Our remarkable people make Wood what it is. Driving an inspired culture, performance excellence and profitable growth every day, our 36,000 strong global team are pushing the boundaries and making a positive difference to our world.
Mike Needham is no exception. Mike is a technology development manager and has worked at Wood since 2020. His background is in the armed forces, having been an aircraft electrical and avionic engineer in the Royal Air Force. Mike is passionate about creating a better future for others, through the work he does at Wood, as well as his volunteering activities.
I thrive on variety and challenges. My career has a lot of depth, and I knew I could transfer my skills from the armed forces into business. I have had the opportunity to do this at Wood, shifting my skillset into project management and delivery.
I can genuinely say I enjoy coming to work, I thrive on the client interaction, working with different technologies and being pushed out of my comfort zone.
An exciting project I am currently involved in is the development of a novel carbon capture technology. The technology has been developed by C-Capture and Wood is supporting them to demonstrate and upscale for applications in industry. C-Capture’s technology allows carbon capture to be deployed in hard to decarbonise sectors where existing carbon capture technologies might not perform. This type of project uses both Wood’s skillset and my own in different ways, built on my experience within operational roles previously.
I want to create a better future for others, I want to see sustainability, efficiency and less of an impact on the global environment. As a business, this is within our gift. Whatever industry we look at there are opportunities to improve. We need to move forward as one business and all work together towards this goal.
I am a strong advocate for the armed forces community, having served for nine years in the Royal Air Force. I am forever grateful that someone decided to take a chance on me, an individual who had just left the forces. They could see the skillset I had that could be moulded and utilised in the industrial world.
I want to pay this forward and support other ex-forces personnel to enter industry. Those in the armed forces develop a wide range of skills that can be deployed in business, from technological skills to being dependable, a team player, but also able to work autonomously. I promote these skill sets within Wood by my involvement in the armed forces network, as well as bringing some banter and sharing of my own experiences within the group.
In my personal time, I am a volunteer with my local mountain rescue team; Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team. I am one of only 30 operational mountain rescue search dog handlers with Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England. Since joining the team in 2015, I have been called to over 300 callouts and over 40 dog specific callouts with my dog, Tarn.
I love climbing and being outdoors myself so feel like I am giving back. I would like to think someone would rescue me if I got into trouble on the hills!
As long as I have variety in my life and work, this keeps me happy and thriving. At Wood I want to remain delivery focused and continue to implement projects that have some resilience behind them; looking at advances in technology to make them more useable for a more environmentally resilient world.
Discover our carbon capture and storage expertise.