Employee spotlight: February 2021

Congratulations to Simon Jackman, Managing Director of RSK Iraq, who has completed 20 years with RSK this month. Simon is responsible for the delivery of a multi-disciplinary business that carries out remediation, waste management, ESHIA and geoenvironmental projects. Before moving to the Middle East business, Simon was the managing director of RemedX (an RSK company), running a multi-disciplinary team that delivered remediation projects for key clients in the UK and abroad. He has experience in the investigation of contaminated land for reclamation and redevelopment, groundwater remediation, site supervision and audit of remediation works, and health and safety.

Simon took the opportunity to share some of his early memories at RSK, including becoming Managing Director of RemedX at the age of 38. We asked him to share the highlights of his 20-year journey with RSK. “It has definitely been the opportunities and challenges that came my way,” he commented. “Rather than being pigeonholed into a specialism or region, RSK gave me the opportunity to try out different things in different places, something which I did not get in my previous employment. With RSK, I travelled to the Middle East and Africa and worked on some amazing projects with colleagues from different parts of the world. Who knows where the future will take me.”

Simon reminisced about his first trip to Iraq, back in 2013, to recce the contaminated land in one of the major oilfields in Basrah. “Having started operations in Iraq with our expats staff outnumbering local national staff in 2014, we have managed to recruit, train and develop local staff through a structured programme of on/off the job training, job rotations and mentoring by heads of professions,” continued Simon. “We grew to a staff strength of 110 local national staff in five years, with many Iraqi nationals occupying key positions in the business. This achievement, which I feel lucky to be part of, is fundamental to the way RSK operates – creating opportunities locally and developing a sustainable business.”

Thank you, Simon, for dedicating 20 amazing years of work to RSK. We wish you many more successes in the years to come!