Paul Brandon
Automotive engineer - McLaren
Paul chose to leave school after his 1st year of A levels, realising he was simply not ready for education at that time and his real passion was with cars. Paul took up an apprenticeship within the automotive industry and never looked back. He has worked for Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Nissan and BMW, initially as a mechanic then slowly working his way up. Several years later Paul felt ready
to study and took a part time Degree with the Open University in Numerical Methods and Computational Analysis. He continued with technical and diagnostic
roles in the Automotive industry before going into Academia as an Associate Professor to pursue research topics in Powertrain Design and Vehicle Dynamics. 9 years ago Paul moved back into industry and is now a Principal Engineer with McLaren developing hybrid and electric propulsion systems for road and race cars.
Anthony Peter
Civil engineer
Anthony is a chartered engineer whose 20 year career has covered sustainable urban regeneration, post-disaster reconstruction as well as property development. Anthony undertook a Masters degree in Civil Engineering, including one year spent in the US. After graduating Anthony volunteered for a year in Ghana overseeing the construction of a small, rural school. Following this, Anthony joined an engineering consultancy (Arup) where he designed the strategic infrastructure for large new developments in places such as UK, Kenya, Tanzania and Spain. During this time Anthony spent 6 months in Sri Lanka rebuilding infrastructure in the immediate aftermath of the Boxing Day Tsunami. Anthony then joined a property developer (Argent) where he has been regenerating the King’s Cross lands including delivering its public realm, fountains and also delivering on its Net Zero Carbon pledges. Anthony can discuss the wide-ranging opportunities that an engineering degree can open, including overseas travel and delivering sustainability.
Tara Sandiford
Civil engineer - Tony Gee
Tara is a Civil Engineer who recently graduated from the University of Southampton and currently works in the structures group at Tony Gee and Partners. She completed a Master’s degree, including an industrial placement year, after studying maths, physics and geography at A level. During her time at university she was on a sponsorship scheme with Tony Gee and Partners allowing her to complete two summer placements in rail and geotechnics departments. You can ask her questions about studying engineering at university, the civil engineering profession, other pathways to engineering, and career progression after university.
Keith Winter
Chartered surveyor
Keith is a retired Chartered Surveyor and Management Consultant. Initially he worked with construction companies as a quantity surveyor and then into general management. For twenty years he was a management consultant specialising in the application and practical use of the internationally recognised quality management standard ISO 9001 whose attributes are fundamental to all types of businesses and professions.
His time was spent; working as an assessor for one of the UK’s accredited certification bodies, running and presenting training courses and going into organisations as a consultant guiding them towards ISO 9001 certification.
Although based in the UK he also managed audits and training courses in; South Korea, Cyprus, Spain, Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait, Kazakstan and Russia.
He is passionate that ‘quality management’ is
fundamental to an Organisation’s success and as such could be described as ‘a career within a career’ whether this be aerospace, zookeeping or anything in-between.
Ruth Brown
Civil engineer - Tony Gee
Ruth is a student Civil Engineer at Tony Gee. She is currently doing an Industrial placement year as part of her master’s degree at the University of Southampton. As a consultant engineer, she works in the structures team on steel and foundation checks for high-speed rail 2. During A levels she took Maths, Physics and Geography and completed an EPQ on the topic of bamboo. Before university she took a gap year which included a ‘Green Apprenticeship course’. At university she is part of a scholarship scheme called ‘SUCCESS’ through which she has done a previous summer placement at Tony Gee.
Richard Smith
Chartered engineer
Richard is a Chartered Engineer with a background in innovation and manufacturing. He worked for Shell in a variety of roles, including as an “Angel Investor” in the USA, and building pipelines off the coast of Borneo. Richard has ten patents in various subjects and has worked in several companies, but always with a foundation of engineering. In his current role he helps run a company that builds MRI and X-Ray machines for scanning animals.
Dr David Murray
Chartered engineer
David is a Chartered Engineer whose career spans senior roles in major electronics companies, followed by establishing his own company. Currently he is a consultant on future hi-tech electronic equipment.
From an early age he has enjoyed building electronics, computing; radio and weather satellite receivers and similar – most worked! This led to an A level entry into a student apprenticeship which gave him practical as well as academic experience.
His career focused on radar, sonar, infra-red and other optics. Projects were used by the Navy and Air Force for surveillance applications.
He widened his academic qualifications by gaining a management diploma, and research Engineering Doctorate (Eng.D. – an engineering-based Ph.D.) focused on using simulation and synthetic environments for challenging technical applications.
David would be pleased to discuss careers in engineering and science, university vs apprenticeships, gap year, large vs small employers and general career planning including application and interview techniques.
Archie Nowell
Engineering apprentice - Martin Baker
Archie studied Maths, Physics and Product Design at A level. Archie decided not to attend university and instead drew on his knowledge from engineering work experience (BAE Systems, Heathrow Airport, Virgin Atlantic) and chose an apprenticeship.
In Sept 2019, Archie started an engineering apprenticeship at Martin-Baker, who are the Global leader in the design and manufacture of ejection seats and is now in his 4th and final year, having completed a Mechanical Engineering HNC. Archie is now more than a year into a sponsored Aerospace Engineering Degree at Hertfordshire University.
For his first two years Archie worked in the Environmental Testing Department for two years and has spent placements in different departments of the company such as Fuselage, Seat Testing and Assembly to gain more understanding of the business and product. He has been lucky to be a part of a successful team implementing various large scale tests to qualify the latest ejection seat technology.
Charles Horsey
Chartered engineer
Charles works in the logistics and transport industry and began his career as a Degree Apprentice, while studying for an Engineering degree. He is a Chartered Engineer, with a professional background in the electrical and mechanical disciplines and experience in leadership, business, finance, planning and scheduling, also technology and data. Charles has been part of several key developments in the London Underground system and currently is a Technical Consultant, working for Transport for London. Charles can discuss professions, career paths, apprenticeships, subject choices and career-readiness.