Meet the Team – Rowan Pritchard, Senior Engineering Surveyor

Rowan Pritchard is one of our Senior Engineering Surveyors and has a history with Kemp going all the way back to 2005.

After completing an MSc in Surveying and Land/Environmental Management at Camborne School of Mines, Rowan joined Kemp as an assistant to a Senior Engineer. He later moved to Exeter for a few years, before returning to Cornwall and rejoining us in 2013. Having enjoyed his time at Kemp first time around, coming back was an easy choice.

As a Senior Engineering Surveyor, Rowan’s job takes him to all sorts of sites across the South West. As he puts it, on a good day the sun is shining and you might find yourself on top of a cliff overlooking the beach. On a bad day, it’s raining, you’re wading through mud and running late for the next job! It’s that mix of being outdoors, visiting different places and the technical side of surveying that first attracted him to the career.

One job Rowan remembers particularly well is the West Carclaze Housing Project, where he worked as Resident Engineer throughout the Covid lockdown. While it wasn’t the most technically challenging job he’s worked on, being on site at such an unusual time, working alongside other contractors and having the chance to learn new skills made it one that has stuck with him.

Having spent so many years with Kemp, Rowan says it’s the people that make the difference. His work means he doesn’t necessarily see much of the team day-to-day, but the people are still his favourite part of working here.

If surveying hadn’t been the route he took, Rowan thinks he would probably have become a geologist, following on from his bachelor’s degree.

Outside of work, surfing used to take up a lot of Rowan’s spare time. These days, he’s more likely to be ferrying the kids between Cubs, martial arts and swimming, although he still gets them out bodyboarding and hopes to get back into surfing as they get older.

And if time and distance were no object? Rowan would love to travel across the desert on horseback, sleep under the stars and eventually arrive at the ancient city of Petra. Why? A love of adventure and history, and the fact he wanted to be Indiana Jones as a kid probably has something to do with it!