David Walters has extensive experience in senior management roles. He joined the Harris Pye Group in mid-2014 as Assistant Financial Director, became Group Operations Director in January 2016 and in November that year was promoted to Chief Financial Officer and joined the Board – “one of my proudest moments” is how he describes it. During his three years with the Group he has proved his natural affinity for numbers and his ability to interpret and present in a concise and understandable form. This has led to an improved financial information flow to senior management, and improvements to the robustness, timing and breadth of information. As a result the finance team is now able to provide weekly real time information that enables management globally to make more informed decisions. During 2017 David has spent time moving the whole group on to one global accounting system and developing a new detailed forecasting model. His vision for Harris Pye’s future is to become the leading global engineering turnkey provider. David’s career started by spending over five years in Practice where he qualified as a chartered accountant before going to industry where he spent 10 years as Financial Director of a large construction group and later joint FD/CEO of the group for a further five years. David jumped at the opportunity to join Harris Pye, a company well known to him, a move that has given him the opportunity to expand his skills and gain global experience. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales
Mark Prendergast, a proud Welshman, joined Harris Pye over 20 years ago as Office and Finance Manager tasked with upgrading the financial system in order to attract investment. A year later 3i was onboard and he moved, as General Manager, to the UAE to set up a standalone company in the region (expanding from a UK branch office). Whilst he was there Harris Pye expanded its Middle Eastern reach from the UAE across Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia. He returned to the UK and worked as Group General Manager from 2001 to 2007 before the Management Buyout. It was during that time that Harris Pye opened up in Brazil, Poland and Australia. He has been Managing Director since then. When Mark first joined the company its turnover was GBP13m; by 2007 at the time of the MBO it was GBP30m. Since then, despite two global economic crashes, turnover has trebled. The Group has also seen a three/four-fold capacity increase in fabrication capability, and the transition of a boiler repair company in the marine sector to a full blown EPC turnkey contractor with all skills in house, including design and commissioning. Expansion into India, China, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Brazil as well as breaking into vertical markets such as renewables, biomass, green technology have all been achieved with Mark, and COO Chris David at the helm. Prior to joining Harris Pye Mark came from an IT and accounting background having worked as a Business Analyst in a multi-national computing and accounting solutions supplier; and then moved in a similar role to the UK’s largest privately-owned tool hire company. Mark is a Fellow of IMarEST and a member of RINA and SNAME – proof that his own continuing professional development is important to him, and the company.
Chris David, a Marine Chief Engineer by profession, joined Harris Pye’s Singapore office in 2001 focusing on the FPSO conversion market as technical superintendent. A year later, he moved to the UK office and worked his way up to Chief Technical Officer in 2007 Now COO. In this role he oversees all projects which include offshore oil and gas projects in every continent across the globe and at sea, earning Harris Pye the reputation of being ‘the shipyard without a shipyard’ as they work on rigs ships or FPSOs under way from one geographical location to another to another or offshore in the field. Their skills have now developed to include boiler design and manufacture (for marine and onshore uses – such as for large biomass plants) and a wide range of offshore and onshore engineering projects. He is proud of taking what was purely a boiler repair company to a global offshore and land-based EPC contractor able to undertake a wide range of engineering tasks from design to commissioning. He has contributed heavily to Harris Pye’s vision by striving to spearhead technological advancements within the industry by bridging the Gap from a concept to becoming a reality with regards to project execution.
Another passion is development new talent, and he takes particular pride in the accreditation programme developed with IMarEST for Graduate Engineers and, through Harris Pye’s internal training programmes as well as taking a keen interest in the external programmes Harris Pye sponsor with numerous colleges and universities . An engineer through and through, he started his career as an apprentice; spent four years as a mechanical maintenance engineer; 11 years at sea progressing from Junior Engineer to Chief Engineer; and two years ashore as Superintendent of a fleet of vessels before joining Harris Pye. He has continued his own professional development through becoming a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Marine Engineer, a Fellow of IMarEST, Fellow of RINA, and a member of SNAME and AISC. He has also held the post of Honorary Chairman of the IMarEst UAE Branch.
