My first degree is in civil engineering, from Dublin University, and I completed a Masters in Engineering Geology under Mike de Freitas at Imperial College in the late 1970s. Since then I’ve been working in geotechnical engineering around the world, mainly on hydro power and water supply schemes, but also on such diverse projects as the design of foundations for subsea structures offshore West of Shetland, and Earthquake Engineering in New Zealand.  I was on the management committee of the New Zealand Geotechnical Society during the Christchurch Earthquakes, chair of the society from 2015 to 2017 and a member of the organising committee for the 6th International Conference for Earthquake Geotechnical  Engineering in Christchurch in 2016.  I have been a member of various review panels for matters such as a floodwall failure and a subsea pipeline, and am currently on the Technical Review Panel for the upgrade of a major dam in Australia. 

I am registered as a Chartered Engineer in the UK, and am a Fellow of Engineering New Zealand.