Q&A: GARY PATTERSON
What is the best advice you’ve been given?
What do you enjoy most about your job?
What developments do you expect to see in the next five years at AVEVA?
As our company strapline indicates, AVEVA’s philosophy is one of Continual Progression, so I expect to see many exciting developments. Throughout my AVEVA career I have seen the company achieve tremendous organic and inorganic growth, with huge increases in our number of employees, our global office base and our revenue and profit. Perhaps most notable have been the increases in our product and service offerings, of which I expect to see many more in the next five years. In fact, this year alone will have seen two major product introductions. AVEVA Bocad is a structural design package from a company we acquired earlier this year; we have a clear road map for its long-term development and progressive integration with our other engineering and design solutions. But the big game-changer for the plant industry is a new product we are describing as the Future of Plant Design. We confidently expect this to revolutionise plant design and take the engineering industry to a new level of productivity and capability.
What is your greatest career achievement to date?
I have had a number of personal high points throughout my career; as I mentioned, helping to set up our operations in the Middle East was a great experience and one of which I am very proud. Overall, I would have to say that the opportunity to lead a very successful UK & Ireland team to continually accomplish company goals provides great fulfilment for me. The inherent strong work ethos that we have in the team ensures that time and time again we deliver a professional experience to our clients, from every step of the sales cycle, through implementation, training and support. Getting customer feedback that our ‘can do’ approach contributes to the decision to implement AVEVA products is a great achievement I am very proud of.
Its diversity is certainly the most enjoyable aspect of my job. Externally, we work with companies from a range of industry sectors; appreciating the variety of unique engineering challenges they each face, and working with them to help them overcome these challenges, can be fascinating. Internally, team members have a broad range of skills and the ability to empower each other. It is very rewarding to work with such capable and confident individuals as they develop their own careers through achieving results for our clients.
If you could change anything about the industry what would it be and why?
The general skills shortage within engineering is an obvious answer here, particularly in the UK. To help make a difference, through our Academic Initiative programme, AVEVA is actively supporting universities and training academies around the world to help increase the numbers and capabilities of ‘project-ready’ engineers. The ‘why’ is obvious: the world needs engineering more than ever before, but engineering is also a uniquely fulfilling career choice for creative people who want to make a positive difference to the world.
I would also like to see more multi-industry forums to share best practice. In our work, we often see similarities in many of the challenges faced by different industries, for example in design to build strategies and data handover techniques. I firmly believe there are lessons to be learned by adopting a consistent approach across many aspects of engineering. Again, we can make a small difference here; AVEVA hosts a series of AVEVA World events to provide forums for industry decision makers, through to engineers and designers, to ‘look over the fence’ and share success stories and insights.
The best advice I was ever given was from an early age and it was simply, if you feel you can achieve something you should approach it with full confidence!
What advice would you give to someone starting out in the industry?
Working closely both with our customers and my own colleagues, I see many brilliant young minds with considerable potential. To that end, my advice to someone starting out in the industry would be to learn your engineering discipline well. Get as much hands-on experience as you can and don’t be afraid to put yourself forward. I firmly believe that individuals should always be measured on their capability and not age.
What inspires you?
My children are my main inspiration without a doubt. But in the workplace I would have to say that enabling younger team members to develop their careers is also an inspiration. So too is working with like-minded people who embrace change with drive and ambition; fortunately I get this in abundance at AVEVA!
Where do you see the UK oil & gas industry in 10 years?
For a long time the UK oil & gas industry has been a front runner, leading the way in new technologies and methodologies and I expect this to continue as we start to see an increase in both expansion projects and decommissioning. More discoveries are also occurring in the North Sea so I’m confident that oil & gas will remain a key industry in the UK for many years to come.
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