Reference — Brian Watson, former Managing Director of Sellafield

My name is Brian Watson. I worked in the nuclear industry for 35 years, all of them spent at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site, arguably the most challenging nuclear site in the World, with a workforce of 10 to 12,000 people, and an annual operating budget of £1.25 billion. I was Managing Director of the site for 5 years between 1999 and 2004, and was responsible for the Commissioning of the £2.0 billion reprocessing complex known as THORP: that is where I first started working with Derek Small, in about 1992, and Derek and I have continued to work together ever since.

In the early 1990’s, I was recruiting and developing a workforce of about 1500 to operate and maintain THORP. I had already introduced a team working programme, but wanted to move on to the next step of developing top-class leadership skills, and empowering the workforce. I attended a seminar by Stephen Covey, and felt that the programme he advocated was perfect for my needs. I made contact with the Covey organisation, and began work with Derek. From the outset, I knew this would be a success. Derek immediately demonstrated not only his professionalism and ability to develop and deliver a suitably tailored programme, but also, and rarely in the Consultancy field, a willingness to challenge, to tell it as it is, and to test the true commitment of the leadership team. The programmes Derek developed and delivered were absolutely instrumental in not only changing the performance of my team, but also in changing beneficially the lifestyle choices of many of my team.

Following the work on THORP, I continued to enlist Derek’s help to run further programmes with the Senior Management team at Sellafield, and then subsequently with other major International clients following my retirement from Sellafield. All the time I have known Derek, he has maintained a wide and diverse range of major International clients, almost all of whom have retained Derek’s services because of the quality of his work, but also the integrity and professionalism of his input.

15 or 16 years on, I regard Derek as arguably my most important professional ally, somebody who I would trust absolutely implicitly to develop and deliver a wide range of programmes to bring the best out of any team and individuals, but also as a close personal friend. Without hesitation, I recommend Derek absolutely to work with any organisation. Be prepared for excellence and to be challenged in a positive and constructive manner. Engaging with Derek will be one of the best moves your organisation will ever make.

Brian Watson
Ex-Managing Director
Sellafield Works
Sellafield
Seascale
Cumbria

Currently:
Management Consultant
Brian Watson Limited
Papcastle House
Papcastle
Cockermouth
Cumbria
CA13 0LB
01900 824422
E-mail: brian_watson_ltd@hotmail.com