Meet your BDA…

May 15, 2021

… Natalie Bews, the British Drilling Association’s (BDA) new Chair of the Marketing Sub-committee.

Natalie is an Engineering Geologist, with nearly 30 years direct industry experience within the geotechnical ground investigation sector and as such has considerable technical and practical experience of the Ground Investigation (GI) industry.

Passionate about women in construction, Natalie’s early career began with numerous junior engineering roles and duties, such as monitoring, soil and rock logging and rig supervision roles, before progressing rapidly to become a Senior Engineering Geologist with large scale project management as Site Agent on multi-disciplinary contracts valued in excess of £1m and managing up to 40 staff and operatives on site.

As Business Director at Concept, Natalie is responsible for business development and growth, as well as the management of Concept’s Preconstruction department, overseeing the enquiry and tender processes, preparation of technical submissions and devising practical solutions for complex and challenging site investigations. Her role encompasses direct and indirect marketing and development of business strategies to achieve business objectives, which will be put to good use on the BDA’s marketing sub-committee.

Natalie is working presently on HS2 WP04 Phase 2a Route Wide Ground Investigation – Area 1, as Senior Project Manager, and is responsible for the overall delivery of the operations on site, as well as overseeing all reporting and data deliverables. The contract site works comprise a combination of conventional soft ground drilling and rotary coring using Geobor-S and open hole drilling using traditional destructive and simultaneous casing and open holing ODEX and RO-BIT systems. An extensive MASWA surface geophysical survey is underway, along with static cone penetration testing (CPT) and downhole acoustic and optical televiewer logging.

As a Company Corporate Member of the BDA and elected member of the BDA Main Committee, Natalie would like to see the BDA steering a more even playing field during the procurement of GI, with a heavy bias on quality rather than price and a “race to the bottom”. She would like this approach applied to every level of project, from both the public and private sector, with the use of an industry SSIP extended beyond safety and inclusive of Quality and Sustainability.

Natalie would also like to see major projects such as HS2, LTC and national and regional public sector frameworks adopting an industry standard for SHEQS steered by the BDA and applicable across the whole geotechnical industry supply chain.