Russel Greenwood

Partner, Hoare Lea

Russel joined Hoare Lea in 2014 at Director level, becoming a full Partner in 2015. His particular area of expertise lies with data centres and mission-critical buildings. However, during his varied career, he has earned a breadth of experience, ranging from hospitals, education, leisure, commercial office, residential and extensive retail projects.

Biggest engineering challenge.

One of the many memorable technical engineering challenges he has faced was the live upgrade of a large data centre – taking systems that had been in use since the 1980s and upgrading them to Uptime Institute Tier IV standards. At the time, this particular data centre processed social security payments and, if service was lost, would have disrupted the finances of millions of UK taxpayers. During a six month period, they were able to facilitate the upgrade, strictly out of operating hours, ensuring that there was no loss of service for the client.

Engineering human experiences.

During his career, he has seen countless projects where communication and collaboration have been vital to success, and extensive customer consultation has brought results. One such example can be found in several new secondary schools in Yorkshire. By fully exploring the customer’s needs, they were able to design their solution to prioritise access. This helped staff increase their ability to manage the pupils while maintaining an open and inclusive environment.