Atkins strengthens offshore wind offering with three senior appointments

Atkins, a member the SNC-Lavalin group, has announced the appointment of three new director roles to boost the capability of its growing offshore wind team.

Atkins is strengthening its team with the new appointments to reflect growing demand from the offshore wind sector for its end-to-end engineering and design services as the industry ramps up to meet UK government targets 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030.

Wangwen Zhao joins the team as Offshore Wind Engineering Director, alongside Gareth Johnson, Director of Offshore Environment and Renewables, and Tim Carter as Associate Director with a focus on Environmental Impact Assessment.

Chris Kilsby, Offshore and Renewables lead at Atkins adds: "With around 90GW of offshore wind projects in the pipeline around the UK's shores, the importance of engineering partners who can offer expertise across the full lifecycle is proving vital in moving projects from concept to construction.

"These new appointments strengthen our ability to work with clients at every stage of their projects, from environmental impact assessments and design through to operational asset management and life extensions. Wangwen, Gareth and Tim bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the team as we look ahead to an important year for our net zero energy business."

Atkins and the SNC-Lavalin Group have significant experience of providing tailored solutions to the offshore wind industry. The team covers the entire lifecycle of offshore wind projects, from EIA and consenting, geoscience and ports design, offshore structures design, electrical design and grid connections, green-hydrogen integration and management of operational assets including operational strategy, life extension and repowering.

Gareth Johnson joins Atkins as Director of Offshore Environment and Renewables.

Gareth brings a breadth and depth of experience from maritime and energy sectors. Most recently, he was at Ørsted, the largest offshore wind developer in the world, where he helped manage their Strategic Environment and Permitting team and ran the company's Environment R&D programme.

He said: "The UK is already a world leader in terms of offshore wind, where investment and innovation over the last 30 years have helped to drive down costs. Now, offshore wind not only offers an opportunity to decarbonise our energy systems, but also provide secure and cost-effective energy at a time when these are a real priority.

"Atkins is in a really strong position to support clients in this sector and with the rest of the industry want to meet the challenge of the significant number of projects that must go through development, planning and construction in the next 10 years and beyond."

Wangwen Zhao

Wangwen Zhao joins the team as Offshore Wind Engineering Director to enhance the team's technical expertise, with 15 years' experience in the Offshore Wind industry and more than three decades of experience in the energy sector, including innovative offshore wind foundation design, risk based engineering and optimal asset management for clients all over the world.

Previously of Mott Macdonald and ODE, Wangwen is a Chartered Engineer and has a PhD from Imperial College.

Zhao adds: "It's an exciting time for offshore wind as we help clients to navigate the challenges and opportunities that arise from expanding offshore wind zones in deeper water and harsher environments and ever-increasing turbine sizes, as well as the need to prolong the life of existing assets to meet renewable energy needs. I look forward to working with our Atkins colleagues as we continue to play a large role in decarbonising the energy system and helping clients both to develop new offshore wind farms and maximise the value of existing offshore wind assets."

Tim Carter

Tim Carter has joined the team as an Associate Director, specialising in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Tim has extensive experience in EIA for major infrastructure across a wide range of sectors, including marine and coastal projects. Prior to joining Atkins, he was Technical Director with environmental consultancy JBA and before that Head of Environment with Tidal Lagoon Power, where he oversaw environmental work for the Swansea and Cardiff projects, including a major programme of baseline survey work.

Tim says the range of skills and experience available within Atkins means it can play a key role supporting clients across the whole project life cycle, from EIA, consenting and detailed design through to construction and decommissioning.

He adds: "As consultants we are there to support the client right from the start of the planning, through all stages of the Development Consent Order process - including discharge of any requirements and Marine Licence conditions. We can bring the expertise and insight that exists within the wider team to ensure projects succeed."

Notes to editors

About Atkins

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies, employing over 19,000 people across the UK, North America, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe. We build long-term trusted partnerships to create a world where lives are enriched through the implementation of our ideas.

About SNC-Lavalin

Founded in 1911, SNC-Lavalin is a fully integrated professional services and project management company with offices around the world dedicated to engineering a better future for our planet and its people. We create sustainable solutions that connect people, technology and data to design, deliver and operate the most complex projects. We deploy global capabilities locally to our clients and deliver unique end-to-end services across the whole life cycle of an asset including consulting, advisory & environmental services, intelligent networks & cybersecurity, design & engineering, procurement, project & construction management, operations & maintenance, decommissioning and capital. - and delivered to clients in key strategic sectors such as Engineering Services, Nuclear, Operations & Maintenance and Capital. News and information are available at snclavalin.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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