Veolia Water Technologies UK (VWT UK) recently appointed Paul Stevens as the new Chief Services Officer to lead the delivery of services across the business. Here, we find out more about his role and experience, talk to him about some of the current industry challenges, and gain insight into how VWT is positioning itself to best support its customers.
Could you start by talking through your career history – and any highlights?
I started my career working as a field service engineer for Olympus, a global consumer and industrial and medical device company. I eventually went on to lead Olympus Technical Services across the UK, Ireland, Middle East & Africa in addition to an expansion of the UK based business activities into the USA.
Can you give me a brief overview of what the current new role entails?
I am responsible for the Services delivery and the Sales of non-project related products within the UK. As Chief Service Officer, I will be looking to increase collaboration between the Sales & Services teams ensuring that we not only maintain our position as the best service provider for our customers in every market sector, but also continue to develop innovative services solutions.
How has your previous experience helped to prepare you for this role?
In the last 28 years I have had a variety of roles and responsibilities – all of which have helped me to learn and develop. I have always had an aptitude for technical and regulatory service provision, which is going to be fundamental in my new role.
VWT UK has a long history of delivering high quality technologies, services and technical expertise across a wide range of sectors. I feel my experience bringing teams together will help to further expand the services we offer and increase collaboration across VWT UK. I really am passionate about helping the wider team to deliver even higher productivity and customer satisfaction levels.
Your team has grown after the acquisition of Biochemica. What will this mean for customers?
With the acquisition, we now have 75 field engineers – a combination of the Biochemica and water treatment teams who will be working together. With key service offerings including field technical, water treatment chemicals and digital services being brought closer together and better aligned with services such as the AQUAVISTA™ (part of Hubgrade) digital platform – VWT UK can provide industry leading coverage and response. I’m happy to say we have grown our team of specialists and can offer a higher level of support for the scientific and healthcare sectors.
If we look at the healthcare market, what are the key challenges and how is VWT UK helping its customers?
Saying that 2020 has been a difficult year for the healthcare market would be an understatement to say the least. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic there are so many challenges that we have to overcome.
Given the rapid growth of COVID-19 infections across the country the availability of appropriate PPE remains instrumental in ensuring that our in-field workforce can continue to work safely. In collaboration with our internal Health & safety teams we are able to provide field service engineers with the most up to date guidance in what is a rapidly changing environment. This focussed approach supports our ability to maintain the staffing levels needed to deliver customer service level commitments.
A consistent supply of high purity water is a necessity for much of the healthcare sector. Using decades of specialist water technology expertise, we work closely with hospitals and healthcare facilities to design, install, commission, and maintain pure water systems that supply decontamination equipment. Pure water is essential to the decontamination cycle for flexible endoscopes and other medical instruments that cannot be thermally sterilised. It is crucial that companies looking to make a change consult an expert like VWT UK at the earliest possible stage.
Our aim is to help improve patient care, protect equipment, guarantee an uninterrupted service, reduce operating costs and ensure patient, visitor and staff safety. I believe that the service we provide is not just about providing a solution or meeting a requirement, but about improving service outcomes overall at a time when the healthcare 
industry needs it the most.
For more information on Veolia Water Technologies UK and its solutions, please visit, www.veoliawatertechnologies.co.uk/.
