Face To Face: Rob Jackson

We are a testing laboratories and advisory services firm. We have recently rebranded from Bodycote testing to Exova. We operate globally, we deliver our services to a wide range of sectors, right from construction to fire safety, and energy is a core sector for us. Our goal in life as Exova is to protect investment, to save lives, to make the world a safer place and be there to help companies with their environmental focus.

They are our three main overriding objectives and we do that by offering this range of services.

Can you give us an example of your work?

For pipelines for example, we will get involved in projects right from the very onset so when companies are designing pipelines we will help them in terms of advice and testing programmes for material selection. We make sure that the materials going into the oil and gas sector perform and that ranges right across the sector from upstream to downstream and at every level of the supply chain going into the oil and gas sector.

What challenges are you facing currently?

I think I’ll be quite confrontational here, one of the biggest challenges we face in the Middle East is getting clients to understand that they need to get it right the first time. As a laboratory chain, we an international group, and obviously with our accreditations we guarantee every result to be 100% accurate.

Now in many cases the results show the material to fail, and the clients don’t like that.

What often happens is they will go to other service providers, who can be unscrupulous, who will give them a result that says it complies. That is putting lives at risk and that is putting their investments at risk.

There is corruption within our sector and laboratories will provide results that are incorrect and will help their customers. And ultimately the people who will suffer are the main clients, and that’s the oil and gas companies and their employees.

How long have you been in Dubai?

I’ve been in Dubai for 11 years now and in the Middle East region for 19. I’ve also worked in Qatar.

I came on board with Exova in 2003 through an acquisition.

How do you balance home and work life?

That is the single largest challenge in my life. I have family out here, my two daughters who certainly need their dad around and it can be tough at times.

I try and ensure I get the weekends off and do activities we can do as a family like tennis and sailing. I also do some personal things that de-stress me from work; I do a lot of rowing here in Dubai, down by the Dubai Marina. I play other sports and basically when I’m doing activities like that it forces me to switch off from work.