I first joined Tony Gee in 2007 as a sponsored summer student in the Esher office. After graduating in 2011, I moved to the then up-and-coming Stonehouse office and joined the Geo team. True to Tony Gee’s collaborative culture, I wasn’t siloed into one discipline — I gained experience across all sectors. After becoming Chartered in 2016, I progressed through the grades and am now an Associate Director. I now lead major rail projects and manage a team of talented engineers and technicians. I’m not alone in this journey — many of our senior staff also started as students or graduates and have built their careers here.
Two key reasons: I wanted to be a big fish in a smaller pond, and I was drawn to the culture. Tony Gee genuinely cares about its people. Our former MD told me, “Our people are our biggest asset, so we need to look after them” — and that ethos is lived every day. We’re supported at every stage of our careers, and now in my senior role, I’m committed to continuing that culture of care and support.
I carved out a bit of a niche as our roped access engineer, which meant travelling across the UK, abseiling and climbing cliffs to assess and stabilise them. It was challenging, high-stakes work — often in emergency situations where landslips or rockfalls had closed the railway. Two standout projects were the major landslips at Harbury Cutting (2015) and the Dawlish Sea cliffs (2014), where the massive scale of the response involved the Prime Minister, the army, and emergency services. Seeing the railway safely reopened after implementing both emergency and permanent works was incredibly rewarding.
