International role for Donet at Cavendish Nuclear
Having demonstrated outstanding capabilities as a bid specialist at Babcock in South Africa, Donet is moving to the United Kingdom (UK) to assume a new role as commercial manager at Cavendish Nuclear.
A core part of Babcock International Group’s Nuclear Sector, Cavendish Nuclear provides a comprehensive range of critical nuclear solutions across the markets of Clean Energy, Defence and Civil Decommissioning, both in the UK and internationally.
With a project management background, Donet joined Babcock some three-and-a-half years ago, initially as a quantity surveyor, before assuming the role of bid specialist, a completely new position at the time. In this role, Van Wyk was responsible for developing bidding strategies to ensure competitive bids in the public space, particularly on Eskom contracts.
In line with Babcock’s people strategy, Donet was afforded the opportunity to hone his skills in this position. Over the years, he has played a leading role in developing tender strategies, resulting in the awarding of some strategic public contracts in the energy and petrochemical space.
Donet is particularly proud of his involvement in the execution of a NOx abatement project at a petrochemical plant in South Africa, where Babcock successfully reduced emission levels by almost 40% lower than the legal requirement. Following this success, Babcock won another emissions abatement services contract which included the refurbishment of electrostatic precipitators at one of Eskom’s flagship power stations.
Donet says he will leverage these experiences to execute his duties as commercial manager at Cavendish Nuclear. The move to the UK speaks to the Babcock Group’s strategy to grow its capability through empowering talent moves and career opportunities across its international business.
In this new role, his broad responsibility is to provide commercial expertise and guidance to commercial project staff. “While nuclear is a completely different energy space to what I am used to in South Africa, the projects operate under the same contractual framework, the New Engineering Contract (NEC),” he says. “My previous role has prepared me to tackle challenges related to managing complex engineering projects, all the way from the bidding stage to completion.”
Donet is excited about his move to the UK, which he believes is a “new adventure”, both professionally and personally. “Careerwise, I am looking forward to learning more about the nuclear industry, expanding my knowledge and interacting with people with new skills sets. Personally, I am pleased about the ease of travel within Europe, seeing new places and making new friends.”