Oliver Grievson C.WEM FCIWEM CEnv CEng CSci

How long have you been a member of CIWEM?

23 years.

What does being a member of CIWEM mean to you?

CIWEM for me is a community that is central to my career and is an organisation that I have been with since starting many years ago. As I have developed it has become an organisation that I have professionally grown with and as I've grown and developed I have realised more and more the importance of being involved with CIWEM. Through my membership I have not only grown and developed tremendously but I have also broadened my horizons and developed my skills even now where I am in a period of my career where I am very much giving back to the industry.

What advice would you give to anyone considering starting out on the application process?

Work out who you are and where you are in your career honestly reflecting on your strengths and also assessing where you need to develop. You can do this by attempting the mandatory competencies. Once you think that you've got all of the areas done to a standard you are happy with then ask a mentor to give you some feedback and as long as you are happy after that then just submit it.

How do you think your membership/professional registration will support you in your career?

My professional registration has definitely given me recognition in my career and has helped me to develop. My membership of CIWEM has given me the ability to get involved. It is very true that you get out what you get in with any professional membership and this is doubly true with CIWEM.

Please describe your job role and day to day activities that your job entails?

There is no normal day! As a technical expert and consultant I can be helping clients with a whole range of challenges at both a strategic and operational level. From helping out with best practices, hosting and running webinars, writing articles all the way to working out how to install an instrumentation system to reap all of the benefits that installing it in the first place brings. That is of course just the day job let alone all of the voluntary work that I do working with CIWEM on both the Professional Standards Committee, assessing and reviewing candidates for their professional registration in addition to acting as Chair or Deputy Chair of some of the industry's leading not for profit organisations.

What inspired you towards a career in this sector?

I always loved working with water and the environment.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

Working in the Falkland Islands, desiging wastewater treatment works and helping to shape the way that the wastewater industry operates.

What do you see as the biggest changes facing the sector over the next 10 years?

The wastewater industry faces huge challenges in just delivering the day to day obligations that it has to deliver. There is a huge skills gap that needs to be addressed in order to do this. So hopefully some of the biggest changes in the coming years is with regard to people as with the right people the industry can deliver against the targets that it needs to deliver in order to do the day to day job whilst facing global needs such as pollution minimisation and zero carbon needs.

Correct as of July 2020.