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ResumesGeoff Willis BSc
For most of my life I have worked in the construction industry, for contractors, consultants and clients. I have usually worked as a construction, project or commissioning manager, though I have also worked as a designer.
I have an in depth understanding of the construction process, from civils groundworks through to M&E installation and process commissioning. I have worked in extensively in the water industry as well as rail, harbour works and building services.
My original degree is in physics, and I have carried out research into economics and physics. The mathematical and statistical skills I have from this background enable me to provide effective quantitative risk analysis.
In recent years I have used this unique background of construction, commercial and academic experience to provide effective risk analysis, management and reduction services.
Risk Management and Quantitative Risk Analysis
My first degree is in physics, and as a result of this and my economics research work I have a good knowledge of statistical analysis methods, including Monte-Carlo simulation etc.
I have worked as a risk manager with Wessex Water, GrantRail and Trackwork. I have also set up the risk management systems for the GrantRail/Trackwork London Underground Joint Venture.
At Wessex Water, as well as analysing and managing project risk, I carried out decision analysis and reliability analysis of existing critical plant.
I have a good knowledge of @Risk, DAWMonteCarlo, Pertmaster, ARM, Predict! Risk Manager / Risk Analyser, MonteCarlo for Primavera, P3e and SureTrak.
I have worked with the DAW Group to enhance their risk software. I have also worked with Pertmaster and ARM to help improve the suitability of their products for application to work in the rail industry.
With IT On Track and the Richard Palmer Consultancy I teach my own risk management courses.
The major part of my working career has been as a manager with main contractors or specialist sub-contractors primarily involved with process, mechanical and electrical work within the water industry. I have also worked on rail, harbour and building services projects.
My roles have been both site and office based, covering all activities from process design, through detail design, tendering, procurement and construction to process commissioning and handover to the client.
The main emphasis of my work has been the coordination of the interfaces between the client, design inputs and the various contractors.
My main responsibility has always been to manage the projects to allow completion of the work to budget and programme, and to the satisfaction of the client.
Process / Water / Commissioning
I have worked as a construction or commissioning manager on many water treatment projects, both municipal and industrial.
I have taken a major role on contracts during the rebuilding of both Manchester and Newcastle’s main sewage works. On both occasions the contracts I managed were intimately involved with the running of the existing works, and a very high degree of planning, coordination, liaison and detailed management was required to ensure process continuity.
I have worked as a design engineer and manager with responsibility for ensuring cost effective process selection before proceeding to detail design.
I worked with GrantRail & Trackwork to set up their risk management systems for the joint venture which is replacing the track for the Tubelines partnership on behalf of London Underground.
I have been intimately involved with the planning of possessions, as well as introducing long term strategies for reducing risk on both tube shift works and possession activities.
My novel, cost based, approach to risk management of possessions was instrumental in winning a highly commended in the ‘Rail Engineering Excellence 2004’ at the HSBC Rail Business Awards.I have held two formal teaching posts one in the UK and one in Malawi, Africa.
At one design company I arranged a syllabus and program for a year round cycle of lectures to introduce new engineers to all aspects of building services engineering.
I have given various presentations, both in engineering and economics, and have frequently been involved in preparing and giving training to operatives during the commissioning and handover of process plant.
I am currently providing risk training services in partnership with IT On Track and the Richard Palmer Consultancy.
I have the ability to breakdown and explain complex ideas in a simple, straightforward and interesting way.
I have worked abroad on two contracts, on each occasion for two years. The first as a full time teacher in Malawi, Central Africa, the second as a water engineer, with a local district council in Botswana, Southern Africa.
In Botswana I was in charge of a department responsible for supplying water to thirty thousand people in an area the size of Yorkshire.
On both occasions I was living, working alongside and answerable to local nationals. I was resident in isolated locations, with limited access to ‘western’ colleagues and culture. In both countries I made strong attempts to integrate into the local society, and mastered a basic conversational level of the local language.
I have travelled widely in Africa and Europe, and can speak Spanish to a good conversational level.
During my time working abroad I have acquired considerable understanding of the flexibility and care needed to work in different national, social and business cultures.
I have had a strong interest in the application of ideas from statistical physics to the study of economics since the early 1980’s. Although self taught, I have read widely in economics, especially in the fields of wealth and income distribution, financial economics and development economics.
Following the ‘big bang’ in the stockmarket in the mid 1980’s it has become clear that financial data follow behaviour that is similar to that predicted by the statistical mechanical theories found in thermodynamics. More recently it has become clear that income and wealth is governed by similar rules.
This new field of ‘Econophysics’ is rapidly being established as an important branch of economics, and despite not being in full time academia, I am an active contributor to the debate in the Econophysics community.
- People and Particles
New Scientist-letters, 13th March 1993.- Laser Economics
Presentation at The Institute for Public Policy Research Covent Garden, London; Oct 1995.- Laser Welfare - First Steps in Econodynamic Engineering
Presentation at New Economic Windows Conference, Salerno, Italy; Sept 2001.- Models of Solutions in Economic Systems: Mixing People and Goods
With J Mimkes & Th Fründ. Presentation at the Spring Conference of The German Physical Society, Regensburg, Germany; March 2002.- The structure of complex systems: thermodynamics, socio-economics
With C Denk, Prof. J Mimkes & Th Fründ. Presentation at the International Conference on SocioPhysics, Bielefeld, Germany; June 2002- Interaction of Heterogeneous Agents in Stochastic Socio-Economic Systems
With J. Mimkes, M. Hillebrand, F. Frund, C.Denk. Published in: The Complex Dynamics of Economic Interaction: Essays in Economics and Econophysics, edited by M Gallegati, Springer Verlag, ISBN 354040497X; March 2004.- Evidence for the Independence of Waged and Unwaged Income, Evidence for Boltzmann Distributions in Waged Income, and the Outlines of a Coherent Theory of Income Distribution
With J. Mimkes; June 2004.
Presented at the ‘Econophysics of Wealth Distributions’ International Workshop, Kolkata (Calcutta), India, March 2005.- Relieving Poverty by Modifying Income and Wealth Distributions
Presented at the ‘Econophysics of Wealth Distributions’ International Workshop, Kolkata (Calcutta), India, March 2005. To be published in ‘Econophysics of Wealth Distributions – New Economic Windows’, edited by BK Chakrabarti, Springer Verlag, ISBN 8847003296, September 2005.
