Paul Moody

Investigator Paul Moody

Paul completed his undergraduate degree in Metallurgy at the University of Birmingham in 1990. During this time, he was sponsored by British Steel and gained work experience at Swinden Labs in Rotherham. Paul later completed his Doctorate at the University of Birmingham, researching the fracture properties of welded structural steels in relation to the oxygen content of weld metals. The work was sponsored by ESAB, headquartered in Waltham Cross in London. After completing his studies in 1995, Paul began his career at the Defence Research Agency as a Research Scientist, working on welding of high strength naval steels and investigations of failed components. Following this, Paul worked as a Metallurgist at a number of firms including Bodycote Materials Testing Ltd, Ingenco Ltd (formerly Scottish Power Technology), and Doosan Babcock Ltd. Paul’s experience includes facilitating contract materials testing for the offshore oil and gas services industry, performing remanent life assessment on boilers for power plants and petrochemical sites, investigating failed components, and providing support on materials related issues. Since joining Hawkins in 2017, Paul has worked on cases involving escapes of water, personal injuries, petrochemical sites and boilers for power generation. Paul’s boiler and petrochemical site investigations have taken place in […]

James Kingham

Profile picture of James Kingham

James graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2005 with a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, having completed an industrial placement year working in cryogenics for The Hymatic Engineering Company (now part of Honeywell Aerospace’s Defence & Space business group). After graduating, James returned to Honeywell Aerospace as a development engineer, working on Joule-Thomson coolers and Stirling Cycle Cryocoolers primarily for missile and satellite applications. This included customer driven development projects as well as R&D and investigative projects. In 2010, James took on the role of New Product Development Manager with ITT (later Xylem) Flow Control, overseeing the development of pneumatic and hydraulic valve actuation controls and actuators for use in severe service environments, including the oil & gas and rail industries. James was then promoted to Centre of Excellence Engineering Lead – Valves (Technical Manager) in 2013, becoming the senior technical contact at the Wolverhampton site overseeing product development, project management and product certification activities within the business. James is a Chartered Engineer and as such is a full member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. James also holds a Level 5 diploma in Management & Leadership and is a Six Sigma Black Belt.

Eleanor Jay

Eleanor Jay website profile picture

Eleanor graduated with a 1st Class Masters Degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Imperial College London. As part of Eleanor’s first degree, she was employed at Industrial Research Limited in New Zealand (now Callaghan Innovation). Here, she developed specialised ceramic filters for the use in hydrogen cells, assisting in the purification of hydrogen. Following this, her PhD work involved researching ceramic materials for nuclear fuel storage applications (requiring high temperature and pressure resistance). During this time, she worked closely with several nuclear establishments across the globe with whom she collaborated. Eleanor also spent time at Nanyang Technology University in Singapore, where she investigated ceramic systems for a variety of energy applications such as fuel cells, including lithium-ion batteries. After completing her PhD, Eleanor was seconded to the Government Office for Science and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to be part of the Nuclear Energy Research and Development Review Board, chaired by the then Chief Scientist, Sir John Beddington. The work was commissioned after the House of Lords published a critical report on the future of nuclear energy in the UK. She assessed the UK’s nuclear energy landscape, which involved close communication with stakeholders across the nuclear industry […]

Paul Hughes

Investigator Paul Hughes

Paul left Newcastle University in 2007 with a Masters Degree in Civil and Structural Engineering. As part of his course of study he spent a year at the National University of Singapore on a graduate exchange programme. He joined Royal Haskoning, Maritime Division, working from the design office on a wide variety of projects including ports, shipyards, dry docks, terminals and other maritime structures. During this time he was also seconded to BAM Nuttall, working on the London Olympic site overseeing the construction of bridges and retaining walls. In 2011, Paul joined 2H Offshore and over the next five years worked from London, Paris, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur on the design and management of specialist offshore projects. He expanded his engineering knowledge into subsea systems, specialising in the design, structural analysis and integrity management of riser and conductor systems. This included the design and construction of minimal facilities platforms and subsea structures for hybrid risers. Paul joined Hawkins in 2016 in order to further expand the civil engineering capability of the company.

Mike Hopwood

Investigator Mike Hopwood

Mike’s civil and highway engineering career began at Parkman where he worked on several major projects, including the St Helens M62 link road and the A570 Ormskirk Bypass. Specialising in preliminary and detailed design work, Mike joined Giffords to work on the structural design of the Second River Dee Crossing. Mike moved to Cheshire County Council in 1994 and rose to the level of Principal Engineer. At the time, Cheshire was one of the largest UK local authorities and was also managing a large motorway network including the M6. During his progression, Mike led teams responsible for safety inspections, winter maintenance, streetworks and third party claims. Mike appeared in Court countless times as a witness for local government. Whilst with local government, Mike was responsible for the design, letting and construction of numerous large and complex civil engineering schemes. During this time, he gained particular expertise in all aspects of design, performance and specification of road building, drainage, construction materials and road and junction layouts including traffic management and road signs. Alongside his Engineering role, Mike was also a local government health and safety officer. He was responsible for workplace safety audits and risk assessments along with enforcement and the […]

