NEIL GARABETTE // MANAGER, PROCUREMENT OPERATIONS < back
	How has your role changed since joining Foster Wheeler?
	"I've had numerous roles with Foster Wheeler, and that's one of the great things. We're a project-based organisation, and no matter what level you start at, there's always an opportunity to succeed in what you're doing and progress to the next level. So I started with Foster Wheeler as a Project Material Co-ordinator and I moved up the Procurement organisation into management and moved around the world with those projects. I then was selected for a corporate role in Continuous Improvement and so was affiliated with the Quality Management Department. Soon thereafter I went back into Procurement in a Senior Management role: all this in 15 years. That's quite a good opportunity that the company's given me."
	What has been the high point of your time with the company so far?
	"If I think of the high points of my career, I can pick out one in particular, and that's when I was afforded a real opportunity to shine. I was overseas on an assignment in Thailand in one of our affiliate offices and through circumstance, I had to take the lead role even though I hadn't been officially empowered to do so. It gave me an opportunity to demonstrate my skills and I succeeded. The project was called the Malampaya Onshore Gas Plant, and it was a project that we were managing for Thailand but from the Philippines. I took the lead role and that gave me an enormous amount of satisfaction and I was in fact recognised by the project management after the project as having made a significant contribution. That felt good."
	What are the challenges of a career with the company?
	"Every project at Foster Wheeler represents a new challenge. Particularly when you're in a department as key as the Procurement department. Every project needs to be thought about and strategised. You've got to decide on the tactics for the project; you've got to engage the right number of staff and the right quality; you've got to build a team; you've also got to engage the market place to secure the supply chain for the project. These are the things that we have as challenges on every project. The good thing about Foster Wheeler as a project organisation is that every two to three years, you're engaged in a new project. Those challenges become refreshed every two to three years. It's almost like having a new job every three years. Very satisfying."
	What do you think Foster Wheeler offers you that other companies might not?
	"To me, Foster Wheeler represents opportunity. It's a very large company, with operations internationally. The large project base here in Reading means that we're able to offer people international travel to affiliate offices or to remote site locations. With that comes an added remuneration and incentive for going. On top of that, the most valuing thing is the experience you gain is interfacing with international organisations in different cultures. If I use a particular example of mine, I was sent over to Thailand on two separate occasions, worked for two years in each of those stints, and met my wife on the second of those stints. That's changed my life forever."
	How would you sum up your current role if you were talking to a friend?
	"If I were to sum my role to a friend, I would describe my role as Manager of Procurement Operations: as the guy who is responsible for ensuring that all the projects make all the right deliveries at the right time at the right price to the right place. It's also more than that. It's also a people role. I have a number of managers working with me - I think at the last count it's almost 40 - all of whom are personalities and individuals. I have to act as counsel, friend, boss, supervisor, and engage them in what they're doing on a project. Quite often that means getting involved in the actual project workings, and the detail of the work; quite often it's dealing with a problematic situation, or in front of a client, participating in presentations to clients. It's a people role, I think."
	What factors influenced your decision to join Foster Wheeler?
	"The type of thing that influenced my decision to join Foster Wheeler was the opportunity that Foster Wheeler could present to me. I was very keen on international travel, having been an expatriate kid myself, What Foster Wheeler represented to me was an opportunity to travel the world while contributing to the success of Foster Wheeler. That was probably the main factor. Of course, jumping from a manufacturing background into this industry, I enjoyed a higher salary than I would have otherwise commanded in manufacturing."