Name: Amos Simbo
Title: Director of Winway Services, advisory group member of UK REiiF, chair of the Black Professionals in Construction (BPIC) Network, member of CIBSE and member of the external advisory board for CIOB.
What I do: I am the founder and owner of Winway and BPIC, which are both full-time jobs in their own rights. I look after the daily running of the BPIC Network, which I founded in 2019, and also oversee the specialist construction M&E (mechanical and electrical) services company Winway, which I launched in 2016.
Why I got into construction: It wasn’t planned. I was working for a mechanical contractor just after I finished uni – I went to Loughborough. I knew absolutely nothing about the industry. I was looking for a job and that was the first job I got. That was back in 2011.
My first project: The first project I worked on was the Olympic Stadium. The mechanical contractor, Intech, I was working for had just finished the Velodrome. It also had a facilities management contract during the games, which involved everything from fixing broken seats and air conditioning to mending broken lights. After that, I moved onto my first actual contract for the University of East London, which was building a new campus. Then I was made redundant.
Why it didn’t faze me: I was surprised they let me go, but I knew what I was capable of. I was keen to show that to someone who would give me the time of day. I found another job on a day rate with a contractor. I was meant to work for a week for the company – a Scottish company called Forth Electrical Services – and I ended up staying for two years. They gave me really good training in terms of educating me on what the industry was all about. That is where I really learned my skills and I’m still in touch with some of them now.
My next big move: They wanted me to go to Glasgow, but my life was in London, so I looked for a job there and that’s when I got my first job as a technical services manager for Paragon (now owned by Tilbury Douglas). Then I went to Overbury, where I was a technical services manager, responsible for managing all the electrical mechanical contractors.
Striking out on my own: After that, I set up Winway with small projects and clients that I knew. It was a tough couple of years. At the start, the difficulty is that people don’t know you. You don’t have a reputation yet. Some people want financial security, so it is difficult to get contractors. It’s such a people industry. They already have their own relationships that you’re trying to break into. You really have to do some guerrilla activity in terms of how you look for work. One of the first big jobs I landed was with a guy who was a director at the company that made me redundant, who gave me a job near Cambridge.
Why I launched BPIC: Fast forward and through networking, I stumbled on the idea for BPIC. I wanted to make the industry better and realised it needed to be more inclusive. The first people who spoke to us were VolkerFitzpatrick, Arup, JLL, Tideway and the Cabinet Office.
The main thing they wanted was to develop strategies that would help them to find diverse talent and retain it. That’s become our focus. BPIC was only ever meant to be a network, but it has become much more than that. It quickly gained a lot of traction. Because of that, Winway got so much momentum behind it. That’s why I’m here now, saying I run both.
My inspiration: My mum and dad – because they raised me in a straight and narrow way. They got me to a point where I could do my own thing.
The biggest challenge I’ve encountered to date: The mental health aspect; just being able to handle things and being able to cope with and manage everything. It is a really painful experience to go through something you haven’t been through before. A lot of people just want stuff from you. It puts a lot of pressure on you mentally.
My greatest achievement to date: There are two. Winway was founded by my mum and dad in 1997 when they were still in Zimbabwe. They had to let go of it. One of my proudest achievements was being able to resurrect it and bring it back to life. The second is getting the industry to listen to us when it comes to inclusion. There are people who are really supportive of what we are doing.
The biggest misconception about construction: That there are only a few jobs you can do. There are actually about 250. People don’t know the breadth and depth of what you can do. What people see is only 5%.
What it’s like to be a black person in construction: It is not just about race. It’s more about exclusion, which is based on the system rather than individuals and the fact there are just not many black people in construction. There are no role models. No-one has seen a black CEO. You can find yourself on your own. Decisions are made based not on talent but on trust and loyalty. You have to gain people’s trust and loyalty.
Where I’d like to be in five years’ time in my career: I want two things. First, I want BPIC to be at the centre of the day-to-day function of our industry, where you can easily access diverse talent. It’s not a campaign or movement; it’s embedded. At Winway, we want to be one of the major players in the construction game. I believe the industry needs fresh companies. At the moment, it’s dominated by older companies that have been there for ages. They do not innovate; it’s just business as usual. We need fresh, new players on the pitch.
What I do in my downtime: I watch football and support loads of teams, not just one. I play golf and the guitar – I’m bad at golf but good at the guitar.
The job I’d be doing if I was not doing this: I find it ridiculous that across the continent of Africa people don’t have decent sanitation and toilets in 2022. That’s one thing I really want to address after doing this. I’d be doing that if I wasn’t doing this.
My advice for someone just starting out: Try and be well-connected, creative and hard working – and really think about what you do. You have got to put the work in.
My mantra: We are stronger together.
