Steve Hitchings
Steve started his career in 1968 with Mather
& Platt Ltd, the
world-renowned Fire Engineering company, based at their
London offices
in Westminster.
After several years with Mather & Platt in project
design & management,
commencing with the Barbican Redevelopment and covering a
wide range
of industrial and commercial remits, he moved into the
petrochemical
industry in order to gain wider experience.
With Stone & Webster in Grays Inn Road, specialists in
‘Gas Cracking’,
most of his activity revolved around the Thames estuary
refinery industry,
as well as several European projects.
Re-locating to Paris in 1976, he worked, initially, as
senior engineer for the
French company, ETPM (Grand Travaux de Marseille’s offshore
petrochemical engineering division) specialising in
multidiscipline
platform top-sides hook-up and commissioning. Given the
opportunity to
manage harsh environment projects in the Gulf, West Africa,
Malaysia,
India, South America and Australasia for production,
wellhead, gas-lift and
water injection platforms, he progressed to the role of
senior engineering
manager and “trouble-shooter”, for ETPM’s operations
worldwide.
Steve returned to the UK in 1987 and, reverting to his
roots, worked as engineering
director of Cobrabell and later Charles Davis Engineering,
providing fire
protection services to London Underground to meet the
requirements of the
‘Fennell’ report following the Kings Cross fire, then
broadening his remit
with involvement in subsequent projects such as ‘Section
12’, Jubilee Line,
and Fire Systems Maintenance.
Since then, among other activities, Steve has remained
heavily involved
with fire engineering in the UK rail industry. Initially
with Railtrack and
subsequently Network Rail, Steve has demonstrated a
commitment to
maintain fire safety compliance whilst considering the
changing nature of
the modern station environment.
Steve joined Kingfell in 1998 and has been instrumental in
the growth of
Kingfell Fire Engineering, prior to taking up his present
role as Group
Operations Director.
Employment History
1998 to date Kingfell Plc
1995 - 1998 Charles Davis Engineering Ltd
1987 – 1995 Cobrabell Ltd
1976 – 1987 ETPM (Entrepose Travaux Petroliers Marine)
1974 – 1976 Stone & Webster Ltd
1968 - 1974 Mather & Platt Ltd
Project Experience
Gulf Petroleum – Zaire Motoba Field - Platform Complex
Occidental de Colombia – 380,000 DWT Tanker
Conversion/Floating
Production Unit
Kuwait Oil – Bitumen Loading Jetty
Natco – Gulfport Mississippi - Production &
Accommodation Platform
Construction
Socamer – Corpus Christi Texas – Gas Lift Platform
Construction &
Load-out
NNPC – Warri Nigeria – Turbine Pumping Station
Texaco - Nigeria – Funiwa Production & Wellhead Platforms
Shell – Sarawak/Miri (Malaysia) – Water Injection &
Production Platforms