Team

Stephen Gibbs
Operations Director

BEng(Hons)

Steve is an Operations Director who has specific responsibility for running our London office. He is a Structural Engineer with over 20 years’ experience across a wide variety of market sectors, which has enabled him to develop excellent working knowledge of traditional and modern methods of construction, sustainable design and BIM and regulations. All 20 years’ have been with AKSWard, joining as a Graduate before rising through the ranks to where he is today. His experience includes working on a lot of our high profile projects which have put AKSWard on the map. Steve takes massive pride in his work, seeking to be at the head of all his projects from start to finish, getting involved in finding effective solutions to problems and supporting his amazing team.

Away from the office Stephen is passionate about windsurfing and looks forward to getting out on his board, but opportunities are few and far between as he devotes most his spare time to his wife and two young boys. In the future he hopes his boys share his passion for wind and surf.

Paul Morgan
Operations Director

BEng(Hons) CEng MIStructE

Paul is an Operations Director who has specific responsibility for running our Oxford office. Paul also sits on our Operations Board helping to manage the day to day operations. He is a Chartered Structural Engineer with over 25 years’ experience of which 22 years’ have been with AKSWard, joining as a Graduate before rising through the ranks to his current position. Hailing from the North East Paul is a personable and approachable individual, and takes pride in his and his offices work. He particularly enjoys early engagement and scheming on projects, and looks to maintain an active role in projects as they progress through the office.

Away from the office Paul is passionate about cooking, and looks forward to any opportunity to get the BBQ out. He enjoys getting away from it all on the golf course, and would love to get his handicap down but between work and family life, he struggles to find the time to play more regularly, which is reflected in his game!

John Dunford
Regional Director

BSc (Hons), CEng MIStructE

John is the Regional Director for our Southampton Office. He has been involved in the construction industry since leaving school and as a Chartered Structural Engineer he has over 25 years’ of knowledge and experience. John has dealt with most types of projects that a medium-sized consultancy may be faced with. He enjoys all aspects of the industry such as working with architects and contractors in all sectors from new build, education, retail, leisure and residential, and he still gets the buzz looking back at the finished product when the job is completed. Over the years he has built up a reputation for ensuring his team are as committed to each and every project as he his, something he is passionate about. John is a great mentor to his team. Away from work John just thinks about work! He hates decorating, but does it reluctantly, likes photography but doesn’t get the time to do it!

Colin Seabrook
Technical Director

Colin is a chartered engineer with over forty years’ professional experience. He is head of conservation for AKSWard and has a wealth of experience in a variety of construction systems and techniques but in latter years has specialized in conservation and forensic engineering.

Colin has in the past acted as an expert witness on several projects. He has undertaken many reinforced concrete slab investigations on a variety of buildings including car parks and industrial ground bearing slabs. With the latter he has developed an understanding of soil/structure interaction and the benefit of understanding the modulus of subgrade reaction.

Colin has drafted guidance for the former PSA (Government agency) on dealing with High Alumina Cement in existing concrete floor and roof slabs. He was also responsible for designing the reinforced concrete structure to the multi-million-pound modern Liverpool Central Library that included the highly loaded suspended repository floors.

Andy Webster
Technical Director

MEng CEng MICE

Andrew is a Chartered Engineer with over 15 years’ experience in the field, spanning across multiple industries such as light industrial, education, healthcare and residential. As a Technical Director Andy runs the Southampton office day-to-day, overseeing projects very closely with his team of engineers, administrators and technicians. He particularly enjoys training young engineers and being a mentor for his team, guiding them to be their best each day with his continuing support. Although, he is notorious for eating most of the office biscuits! Andy is also very passionate about Business Development, regularly attending networking events encouraging company growth and connections. Outside the office Andy keeps active with rock climbing, bike riding, grabbing a drink with friends and pretending he’s not from Liverpool.

Sara Nain Hallett
Technical Director

Edwin Tung
Technical Director

Shwan Alhayderi
Principal Engineer

Tanya Sadowski
Project Engineer

Ryan Lafferty
Project Engineer

Ruairidh Young
Graduate Engineer

Max Waddup
Civil Engineer Apprentice

Albarraa Daoud
Graduate Engineer

Giorgia Planta
Graduate Engineer

Georgios Kalogerakis
Principal Engineer

Ahmed Alihasan
Project Engineer

Taurai Harahwa
Project Engineer

Roxana Pirjoleanu
Project Engineer

Ian Strickland
Senior Engineer

(MEng)

Ian Strickland is a structural engineer with 7 years experience and has been with AKSWard since 2017. He is currently working towards chartered membership with the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE).

Ian has a wide experience of structural design and investigation, having worked on several large residential, commercial, industrial and entertainment projects, as well as smaller projects of all forms.

Away from work Ian is interested in sound design and music production, tennis, football, and snooker!

Jacob Vallis
Project Engineer

Ryan Purchase
Graduate Engineer

Tekle Asfaha
Graduate Engineer

Wojciech Surma
Senior Engineer