseeing the operations of Watermaiden in the UK. Specialising in waste water treatment and contaminated soil remediation, Watermaiden is proud to provide a tailored solution to the world's toughest environmental issues. Drawing upon the incredibly diverse experience in the company, our philosophy is to apply simple, affordable technology that works to solve any contamination challenge you have. Because of this agility, we can respond quicker than others and have produced hundreds of innovative solutions that deliver.Key objectives include:- Driving efficient and effective operations for all UK customers to deliver results- Fawley Site Manager for Watermaiden Operations at the ExxonMobil refinery in Southampton - one of our key customers- Working with the team on a daily basis to come up with innovative solutionsKey achievements:- Grew the company from a team of 4 to 22 during the lockdown when most companies shrank. - Responsible for writing, negotiating and winning a £20M+ contract with Exxon Mobil.- Flawless safety performance.Visit www.watermaiden.com for more info

Electric surfboard lessons in Southampton

Responsible for influencing strong reliability behaviours in the CAT business team from the operating technicians to engineering specialists.Key objectives include:- The application of risk based work selection to determine the most competitive SHE and Financial risk reduction during annual maintenance plans and turnarounds- Development of Long Range Plan strategy and use of Life Cycle Cost Analysis to justify options- Short and long term management of high financial risk reliability threats- Application of root cause analysis to equipment initial failures to determine the correct equipment strategyAn additional responsibility, I provided functional supervision to the Process Day Shift Leader who was responsible for all Process planning and day to day operations led by Process. Focused on empowerment, positive recognition and transparent communication on goals and objectives.In addition to this role I was also the contractor Buddy Manager to Watermaiden primarily supporting their use of Loss Prevention System to their operations.

Responsible for the day-to-day coordination of the Process and Maintenance workforce in the CAT area to deliver the Annual Maintenance Plan. Driving compliance to plan and delivering efficiencies through effective empowerment of individuals and embracing true out of the box (electric fence) thinking.Notable achievements were the reduction in backlogs and the first ever use of a hot tap balloon stopple in water/hydrocarbon service at Fawley to replace a critical valve.This role was in addition to the Business Team Reliability Leader role and was achieved by working extended hours to support the team during sickness cover.

Responsible for influencing strong reliability behaviours in the Distillation business team from the operating technicians to engineering specialists.Key objectives include:- The application of risk based work selection to determine the most competitive SHE and Financial risk reduction during annual maintenance plans and turnarounds- Development of Long Range Plan strategy and use of Life Cycle Cost Analysis to justify options- Short and long term management of high financial risk reliability threats- Application of root cause analysis to equipment initial failures to determine the correct equipment strategyIn addition to this role I am also the contractor Buddy Manager to Watermaiden primarily supporting their use of Loss Prevention System to their operations.

Scheduler in the Refinery Supply department coordinating the import and export of FCC feed stock, group 1 and 3 lubricants and fuel oils.Key objectives included:- Daily analysis of running unit configuration to determine the most economic solution and communicate this via the daily Runplan Strategy to the Business Teams- Use of ORION scheduling software to develop a rolling 3 month site plan- Coordination of all of the relevant shipping vessels to and from the refinery including close communication with Brussels scheduling- Driving creative use of assets to bring competitive advantage (Carbon black vs HPBS)- Crisis management to minimise impacts from Refinery upsets to customers

Daily monitoring and troubleshooting technical support to the operations team on the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit.Key objectives included:- Daily analysis of key margin variables to optimise the unit - Application of FCC technology troubleshooting to resolve operating issues and to attain the Runplan- Development of small scale margin improvement projects- Notable achievements include: substantial improvement in temporary chilling equipment, FCC feed zone tuning and significant increase in high value propylene recovery

Daily monitoring and troubleshooting technical support to the operations team on the high pressure hydrogen residue upgrading reactor.Key objectives included:- Daily analysis of key margin variables to optimise the unit - Application of Residfining technology troubleshooting to resolve operating issues and to attain the Runplan- Development of small scale margin improvement projects- Notable achievements include: installation of scale baskets in the reactor catalyst beds to overcome run length limiting pressure drop issues, change in hydrogen recovery performance and characterisation of feed aromaticity using the k-watson factor

Provided key operations support during the preparation to the 2012 major turnaround.

Reporting directly to the Process Support Manager I was involved in a broad range of micro projects reaching across every business team on the refinery.Included the development of Safety Critical Device testing parameters and a database to host them, revamp of refinery business team scorecard metrics and short term operating issue support.

I was employed to research protein extraction from whisky by-products such as spent grains, spent wash and pot ale. Work included a preliminary literature review and mass balances followed by a series of experiments, planned and conducted by myself. The research was successful in isolating a high protein extract that could be sold as a specialist animal food source.

I set this business up during the summer holidays with the help of a Princes Youth Trust start-up grant. With this grant I purchased additional wet suits, life jackets and liability insurance. Hosted birthday parties and drop-in sessions. I also employed two people. Experiences offered included water skiing, wakeboarding, doughnut and banana boat tows.

I worked with this company during the holiday periods whilst at University. Due to the nature of the company being a consultancy I had an excellent opportunity to see chemical engineering processes right through from lab research phase, to pilot plant and then to full scale for industry. I played a key role in the research and design of crystallising pans for a salt factory in Cornwall. I also operated a small pilot plant consisting of an evaporator, separator and condenser to process various mediums ranging from brine to artemisinin extract.