Member Article

Patrick Parsons expands Environment and Energy teams across the UK to meet growing demand

Multi-disciplinary consulting engineering firm, Patrick Parsons, has strengthened its environment and energy offering with a senior promotion in Huddersfield, the creation of a new team in Glasgow, and a forthcoming high-profile appointment in Birmingham.

This comes as a result of growing demand for Patrick Parsons’ ground engineering and geoenvironmental services, which range from desk top study and ground investigation to remediation strategies and risk assessment.

In the firm’s Huddersfield office, principal engineer Dr. Steve Black has been promoted to associate director. This follows a successful first two years with the company, during which he has built Huddersfield’s environment & energy team from scratch.

Dr. Black, who has more than 25 years of industry experience, has also made a significant contribution to the business by bringing in new clients, building strong relationships with external companies and bolstering the firm’s geoenvironmental, civil and structural offering in Yorkshire. He is now planning to further develop Huddersfield’s environment & energy team and to expand its reach into South Yorkshire, the North West and the Midlands.

Dr. Grant Richardson, director of environment & energy at Patrick Parsons, said: “When we appointed Steve we were confident that he would be a valuable addition to our team, but he has excelled in the role and exceeded our expectations.

“Steve is held in high regard by everyone he works with for his skill, insight and expertise. His promotion to associate director is an acknowledgement of the extensive contribution he has already made to both the Huddersfield office and the firm as a whole.”

With demand for geoenvironmental services also growing in Scotland, Patrick Parsons has created a new environment & energy team at its Glasgow office, which was previously serviced from its head office in Newcastle. Experienced engineers Jim Heather and Bharani Iyengar have been welcomed to the firm in senior roles and will spearhead the Glasgow team’s expansion.

Jim Heather has been appointed as associate directorand will also be responsible for business and commercial development within the team. He joins from a well-known Scottish engineering consultancy where he spent 12 years as an environment team leader, and has a strong background in contaminated land, waste management and environmental assessment, as well as in developing high-performance teams.

Bharani Iyengar has also joined the firm as principal geotechnical engineer. Originally a civil engineer, Bharani cross-trained as a geotechnical engineer and has particular expertise in ground model assessment, geotechnical characterisation, analysis of retaining walls, slope stability assessment and earthworks specification and validation.

Having worked at a leading UK energy supplier for eight years as well as at a local city council, Bharani brings a wealth of geotechnical design experience to Patrick Parsons.

Dr. Richardson continued: “Jim and Bharani’s skills complement each other perfectly, and with their combined years of experience they make a strong team to build out the environment & energy team in Glasgow.

“I’m delighted to have the new recruits onboard, and along with Steve’s promotion this reflects how the team is moving onto the next level. We now have a talented and experienced team in place to drive the discipline forward and to work on the exciting projects we have in the pipeline.

“In terms of next steps, we will soon be announcing a senior appointment at our Birmingham office. That person will be tasked with building up a geoenvironmental team to initially cover the Midlands region with a medium term goal to develop both the South East and South West regions.

“This means we will have national coverage across all engineering disciplines, which is a vital part of our ongoing expansion plans.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Patrick Parsons .