Each month Hilson Moran profiles one of its staff in our news section. This month is the turn of Geoff Kent, Public Health Associate – Middle East.
Name: Geoff Kent
Role: Public Health Associate
Training: Public Health Engineering, Civil/Infrastructure/Building Services
Joined HM: (Farnborough 2005 to 2009) re-joined HM Abu Dhabi 2011
Favourite HM Project: Al Falah Township Masterplan – (Our first major foray into the field of masterplanning, which successfully led to many other opportunities in infrastructure masterplanning)
Loves: (in no particular order except the first) Spending time with my family, dining out, my wife’s cooking, brunch (they know how to do a good one in the Gulf), Thursday night drinking, reading and foreign travel
Dislikes: Anything that interferes with the above, four-lane-changers, ironing and dust-storms
When I was first asked if I could do a narrative for “a day in the life of”, I was filled with dread. I am one of those people with a half-empty cup, whereas those fine articles that have been published previously are positive and dynamic, from people with half-full cups.
When a new project comes in, I tend to think the same thing; how can I possibly do a good job in the time allowed. But, after the initial fear of under-achieving, like my peers, I get caught up in the excitement of starting a new project, getting the design right and the buzz of meeting seemingly impossible dates.
I enjoy the concept stage where we express our innovdtive approach to problem solving, we paint a picture of how we see architecture and structure complimented by a well functioning building services design. The scheme design stage is where we start to bring our concepts to life, through design Developments where details start to knit together and the construction stage where our concepts become a living reality – we can point at an iconic building and say with pride, “I helped make that building work”.
We get some pretty interesting and varied projects to work on that offer some tight challenges that include schools, masterplans, infrastructure design, mixed used residential building and specialist buildings such as bank headquarters.
A typical day is not an everyday event, no matter what the trials and tribulations may be, we hit the end date and deliver a product that we can be proud of. My colleagues in the Abu Dhabi office are, to me, like my extended family and the banter during the day can lift you from your down moments and reduce you to tears of laughter at others. Even though the highlight of my day will always be returning home to my wife, I often leave the office with a smile and a sense of achievement.
After work, I take a short drive home to have the most enjoyable meal and for a catch up with my grown-up children and extended family abroad. Then my wife and I take a 5 or 6 km walk towards our magical target of 10,000 steps per day. Like my day in the office, the quality of our journey and each other’s company is as important as meeting our target number of steps, because the one is meaningless without the other.
So at the end of the day my cup is half empty only because I have already enjoyed the first half.
