Duncan

Duncan Mason joined RHDHV back in April 1994 through BCP which they later sold to SSI. After 28 years, he is what one could safely call ‘part of the furniture’. He describes himself as “the most un-PC person in the business”, but his long tenure suggests that he hasn’t offended too many to date.

Currently, Duncan is the Director of Project and Technical Excellence, “whatever that means,” he says with a laugh. “It’s my responsibility to ensure we do the right things and do them right.” It’s a role he loves because it’s about the operational side of the business – the technical and project delivery – and not so much dealing with sales, which he doesn’t enjoy much.

“I love having a hand in solving the various operational problems we have, whether technical, project management, legal/contractual, or ethical and mentoring our young stars to think wider than what is right in front of them.  So, my job is challenging, but fun. I think what motivates me though is the same thing that got me into engineering: making a difference. It’s knowing that, when you finally leave this world, you can say that you genuinely left something meaningful behind.”

Duncan struggles to find one specific favourite work memory but eventually settles on one he recollects, with a chuckle, as “quite bizarre”.

“We were involved in a diamond mine in Lesotho and were looking at providing access to the mine, which is in the middle of the Lesotho Highlands. One of my fondest memories is of myself and a colleague, setting off in a 4x4 into the middle of the mountains, following old donkey tracks, trying to find a more direct route to the mine. I've still got a photograph of the altimeter of the 4x4 reading 3850 metres – probably the highest I've ever been in a vehicle. It was excellent fun. It probably wouldn't go down too well today because, back then, we had no proof of life protocols in place or anything. We just disappeared. We disappeared for a whole day. People knew what we were doing; they just didn’t know where the hell we were,” he laughs.

Duncan’s pride in the company is evident, and he draws attention to ‘enhancing society together’, saying that it’s not something that happened by accident. “Long before it became a buzzword, or part of our motto, or part of our ambition and goals, it was something we lived every day. So, we just took something that we did and formalised it.”

When asked what advice he has for young engineers entering the field, he says “if you’re in it for the money, get out, because you need real passion to do this job justice.  It needs to motivate you because sometimes this profession of ours can be soul-destroying. Sometimes clients, project challenges and circumstances seem insurmountable, so at the end of the day, what you produce, and the difference that makes to people's lives, needs to drive you.”