Mike Pearson

When did you join Atkins?

1 April 2009.

Describe your role and responsibilities in just a few words

Securing new airport work.

Do you have any professional accreditations?

I’m a Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. I’m also a Chartered Member of the Institute of Logistics and Transport.

Tell us more about the airport business

My personal challenge was to create an airports business that drew together the various strands of airport skills and expertise that already existed in Atkins.

Can you tell us more about your career?

I started out at Atkins as a graduate 13 years ago! However, I moved soon after that and gained extensive commercial consultancy experience at numerous airports around the world.

How do you describe what you do to friends and family?

It can be a tough question to answer with all my experience in master planning of whole airports and their detailed runway/taxiway/airspace networks, to internal terminal planning, through to lenders advisory work. I often just say I get to play with airports!

What are your key projects?

• Aviation impacts of the London 2012 Olympic Games, UK
• Lenders’ advisory work for the new airport in Dakar, Senegal
• Design involvement in the new Jeddah Airport, Saudi Arabia

What are you currently working on?

We’ve just been awarded the lead designer role for aspects of the new airport in Jeddah, a facility that’s larger than Heathrow’s Terminal 5. The project for Atkins includes architecture and passenger terminal issues.

What achievement are you most proud of?

The work on the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It’s rare to get to work on something so prestigious and so critical to success of the Games.

What’s the most technically challenging project you’ve worked on at Atkins?

Supporting Gatwick Airport in technical detail at a major planning inquiry that was protecting the airport’s position for the development of a future second runway against significant housing developments.

How do development directors and Atkins make a difference?

Development directors are the link across the business units within Atkins and we help position the company within their expert markets – making best use of the breadth of our experience.

How would you describe the culture at Atkins?

Competent, thorough, reliable. A company in transition from being a traditional UK-based engineering consultancy into a dynamic, truly multidisciplinary, company of wide ranging skills and expertise that is also now properly global.