The founders of the business, Marcus Ford and Jim Wragg, are two of the most highly experienced and respected professionals active in the contaminated land consultancy arena in the UK. Dr. Marcus Ford graduated in 1984 and has 20 years of consultancy experience linked to the assessment of contaminated land and groundwater issues, first working for Dames & Moore and then URS. He was the Regional Director responsible for the Northern England & Ireland business plus URS' UK & Ireland environmental consultancy practice, comprising more than 200 staff. Prior to this Dr. Ford set up and ran the Dames & Moore Ireland operation (based in Dublin) and led the Dames & Moore contaminated land risk assessment practice. He has managed and directed a wide range of contaminated land, transaction, site rationalisation and permitting related projects over the years, mainly for chemical, pharmaceutical, general manufacturing and oil industry clients. Prior to becoming an environmental consultant he completed a doctorate on the source, type and extent of pollution below an industrial conurbation (Birmingham) in the UK in 1989. This was completed within a 3-year period at Birmingham University and involved the investigation and assessment of groundwater contamination at a wide range of industrial sites. Much of Dr. Ford's consultancy career has been spent working for private sector clients, helping them understand and prioritise contaminated land and broader liability issues, and then to manage or resolve them by implementing practical, cost effective solutions. Dr. Ford has worked throughout the UK & Ireland, plus a number of other countries including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Middle East, the United States and Brazil. |
Mr. Jim Wragg is a hydrogeologist with 18 years experience of providing high quality environmental consultancy advice. As a consultant Mr Wragg has developed and delivered a large number of site investigation and remedial action programmes for sites with complex contaminated land issues, in the UK, Europe, South Africa and Brazil. These projects were characterised by their cost efficient, timely delivery, incorporating new and developing technology where appropriate. He has worked for a broad spectrum of local and multi-national industrial clients from the Chemical, Petrochemical, Manufacturing and Service sectors. Jim had a number of roles within URS (Dames & Moore) over and above being a lead consultant. He managed the contaminated land assessment and remediation group (in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham) and became Director of Environmental Operations for URS in the North of England being responsible for a 50 person operation delivering a broad spectrum of environmental consultancy services. |