Greetings.
For my first post in this blog I thought I would start with a proper introduction to me and the blog. I am wary about trying to convince anyone who reads this that they should place any belief in it merely because of any qualifications or experience I have. Listening to people who work in a field and putting some stock in it is one thing, arguing from authority is something to be aware of. Just because someone says that they are "experts" in a field does not mean that they are right. Anyway I guess I just want people to see that I am writing this not purely from a layman's perspective...
So to begin with here is a little bit about my professional career and experience, I hope it doesn't read as dry as a CV....
I started an electrical engineering apprenticeship on leaving school at 16. This lasted for four years during which I studied on-the-job at Heathrow Airport while attending part-time college to obtain electrical maintenance and installation qualifications.
I continued working for Heathrow for three more years as a maintenance technician and a projects supervisor. During that time I also obtained a Higher National Certificate in Building Services.
I was then lucky enough to get seconded to Japan for 2 years working at Narita Airport on a personnel exchange programme. While I was there I studied maintenance strategies to understand how the Japanese industries balanced pre-emptive preventive maintenance against reactive repair maintenance. This also gave me time to study their environmental countermeasures and strategies.
On my return to Heathrow I spent about two years working for the Head of Engineering as part of my download in incorporating some of the stuff I had learned in Japan through as series of maintenance initiatives. These involved using statistics and logical steps to understand how to best maintain a system.
I was then assigned to work out "in the field" in one of the airport's terminals managing a team of engineering clerical officers as well as several maintenance contracts. During this time I was able to further incorporate some of the new maintenance routines into the engineering structure.
During a corporate restructuring I returned to a core engineering role in being the maintenance planner for life safety systems where again I could begin to influence maintenance routines.
In this previous four years I had been attending part time college to achieve an honors degree in Energy Engineering and it was during this time that I completed it.
On completion I sought my dream job which was the Energy Manager's role for Heathrow. I was assigned the post and then spent the next five years implementing energy saving initiatives at Heathrow and in the wider BAA group.The development of my role led me to provide the outline design for Heathrow's energy infrastructure strategy.
In 2005 after being nominated by a colleague I was awarded Energy Manager of the Year by the Energy Institute. I didn't get detailed feedback but I understand the majority of the scoring was due to an innovative behavioural change programme (with no globe hugging or colleagues in superhero costumes) as well as a well structured investment programme that would work well with other energy managers where funds were not so available. I continue to sit on the evaluation panel for Energy Manager of the Year.
On leaving BAA in 2006 I set up an environmental consultancy Sim Energy Ltd and have worked with various clients and service providers in delivering energy saving initiatives as well as reliability tactics.
Well, that's about it, 25 years of working in various engineering fields.
For the next article (which you will be glad will be a proper one) I will look at some basic engineering terminology and why you should change the lights in your house.
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