Getting to know Neal Edmondson, Director of Clients & Partnerships

Meet the people behind our success as we unveil the stories, passions, and expertise of our dedicated team. Discover how their experience enables us to become a trusted environmental services partner for clients across the UK. This time, let's get to know Neal Edmondson, Director of Clients & Partnerships.

Neal is a seasoned expert in the water industry. Armed with a master’s degree, Neal is known for his sound account management skills and passion for tackling challenges head on. Off-duty he’s equally as avid about challenges and has been known to complete an ultramarathon or two!

What was your background before joining Aqua Consultants?

I started life after university on Yorkshire Water’s graduate scheme, gaining an insight into the business, moving around the different departments and working in different roles. I stayed for four years after I completed the graduate scheme.

After the change in the regulatory cycle of the water industry, I joined Grundfos as an account manager and got involved in sales and business development. I then moved to a Scottish company and Covid-19 hit, so I decided to move to a bigger, more established company and joined Jacobs. This was my only dalliance outside water as I had clients in highways, nuclear and rail working in transformation and stakeholder management.

Then Aqua Consultants offered me a role that combined my sales, business development and consultancy experience into one role, and I jumped at the chance!

What did you do your degree in?

Geography, then a master’s in environmental chemistry, followed by an MBA.

Can you tell us more about your role at Aqua Consultants?

I head up the sales and business development, account management, and growth part of the business. So, I govern our sales process, develop our growth strategy and manage the accounts of our major clients.

Having been in the water industry for some time, what changes or challenges have you seen?

Challenges change over time and I’ve seen how they can impact from several perspectives, including the client, contractor, supplier, and now consultancy.

Climate change is the industry’s biggest challenge and it’s good to see action being taken seriously now. There are also challenges around size of workforce and skills gaps. And we’ve recently seen a huge increase in both political and public pressure on water industry performance, exacerbated by overflows and pollution. These are huge challenges, but also huge opportunities.

What are Aqua Consultants doing for climate change?

As consultants, our role is to advise and guide clients about adapting to and mitigating climate change. Through our different service lines, we help with the design of solutions and provide regulatory advice on business plans. We also develop and advise on things like nature-based solutions, biodiversity net gain, net zero, and energy strategies.

What excites you about coming to work?

I love my job and what excites me is, although I’ve only been at Aqua Consultants for two and half years, it’s changed so much.

There were approximately 60 people when I joined and now there are 160 of us. We’ve doubled or even tripled our client-base and the solutions we offer have increased massively, so I enjoy that it’s a constantly changing landscape. I also deal with clients and partners, so I’m out and about in different settings every day and have a very people-focused view.

What do you like to do outside of work?

I like to be outdoors as much as possible, especially with my dog, and my wife and I love to travel.

I’m also very sporty, although I’m currently injured and having knee surgery soon, so I've had to slow down recently. But when I’m not injured, I’m a runner and CrossFit enthusiast. I’m also forcing myself to enjoy golf! I’ve done international ultramarathons and competed at HYROX world championships, which is probably why I need a knee operation!

What are you looking forward to over the next 12 months?

Aqua is such an exciting and fast-paced organisation that there are always things to look forward to. We are bringing a lot of new clients on board, maturing our offering in several sectors and looking to grow the business internationally.

In April, we start the next asset management period. This is when all the water companies are told how much money they are allowed to spend for the next five years. The public and political pressure means they have huge requirements and massive capital programmes; we’re expecting these to be in the order of twice the size of the programmes delivered in the last five years. So, the next 12 months are going to be transformational. We've been gearing up for it for the last couple of years, so it’ll be great for that to land and respond to those challenges.