Please can you tell us a little bit about your professional background and career?

I’ve been employed in consulting engineering for 35 years, just over 20 years of which I’ve spent at AECOM working almost exclusively in the water sector. I started my career at AECOM supporting various projects in Ireland before going on to lead the water business there.

In 2011, AECOM won its work on the Jeddah Stormwater Drainage Program, which drew on teams in North America, the U.K. and Middle East. The business needed a coordinator with a strong water background to move to Houston, and this was my introduction to project work in Saudi Arabia.

It was a really interesting time. The project was fast tracked, with a very demanding client, and we had just seven to eight months to develop the designs, across our teams in Houston, Leeds and Dubai. Eventually, I moved to manage our design effort in the Leeds’ office, which was finalising the designs to issue for tender. Then in late 2011, the client asked me to go to Jeddah to oversee the field engineering on the programme.

What work did you do in Saudi Arabia?

Initially, I was there to deliver the designs that we’d developed, and lead our engineering and design teams.

The Jeddah Stormwater Draininage Program was developed in response to the catastrophic flooding experienced in the City of Jeddah in 2009 and 2011, which resulted in a loss of life and very significant disruption to day-to-day life in the city.

We were tasked with sorting out the flooding issues to protect the Jeddah Municipality, and to help the city develop. As part of that, we designed and built six new dams in just over a year and a half. The concept was originated in autumn 2011 and the dams delivered by the end of 2012, with a capital value of almost US$2 billion. This included 75 kilometers of large reinforced-concrete section channel around the city as well as a number of interventions at flooding hotspots. We then developed a masterplan for the city, when the construction work was going on.

Following that, I agreed to be the interim project director for the development of the Jazan Economic City, which was an economically challenged area in Saudi Arabia, north of the Yemen border. This work involved the masterplanning, infrastructure design, tendering and procurement, and construction of a new 106 square-kilometer (sq. km) city, with a port adjacent to an oil refinery being developed independently by Saudi Aramco.

I then became the Civil Infrastructure (CI) lead for AECOM CI projects in Saudi Arabia. This included the completion of the Jeddah Stormwater Drainage Program, as well our work on the King Abdullah Financial District and the King Abdullah Port.

These projects are monumental in scale and value. They’ve given us a strong foothold in the region, and have directly contributed to what we’re achieving in Saudi Arabia now.

How do you think working in Saudi Arabia has contributed to your professional development and long-term career goals?

If you’d talked to me eight years ago, when I was the water-business lead in Ireland, I probably would have told you that it was as far as my career would go. My focus was on continuing to build this successful business line.

I’d never managed mega-projects. And, to go from there to being someone in charge of the development of an entire city, and other projects like this, is mind-blowing.

There’s also the satisfaction I get looking at our footprint either on Google Earth or flying into Jeddah. As you start to come into land, you can see the three dams we upgraded and six we built from scratch. In terms of achieving something in your career, I think that’s really as good as it gets.

What has been your proudest professional moment in Saudi Arabia?

It’s always very good to get the recognition of your peers and, in 2014, the Jeddah Stormwater Drainage Program was awarded the best win in the AECOM Excellence Awards.

I had to make a brief video about the work we were doing, and it is staggering to think that Jeddah – a city I didn’t even know existed ten years ago – is now protected from catastrophic flooding and there are people who will survive because of the work our teams across the world did.

What surprised you most about the culture and working environment in Saudi Arabia?

I was working in Saudi Arabia, visiting the country once a month, before I relocated here. So, I was familiar with the culture, etc. The day-to-day living is very routine. You work hard and you get to know your colleagues, probably, much more than you would at home.

But one thing to be aware of that’s specific to Saudi Arabia, compared to the other Gulf countries, is that Saudi Arabia shuts down five times a day for prayers. For example, shops will temporarily close. So you will need to plan your activities around that.

When you weren’t working, what was your favourite thing to do in Saudi Arabia?

When I arrived in Saudi Arabia, I was a keen cricketer – and other expats, from Bangladesh and India, who worked in my compound, had a cricket league. I used to go and play with them on a Friday morning, much to the bemusement of my American friends who didn’t understand why I would get up at 7am on my day off to play cricket!

We’d also all socialise a lot together, playing volleyball or basketball two nights a week, as well as meeting up for dinner before going bowling.

What advice would you give someone looking to live and work in Saudi Arabia?

You’ve got to approach it with an open mind. Set aside preconceptions or misconceptions. Listen to people who have been there and done that and can give you relevant and accurate advice.

Look at it as a career opportunity, embrace it and make the most of it – because the opportunities from a career and development perspective that are out here are off the charts compared to what we would normally associate with our lives as engineers.

You also need to produce a career map … the work I’ve done here, and the opportunities I’ve had, have been incredibly rewarding for me, both professionally and financially.