Q and A with our Technical Director - Tony Gould

I graduated in Civil Engineering from Loughborough University of Technology in 1979 and was lucky enough to gain sponsorship through University by the then named and nationalised British Rail and trained under agreement with them towards chartered status. After 9 years with BR I moved to Mechplant which is where my career in design of ground support systems started. I later transferred to Groundforce in Harrogate in October 2001 as part of their first big shoring acquisitions. Currently I am based in Morley, as Technical Director, for both Shoring (Groundforce Shorco) and Formwork (Groundforce Easiform) design work.

The technical team comprises 9 designers managed by Design Manager Duncan Pearson and a technical sales / major project team managed by Sam Oldroyd. The design team is responsible for turning around typically 400 customer designs per month for both shoring and formwork. The team is constantly developing its sophisticated software and processes to streamline procedure whilst ensuring that all important safety regulations are met.

The major projects team is tasked with finding and winning larger longer term schemes throughout the UK and Europe. A recent highlight was the supply of over 170No.hydraulic struts to French contractor Bouygues for the second Tyne Tunnel. As a result of their work on this project, Groundforce has been short listed for the prestigious technical excellence award by Ground Engineering Magazine.

I have two daughters, Lucy and Stephanie, and live with my wife Gill in York. My hobbies include Skiing and restoring classic cars. In my younger days I was a county standard hockey player. Nowadays, I drive around the Nurburgring Ring in my 44 year old Triumph TR4 which provides me sufficient adrenaline.