Alan Willoner

Describe what the Mott Mac Life means to you in three words

People, skills, experience

What do you enjoy about working here? / What do you enjoy about your role? 

The people, the variety of work and providing clients solutions to their infrastructure needs.

My role has the right balance of working with people and working with soil, rock and concrete.

Tell us about your specialism and why you chose it

I am a geotechnical specialist in design and construction. I enjoyed Maths, Physics and Geology A-Levels and subsequently choose a degree and career path that applied these subjects to useful purposes.

I have several roles: technical principal, project director, FNG north transport account lead, UK rail discipline professional head for geotechnics and global specialist skill lead for earthworks and material testing.

How do you demonstrate Technical Excellence in your work?

I demonstrate technical excellence by solving complex problems and sharing knowledge with others. This has included technical presentations at forums, ICE evening meetings, European conferences, writing technical articles for trade publications and updating industry best practice documents including Ciria C758 and the 2024 ICE Manual of Geotechnical Engineering. I have also provided the global geotechnical practice leadership on deep foundations and carried out several Expert Witness commissions associated with piled foundations.

What are your career highlights and achievements?

Highlights and achievements include overseeing my team members winning prizes in the annual Yorkshire Geotechnical Group U32 presentation 11 times, building a team which reported an average 91% score in the 2019 employee engagement questionnaire, mentoring graduates to chartership, winning the national GE awards for small project, medium project, large project, editors award and providing the technical excellence case study for consultant of the year award.