Hugh is a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He has degrees in Architecture and Mechanical Engineering with Business Finance, and a Mechanical Engineering PhD from University College London (UCL) on the behaviour of flexible pipe tensile armour in the region of an end fitting. Research interests at UCL also included ship-to-shore offshore power generation using stranded gas.

After completing his PhD, he became an engineering consultant based in London performing flexible pipe and marine hose failure root cause analyses. Additional work included procurement support for offshore riser installations, heat transfer modelling for pipeline manufacture, and cable bend stiffener design. This was followed by an appointment as an Engineering Manager in Houston developing a mobile pipeline manufacturing system including site integration testing and development of associated corrosion protection systems.

Further consultancy work included oil well BOP (Blowout Preventer) and LMRP (Lower Marine Riser Package) disassembly witnessing in Louisiana, oil and gas subsea equipment manufacturing inspection work across Europe, recovery of failed subsea flexible pipe samples from the North Sea and support for flexible pipe and subsea power cable failure analyses and integrity assessments.

Hugh’s most recent work has involved subsea power cable structural modelling for offshore wind farm applications, developing linear and non-linear analytical models to improve established theory and provide better cable representation for global modelling and improved cable stress analysis. He presented his work on improved bending stiffness modelling at OMAE (International Conference on Ocean, Offshore & Arctic Engineering) in Trondheim. He has also investigated thermal performance of cable protection systems to cover situations not yet included in cable rating standards, and participated in cable lifetime monitoring and pipeline stability joint industry projects.