John Holland

Forensic Investigator/Business Development Manager John Holland

An Intel scholar, John graduated with a 1st Class Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin, Ireland in 2000. As part of his degree he developed an automatic moisture sensor for use in the peat industry for which he was awarded the Hewlett Packard national award for innovation in engineering. After a brief period with Schlumberger Oilfield Services in Peru, John returned to Ireland to take up a position with Teradyne Connection Systems, before joining Timoney Technology as a mechanical design engineer, where he specialised in the design and development of Hydropneumatic Suspension Systems for specialty off road vehicles. In this role he also gained considerable experience with computer aided engineering techniques such as Finite Element Analysis and Vehicle Multi-body Dynamic Analysis. John was appointed engineering manager with Timoney Technology and took over full technical responsibility for all engineering projects and products. Projects of note include the DARPA Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle, the USMC Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Vehicle and the Timoney ADT Independent Suspension Axle System manufactured under licence by Terex Equipment Ltd. John was also involved with the Ginaf Rally Power and DeRooy race teams for the 2007 Dakar Rally and has numerous automotive suspension patents filed […]

Richard Giles-Carlsson

Investigator Richard Giles-Carlsson

Richard graduated from Imperial College London in 2012 with a first class degree in Civil Engineering. During his degree, Richard was sponsored by Laing O’Rourke on a number of projects, supervising the construction of steel frame and reinforced concrete structures, building foundations and retaining walls. Upon graduation Richard continued working with Laing O’Rourke at the Bond Street Station Upgrade project in London where he gained experience in pre-cast and in-situ reinforced concrete construction, underpinning of existing buildings, waterproofing and tunnelling. Richard was a Temporary Works Supervisor, responsible for supervising and inspecting numerous different schemes including scaffolding, excavation support systems and propping. Richard was also responsible for on-site assessment of health and safety measures and delivering safety briefings. In 2015, Richard continued his career with Laing O’Rourke at Davyhulme Wastewater Treatment project in Manchester planning and managing a range of activities including large excavations, piling and demolition works. Richard was also responsible for coordinating and supervising numerous subcontractors, in addition to reviewing and producing risk assessments, permits and work plans. Richard was an Appointed Person for confined space working and crane lifting operations and undertook reviews of safety incidents to establish the root cause. During the course of the project, Richard […]

Hannah Fletcher

Hannah Fletcher website profile picture

Hannah graduated with a first class degree in Civil Engineering from Imperial College London in 2011. Upon graduation, Hannah joined Laing O’Rourke and worked on both infrastructure and commercial construction projects. She supervised construction works as a Site Engineer at Beckton Sewage Treatment Works Upgrade and then, as a Senior Engineer, planned and managed works on 3 projects: Crossrail- Tottenham Court Road Station, Wood Wharf (Canary Wharf) and Southbank Place. During this time Hannah gained experience in reinforced concrete construction: in-situ, pre-cast, basement raft slabs, jump forms and suspended slabs. She also gained experience in temporary works, lifting operations, excavations and installation of pressure pipelines. In 2016 Hannah moved to New Zealand to work for Fletcher Construction as a Project Manager. She led the delivery of a 40 storey commercial office tower, part of the Commercial Bay project in central Auckland, where she gained experience in steel structures, building envelopes (curtain wall façade and roof systems) and structural fire protection. Hannah joined Hawkins in 2020 and since joining has developed her skills to include the investigation of fires. She has since investigated fires in both domestic and commercial settings, as well as construction incidents, water ingress and storm damage. She is […]

Christabel Evans

Profile picture of Dr Christabel Evans

Christabel regularly investigates material failures, escapes of water and oil, system failures, and personal injury claims. She writes CPR compliant court reports and presents at industry awareness days.

Jonathan Emm

Investigator Jonathan Emm

Jonathan’s engineering career began at Morganite Thermal Ceramics. Here he ran projects to develop a non-destructive testing technique for their foundry ceramic products, as well as a new product with very high thermal shock resistance. Jonathan joined BAE SYSTEMS in 2000 as an engineer in the Advanced Technology Centre, Stealth Materials Group. He ran development and application engineering projects there, mostly using elastomeric and composite materials as radar absorbent or transparent media. These were applied to military aircraft, ships and vehicles. This work enabled him to develop strong project management skills and in his last year he led a team of engineers and scientists in developing a sprayable, radar absorbent coating for aircrafts. In 2003 Jonathan joined Cytec Engineered Materials, where he ran qualification testing programmes for aerospace composite materials and provided technical advice and assistance to customers, particularly in relation to processing issues. His customers included Airbus, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, with whom he worked to incorporate advanced, recently developed materials into their aircraft structures. Jonathan joined Hawkins in January 2007, where he trained in the investigation of fires and explosions to add to his engineering expertise. Jonathan has now been involved with a broad range of forensic engineering […]