RICS catches up with Paul Checketts, FRICS, who works in Singapore.
Who is your current employer?
International Contracts Consultancy (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd
What is your job title?
Director, Asia Pacific
Your current salary
In excess of £100 000
Where are you based?
Singapore
What got you interested in surveying?
I was always interested in construction, but didn’t want to do manual work on a building site, so Surveying seemed like the best of office and site worlds.
Which university did you attend, what course did you study?
BSc (Hons) Building at Trent Polytechnic, UK.
What do you enjoy most about your career in surveying?
Being out on site and getting involved in the detail of particular technically challenging projects.
What interesting projects have you been involved in while as surveyor?
Taiwan High Speed Rail – 345km of track and a bullet train travelling at up to 300km / hr in an earthquake zone! This is currently the largest rail project in the world at present. The contract is governed by New York Law, with Singapore Arbitration rules.
Hong Kong Airport – transported 120 structural steel modules weighing 100tonnes and sized 30m x 30m x 8m high on ‘8’ wheel remote control bogies (one on each corner). Lifting them 30m into the air and then launching them across the passenger terminal building onto concrete columns. Positioned to within 12mm tolerances. We ended up with 1 500 workers per day and 200+ welders!
Esplanade Theatre - I worked with the cladding and curtain walling contractor. One big headache was designing the maintenance facility to allow us to clean what is two oval shaped glass buildings. We started with the idea of a mechanical basket on a rail track hanging over the building and ended up convincing all parties that the right answer was to install hooks around the roof edge for a team of eight cleaners to abseil down from.
Have you worked on any international projects or travelled widely as part of your work?
Yes, loads of International projects. I travel throughout Asia regularly, including Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia.
What are your future career ambitions?
Grow our regional business into the largest specialist construction contracts consultancy in the region.
What does RICS mean to you?
Professional body that is recognized around the world and provides me with credentials when I meet new people in the construction industry.
