Key contacts

Dr Andy Young

Director

Andy is our Managing Director. He has substantial experience in all aspects of our work and provides the company focal point for our water resources and hydrometry consultancy work and software product range. He is a recognised national and international expert in the hydrology of low flows, and in particular the estimation of river flows within ungauged catchments.

With a first degree in physics and a PhD in hydrological modelling, Andy joined the Institute of Hydrology in 1990 (now the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) after previously working for the Ministry of Defence for a number of years. Since 1990 he has worked within the UK and European water industry in both a research and consultancy capacity. He founded WHS in 2004 with the vision of providing high quality, scientifically rigorous consultancy services and environmental software systems to the water and environmental sectors at competitive prices.

Judith Jeans

Director

Jude is a director of WHS. She leads the environment team across the three offices of the company. She has wide ranging expertise in environmental impact assessment to support planning, water quality assessments and geomorphology and habitat surveys.

Jude is a Lancaster Environmental Sciences graduate. Jude started her career within the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology researching into hydro-chemical methods for understanding groundwater – surface water exchanges. She joined WHS at the inception of the company in 2004 and has played major role in the sustained growth of the company since then. Jude was appointed to the board of directors in 2010 and in addition to her sector role she also has responsibility for the WHS health and safety management system.

Professor Alan Jenkins

Director

Alan is the WHS director appointed by the Natural Environment Research Council to the board. Alan is the Science Director of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology’s Water Programme and brings an immense wealth of research experience.

He is Hydrological Advisor to the UK Government, Chair of the UK Inter-Departmental Committee on Hydrology and the UK International Hydrology Programme Committee, the UK member of the WMO Hydrology Programme and is currently Chair of EurAqua - the European Network of Freshwater Research Organisations. He is the author of over 90 ISI journal papers and over 130 reports. Alan’s personal research focus lies in hydrochemical modelling and in particular in the development of models for predicting the impact of air pollution on soils and surface waters.

Paul Blackman

Technical Director

Paul joined WHS in early 2011 and is based in our Cardiff office. Paul has over 17 years experience as a chartered civil engineer and has overall responsibility for the flood risk services of the company. Initially he worked for Parkman Group on development infrastructure projects in the south east of England. Paul moved on to spend 13 years at Halcrow in Cardiff, where he focused on drainage, hydraulic design, river engineering/modelling and the management of flood risk in and around Wales.

Paul has delivered many flood alleviation and water resource projects ranging from small studies to major multi-million pound infrastructure projects. He has wide experience in managing projects from feasibility through to economic analysis and production of business cases to secure funding, detailed design and finally supervision of construction. He is qualified to manager level under the CSCS training scheme for health and safety on construction sites.