Nottingham flood expert is Attitude magazine trailblazer
SIMON RECOGNISED IN LIST OF 101 LGBTQ+ ROLE MODELS
A BUSINESSMAN from Nottingham who has helped to defend thousands of homes from floods is to feature in Attitude Magazine’s top 101 LGBTQ+ Trailblazers list.
Flood expert Simon Crowther, 28, has been listed in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) category.
The elite line-up, put together by the UK’S best-selling gay magazine, includes names in fields including sport, politics, travel, media, finance, film, fashion and music.
Simon’s latest accolade follows winning the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and being recognised by Forbes in their “30 under 30” list in 2018.
The civil engineer and chartered water and environmental manager founded his own company Flood Protection Solutions while at university and within five years the company had a multimillion-pound turnover.
His interest stemmed from the traumatic experience of the family home in Woodborough flooding when he was just 13.
The former University of Nottingham student said he was honoured be named a trailblazer and hopes to be seen as a role model to others.
“From my perspective I think it’s great they’ve got a STEM category because science, tech, engineering and maths go so unrecognised, mostly because people in those sectors tend to be taskfocused introverts and don’t get much media recognition.
“There’s not much diversity in STEM so for them to have that as a category is really useful. I’m quite vocal in the industry I’m in so it was fairly easy for them to find me.
“It’s a nice accolade to have. I have carried on keeping my head down and working because I’m always so busy.
“It’s nice every now and then to look back and think what an amazing thing we’ve done over the past ten years and how many people we’ve helped and seeing that be recognised.”
Simon, who splits his time between Mapperley and Islington in London, came out to his family when he was 21.
He added: “There’s such limited diversity in STEM. If we can be role models for future people to attract more diverse talent into the sector then it’s really great to be able to look through the list and see the different diversity that doesn’t get recognition anywhere else.”
His company has had more than 10,000 customers in the UK, including 300 or so in Nottinghamshire, with clients including homeowners, the NHS, the Environment Agency, and Thames Water.
The seven-strong workforce, which will be expanding in the New Year, has also carried out risk assessments for big banks in Hong Kong and supplied equipment to Malta and Barbados.
He is regularly called upon as a flood expert by BBC and Sky TV and has appeared on Channel 4’s climate change documentary, A Summer of Wild Weather.
At the time his family home flooded in 2007, preventative measures were either very slow with limited warning for flash floods or really expensive.
“The mud, silt and devastation it left behind was quite traumatic. It’s not something we ever expected,” said Simon, who along with his parents had to move out of the house for nine months until it was fixed.
He and his family searched for a product to defend their property in the future and discovered a Canadian invention called Water-gate.
When Woodborough flooded again five years later, his home stayed safe due to the barrier that works like a portable self-raising dam.
His company Flood Protection Solutions was born from that with Simon becoming the UK’S sole importer of Water-gate.
“The company has grown from there. We’ve expanded the product range and it now has a consulting division that looks at everything from flood risk assessments for planning applications, home buyer reports to other environmental issues such as drainage,” said Simon.
“It’s still quite an emotive point, especially now when I go to other people’s properties that have flooded and it definitely brings back some not very nice memories. But I have been fortunate that it has given me my career.”
Attitude’s Magazine’s top 101 LGBTQ+ Trailblazer’s list was founded to ensure that members of the LGBTQ+ community can work in an environment where everyone feels safe to bring their true self to work.
Editor-in-chief, Cliff Joannou, said: “The LGBTQ+ community is broad and diverse, we are in every culture, nationality, ethnicity, class, religion. One thing that unites us is the process of coming out, both to ourselves and others, sometimes with ease and at other times with great difficulty.
“Supportive families, understanding friends and encouraging workplaces help us to become the best possible version of ourselves.”
The full 101 list can be found in Attitude’s January issue, available to purchase now.