United Kingdom
Gavin provides key strategic leadership for the UK’s flagship British Lithium project, central to the UK Critical Minerals Strategy and the global energy transition. With 26+ years’ experience delivering complex, capital‑intensive projects worldwide, he drives full‑lifecycle performance with a focus on governance, regulatory, project excellence and long‑term value. A visionary, disciplined leader, he builds high‑performing teams and navigates complex technical, commercial and stakeholder environments with clarity and strategic intent.
Providing strategic leadership for a nationally significant project to establish the UK’s first integrated development for the extraction and processing of battery‑grade lithium carbonate in Cornwall UK. Positioned at the core of the UK Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy, the British Lithium project will underpin domestic supply‑chain resilience and support the transition to net‑zero technologies. Responsible for the full project lifecycle delivery, ensuring the project is developed to the highest technical standards and in full compliance with UK HSE, Environmental Agency and Quarry Regulations, ensuring the project development is aligned with the organisational, regulatory and stakeholder requirements to secure the necessary approvals, confidence and strategic conditions necessary for long‑term project success.
Responsible for the overall EPC delivery of Mitsubishi Chemical’s most ambitious, low-carbon, state-of-the-art, and technically advanced full greenfield chemical plant to be built in Louisiana, USA with a TIC of $2.4bn. The plant was designed to produce 350k tonnes per annum of Methyl Methacrylate (MMA) utilising CO, Methanol and Formalin licenced technologies. This high-profile project required setting the strategic vision, cross functional leadership, and expert management to skilfully navigate the complexities of an international major project whilst ensuring full regulatory compliance and successful delivery. Responsible for all project KPIs, ensuring on-time, on-budget delivery without compromising safety or quality.
SOCAR Gas Development Projects Provided project leadership and performance management of a major multi-$bn. energy project. Responsible for the delivery of a major engineering scope for a new offshore gas wellhead platform, 2 new offshore modular built platforms and an onshore natural gas terminal located in the Caspian Sea. • Provide directional leadership to over 250 staff executed across 3 operating centres (UK, Baku & India) • Managed the project P&L and report the project KPIs and financial statements at executive level. • Implemented a new project recovery execution plan, re-organised the team, developed a re-baseline schedule and cost. BP Iraq Rumaila Operating Organisation (ROO) Responsible for the delivery a commercial proposal to undertake the General Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management services (EPCM) for a portfolio of brownfield projects within a hostile operating environment. Developed the project execution plan, organisation and execution risk management, setting-up of strategic alliance partners.
Set-up a new limited company to provide professional project, business and technical services which included: • Providing leadership and strategic vision to help shape and drive the transformation of Tracerco Special Measurements business unit in Teesside, England (was part of Johnson Matthey PLC). Responsible for improving project delivery, commissioning and field engineering services across the energy sector ensuring so that services were delivered on time and budget to the highest quality with no HSE incident. This included leading staff through a strategic re-visioning exercise by integrating, streamlining and future-proofing the delivery team, implementing an Operational Excellence programme to bring a sharper focus on business & team performance and implementing standardised processes across regional teams to improve projects and field engineering delivery • Technical and project execution assessment of a new major energy development in Algeria on behalf of a private operating company • Project and business assessment for a second stage exploration and extraction programme for a private gold mining operation in Western Australia
Parachuted into the SCPX project and was responsible for the overall performance of the London Office which had a peak manning of over 450 people to deliver the Engineering, Procurement & Quality activities for the multi-$billion South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPX), consisting of a new 480km 48” pipeline, 2 compressor stations, power generation, utilities and metering station. Responsible for ensuring project scope is clearly understood, progressed to plan within the agreed budgets and complies with the project HSSE & quality expectations. • Headed up a London based project management team to deliver 2.2 million man-hour Engineering & Project Management Services (EPMS) contract with a total value of $220m equating to an industry leading TIC of 4.5% without a lost time incident. • Delivered the major engineering scope and over $1bn (over 330,000 tonnes) of major gas processing equipment & materials from multiple countries into Azerbaijan & Georgia. Managing over 90 international suppliers and vendors (Siemens – USA, ABB – UK, Sumitomo – Japan, Bredero Shaw – Dubai etc.) • Achieved significant project savings from the EPMS contract, reductions in vendor procurement spend & construction costs savings by optimising the execution scope. • Improved project delivery by setting up regular EPMS & vendor performance management system • Implemented project wide Change Management reviews which improved decision making and cost control • Prepared / presented project updates at project executive level and to Joint Venture Partners.
Led a multi‑disciplinary team across Subsurface, Wells, Project Management and Operations to deliver a fast‑track solution for managing high‑sand‑loading in the produced water to safeguard the reinjection integrity of the ACG (Azeri–Chirag–Deepwater Gunashli) field, ensuring operational continuity. Key Achievements • Directed an integrated team to deliver a comprehensive Decision Support Pack, including CAPEX definition, economic evaluation, contracting strategy and full business‑risk assessment. • Eliminated major capital investment by developing a low‑cost, low‑risk solution that met all technical and operational requirements. • Provided clear strategic recommendations and regular updates to the AGT Regional Executive Board and ACG Partners, including BP, SOCAR, Chevron, INPEX, Statoil, ExxonMobil, TPAO, ITOCHU and ONGC.
Led the development of major offshore brownfield modifications and riser installation for the fast‑track Azeri Subsea Project, designed to unlock an additional 75 mbd of production from the ACG field via a subsea tie‑back to the East Azeri platform in the Caspian Sea. Key Achievements • Coordinated multiple remote BP and contractor execution centres to deliver an integrated technical solution recommended for progression to FID. • Provided clear project updates and strategic recommendations to the Project Board and ACG Partners, ensuring alignment and timely decision‑making.