Six key people helping to develop the region’s road and bridge networks are: Jesper Damgaard, Anas Kassem, Brett Doughty, John Lee, Hamed Zaghw and Steven Miller
Jesper Damgaard
Position: Managing director, Cowi UAE
Biography: An engineer with more than 15 years’ experience, Jesper Damgaard has been based in the UAE for seven years, the past three of which have been spent at Danish engineering consultant Cowi. Damgaard has a master’s degree in civil engineering from the Danish Technical University, specialising in hydrodynamics and hydraulic engineering. After completing his studies, he began a career in hydraulic and sediment transport research. Prior to joining Cowi in 2006, Damgaard worked with Australia’s WorleyParsons and UK-based HR Wallingford. Cowi has been active in Dubai since 1991. In 2008, it conducted a feasibility study for the planned $20bn bridge linking Yemen and Djibouti, which will stretch for more than 28 kilometres at a height of 400 metres above the sea. Damgaard is also a chartered engineer and a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Contact Tel: +971 (0) 4339 7076
Anas Kassem
Position: Transport director, Parsons Brinckerhoff
Biography: Anas Kassem is director of transport in the Middle East at New York-based Parsons Brinckerhoff, and is responsible for the overall operations and performance of all transport-related business at the firm. This includes the design, construction and project management of highways and rail projects. Kassem is involved in several strategic planning projects for Middle East clients. In 2006, Parsons Brinckerhoff was selected by Kuwait’s Public Works Ministry to provide construction supervision for the proposed new ring road around Kuwait City. Kassem has a master’s degree and doctorate in civil engineering from Rutgers University in the US, and a degree in civil engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and president of the Kuwait chapter of the American Concrete Institute.
Contact Tel: +971 (0) 4360 0090
Brett Doughty
Position: Project director, Hyder Consulting
Biography: Brett Doughty is a chartered engineer who leads the north shore programme management team in Bahrain for the UK’s Hyder Consulting Group. Doughty began his professional career in the UK in the mid 1970s. He joined UK bridge and road designers Freeman Fox & Partners, renamed Hyder Consulting in 1996, after completing his postgraduate studies. Earlier in his career, Doughty spent six years in Dubai developing highway project designs, including the Dubai to Al-Ain road. Returning to the UK in the late 1980s, he was responsible for a series of motorway-widening schemes. He was app-ointed regional manager at Hyder in 1995, before becoming a director of Hyder Consulting Group and group director of highways in 2000. Doughty moved to Bahrain in 2006, following Hyder Consulting’s appointment as programme manager for the north shore area, Bahrain’s largest development zone.
Contact Tel: +971 (0) 4324 2532
John Lee
Position: Highway and transport planning adviser, Abu Dhabi Department of Transport
Biography: John Lee has more than 30 years’ experience as a transport sector specialist. He was appointed highway and transport planning adviser to the newly formed Abu Dhabi Department of Transport in June 2007. The Abu Dhabi government is planning massive transport infrastructure development over the next couple of decades to cope with the expected growth of its economy and population. Lee’s role is to help the department’s highway management division develop and manage the emirate’s strategic highway network, as part of the national transport system. He has been instrumental in helping the emirate’s authorities develop a strategy for public-private partnership deals, including the first such road project in Abu Dhabi, the Mafraq-Ghweifat highway. He has advised governments and international donor agencies in Asia, Africa and the Pacific region.
Contact Tel: +971 (0) 2656 6666
Hamed Zaghw
Position: Manager, road and highways division, Parsons
Biography: Hamed Zaghw was appointed manager of the road and highways division of US consultant engineer Parsons in November 2009, and supervises more than 1,800 staff and 425 design and construction projects around the world. Zaghw has more than 25 years’ project management experience, particularly in the design and construction of bridges and parking structures. He joined Parsons in 1990, working on the Abu Dhabi transport and roads improvement programme. Since then, he has progressed from project manager to senior vice-president and sector manager for the Middle East road and highways division. He has also worked in the US, Africa and Eastern Europe. He is a registered professional engineer with a degree in civil engineering from Cairo University and a master’s degree in structural engineering from the University of Cincinnati in the US.
Contact Tel: +971 (0) 4402 9700
Steven Miller
Position: Dubai managing director, FX Fowle International
Biography: Steven Miller joined FX Fowle in 2005 to direct the New York-based firm’s overseas work. As managing director, Miller runs the branch office of planning and design consultants from Dubai. Miller has more than 45 years’ experience as an urban planner and architect, completing projects across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He is currently co-ordinating the development of several buildings in Dubai and India. In 2008, Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority selected FX Fowle’s proposal for the architectural design of a mile-long bridge spanning the Dubai Creek. At 205 metres high, the firm’s design for the Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed crossing will be the tallest spanning-arch bridge in the world. A fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Miller is also a member of the European chapter of the Urban Land Institute and the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Contact Tel: + 971 (0) 4325 9179
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