Each year, Clough celebrates the outstanding contributions of its long-serving team members.

This year, we celebrate and congratulate Jim Regan on a remarkable 25 years with Clough. This is Jim’s journey…

“Just to clear things up as I know some of you may be thinking that I have been here longer than 25 years and you are right. I first started at Clough as a contractor in 1988 at 251 St Georges Terrace on an 18-month contract. I was then asked to rejoin in 1990 where I worked on contract for 9 years straight. I was eventually persuaded to go on staff (after many requests) in 1999, so it’s really been 34 years of continuous service and 25 years on staff.

“Where do I start, so many projects and so many talented people that I have had the privilege to work with. It’s been an amazing experience, having worked on over 30 major projects, and in more than 10 different countries.

“People ask me why I have stayed so long with the one company. My response is, every project is different. You can be seconded to JVs for years, work in different locations, with different teams and different clients. The work can be so diverse, so why would I leave? 

“I started at Clough when we had handwritten memos and faxes and we shared PCs. It was a family-owned business and Harold Clough was still very involved, occasionally dropping into the drawing office with changes for us to make to his house plans. 

“I started in the drawing office as Mechanical and Structural Draftsman/Designer using ink pens and paper. I’ve held many positions over the years, worked as a Quantity Surveyor, Contracts Administrator, Piping Estimator, Requisition Engineer, Site Supervisor, Engineering Materials Controller, Piping Spec Developer, Materials Manager, Head of Function for Materials & Logistics, Procurement Manager and Supply Chain Manager and SME for various systems having worked on company-wide implementations of new systems.
  
“Most of my career has been in the oil and gas industry where we have built and installed some incredible installations. 

“Having previously worked on the design of Woodside’s Goodwyn 'A' Modules (with Davey McKee McDermott) I was asked to return to Clough in 1990 to work on the Fabrication of the Utilities and Accommodation modules as a Quantity Surveyor which Clough had won in a JV with Press Offshore. 

“I was on this project for 3 years in Jervoise Bay Henderson and learnt a lot from the ground up. I literally turned the lights off on that project where my last task was to take progress photos of the module loadouts. I then worked on claims for 6 months and finally worked on pre-commissioning of the modules in Fremantle at Victoria Quay as a supervisor.

“I found out early in my career with Clough, if you were prepared to take on new challenges outside of your role you gained the experience to become more versatile which in turn would bring more opportunities and responsibilities.

“The turning point in my engineering career came in 1993 when I worked on the Dhodak Gas Plant situated in Pakistan. As a designer I was asked to assist with materials management and be involved in the design of an in-house materials management system. I worked with a project engineer (Colin Percival) who was flat out every day, requisitioning, coordinating, and shipping materials to Pakistan. 

“His phone never stopped ringing from 6am to 6pm, and I said to him that I would hate to have his position. Within a few months, he had to replace someone on site, and I was in the hot seat for the rest of the project. Once the project finished, I then worked on the development of Clough’s first materials management system.

“Another great project was East Spar Development, on Varanus Island. The fabrication of an Offshore Buoy and Onshore Gas Plant where again as the materials manager I turned the lights off and sold everything at the end, from plant and equipment to office furniture and PCs, all advertised in the Sunday Times… no internet those days.

“Indonesia was an amazing experience in the late 90s where Clough owned Petrosea, a mining, construction and oil and gas services company in Jakarta where I worked in the design centre as a Piping Requisition Engineer on the Pagerungan Island Onshore Gas Plant. This presented many challenges and I certainly had to learn Indonesian quickly.

“The other experience I’ll never forget was the time the riots broke out in Jakarta in May 1998. I watched the city burn around my apartment where I was stranded for a week before being evacuated on an Australian government charter flight.  

“At the start of 2001 I was the Lead Engineering Materials Controller for KJV on Woodside’s $1.6B, Train 4, LNG Expansion on the Burrup Peninsula. The project was based in our current building (QV1) and had a staggering amount of piping materials running into the 100s of millions of dollars using Clough’s in-house materials management system. It was an extremely rewarding and challenging project which took 4 years, and during which time my two children were born. 

“Some of my most memorable experiences were around 2005 where Clough had won two projects in India at the same time. One was an EPC and installation of three wellhead platforms and pipeline off the west coast of Mumbai and the other an EPC for an onshore gas plant in the jungle off the east coast. Although financially they weren’t successful, it was an amazing experience for me working in many of the cities and sites of the project including the fabrication yards in UAE.

“Towards the end, I was asked to visit the client’s office in Mumbai which I was promised would only be a “standard Clough two-weeks” trip. Upon arriving I met our CEO at the time, David Singleton, who said “glad you are here, I just did a deal with the client and if we finish this project and sign-off on completing pipe spool fabrication and handover all the materials to complete the project before Christmas, we won’t be penalised $17M in liquidated damages.” 

“He said I could have anyone from Perth to assist me, (weren’t many takers) but it must be done. It was September and at that point I realised I wasn’t going home anytime soon. We worked almost 7 days a week and handed the project over three days before Christmas. It was a crazy time rounding up materials from various fabrication yards in Mumbai, working remotely with engineering and working from warehouses with no lighting and no internet.

“Probably the most successful and challenging project I worked on was Chevron’s Wheatstone HUC in 2015, where I was the Project Supply Chain Manager. A fully reimbursable contract which started at $300M and finished around $1.6B. We had a brilliant team and an exceptional project manager. It was a great experience, including going offshore on this platform.

“In 2017, this project was immediately followed by the Ichthys CPF Offshore HUC project for Samsung Heavy Industries and the Ichthys FPSO HUC project for Daewoo Shipbuilding, these projects ran concurrently with separate clients, but were managed by the one project team, being the same team that ran the Wheatstone project. These two projects ran for almost 3 years and were very successful.

“There have been so many highlights over the years, and it’s the people on some of these projects that makes them so special. It’s also not always hard work and I was able to make the most of my limited days off when travelling.  Memorable moments include Dubai, visiting the Taj Mahal in India, seeing Australia win the ICC Champions Trophy Final in Mumbai, snow skiing at night in Mongolia, visiting NASA in Texas, attending an NBA final and Rodeo in Houston and the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Who knows, Milan next maybe?

“At the end of the day, I feel I am part of a family, which has recently become way bigger. My kids who are 20 and 22 only associate me with Clough as that’s all they have ever known. My email address has never changed. 

“I guess it’s obvious that I’m a loyal person. Although my blood is now Webuild red, it will always have a tinge of Clough green. 

“I have seen this company evolve and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of our industry, and I am proud to have been a part of its growth and success. I’m excited to see what the next chapter will bring with Webuild at the forefront of our business, and I look forward to many more years of working together to achieve great things.”