New President takes over at end of challenging year

Paul Fenton MBE, CEng, FIHEEM, a highly experienced estates and facilities professional and Chartered Engineer who has worked across both the NHS and commercial sectors in a varied 40-year career, took over from Ian Hinitt as the Institute’s new President at its ‘virtual’ 2020 AGM in December. Talking to HEJ’s editor, Jonathan Baillie, last month, the recent recipient of an MBE for services to the NHS praised estates and facilities professionals across the UK, who had ‘stood shoulder to shoulder’ with medical professionals during the past year as an already stretched NHS battled to treat a growing number COVID-19 patients. As well as reflecting on the past year, and his key goals for IHEEM during his two-year tenure, he looked back on an interesting career journey, which began with a traditional apprenticeship.

Paul Fenton’s current-day role is Director of Estates and Facilities at East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), a sizeable East Anglian acute Trust which provides hospital and community health care services for Colchester, Ipswich, and the surrounding local areas. Formed on 1 July 2018, ESNEFT is the region’s largest NHS organisation, and among its biggest employers, and provides a full range of medical services from Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals, and community hospitals in Aldeburgh, Clacton, Halstead, Harwich, Felixstowe, and Ipswich, plus community services in Suffolk. Both Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals have major A&E departments.

In a very interesting discussion with Paul Fenton, it quickly became clear how much he enjoys his work; he charted how he had progressed from electrical apprentice with Eastern Electricity to his current role, with all the attendant responsibilities and challenges. Having excelled at school in Ipswich in English, Mathematics, and Physics, on leaving school in 1980 he embarked upon a five-year electrical apprenticeship with Eastern Electricity – then both an electricity supplier and major contractor – based at its main Ipswich depot. The training has stood him in excellent stead ever since, and he is a firm advocate of apprenticeships. He said: “The electrical training, and the discipline and rigour the apprenticeship afforded (the first 10 months were spent at Eastern Electricity’s residential Harold Hill Training School in Essex), provided a solid foundation for my career. I received a brilliant grounding in electrical engineering, plus the opportunity to work on a very wide range of residential, commercial, and industrial jobs alongside experienced electricians and engineers.”