People Spotlight: Meet Diego López Gudiña
Our People Spotlight series gives you an inside look at our technical experts around the world. This week, we are highlighting an associate director from our Water business line in Glasgow and providing an insight into their inspiration and work.
Diego is a Chartered Quality Professional (CQP MCQI) leading the development of a bespoke integrated management system for the Caledonia Water Alliance, our joint venture with Morrison Water Services that will deliver clean and wastewater projects for Scottish Water.
What inspired you to join the industry?
My background is in environmental science and over 10 years ago, I moved to the United Kingdom to do pursue a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. After completing my studies, an opportunity came across to join the Caledonia Water Alliance as a document controller, which was mainly an administrative role. This role offered me the opportunity to support multiple teams and help manage their project information in a common data environment. The framework had just been established which meant that the pace and needs of our projects were quite reactive which made things interesting.
Within one year, I was promoted to information manager where I was responsible for a team of two document controllers. Working closely with our client, Scottish Water, exposed me to real life examples of how client needs are first translated into scopes, and then designed and delivered. This allowed me to better understand the project lifecycle. I was then offered the opportunity to do the APM project management course, which allowed me to move to the PMO team.
I am curious in nature, and I have always loved solving problems which explains why my career has evolved towards quality assurance and business improvement. Over the course of my career journey at AECOM, I’ve held multiple positions, taking over more responsibilities every year, before taking up the role of an integrated management systems manager and an associate director.
Working closely with our client, Scottish Water, exposed me to real life examples of how client needs are first translated into scopes, and then designed and delivered. This allowed me to better understand the project lifecycle.”
What is your favourite AECOM project that you’ve worked on and why?
Working within the quality assurance function has given me the opportunity to contribute to various projects across all our programs. My favourite project is the one I’m involved in at present, where I am leading the development of a bespoke integrated management system — a business management system that is compliant with the Quality (9001), Environment (14001) and Occupational Health (45001) ISO standards — for the Caledonia Water Alliance that will help us deliver over £100 million per year in projects all the way until March 2027. This has been an amazing challenge that has provided me an opportunity to strengthen my knowledge of quality assurance and business improvement, and engage with senior members of our framework and quality experts from both AECOM and Morrison Water Services — our joint venture partner. The system has passed the external audit and we have received our ISO certificates. This will allow us to deliver the project for our client in an effective and consistent manner.
This has been an amazing challenge that has provided me an opportunity to strengthen my knowledge of quality assurance and business improvement, and engage with senior members of our framework and quality experts from both AECOM and Morrison Water Services — our joint venture partner.”
Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community.
As part of my role, I am responsible for supporting our clients’ net zero journey as one of their net zero heroes. This allows me to work alongside our project teams to collaborate on their carbon reduction initiatives.
I recently visited our Picketlaw Water Treatment Works (WTW) project in the south of Glasgow, where we are using eco cabins, hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as fuel for our plants, low carbon concrete and recycled materials for our yard sub-base. The purpose of the project is to decommission Picketlaw WTW and a distribution service reservoir (DSR). This will be achieved by supplying the water operation area (WOA) from adjacent WOA and DSRs. This involves the installation of approximately 18 kilometres of plastic pipe and the slip lining of over 4 kilometres of cast iron pipe.
The positive impacts of this project come from a reduction in the embodied carbon associated with its delivery. For example, HVO is used as it is a fossil-free alternative to mineral diesel, resulting in up to 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Using low carbon concrete means we can avoid the use of 100 percent mixes of Portland Cement in our projects and focus on other alternatives with a reduced contact of that cement.
One of the biggest reductions comes from our partners AG Wilson who are using a rock trencher for opencut sections, which has an increased productivity of approximately 500m per day and increased efficiency of subsoil reuse. All these initiatives have a positive impact on our communities and the environment.
I am responsible for supporting our clients’ net zero journey as one of their net zero heroes. This allows me to work alongside our project teams to collaborate on their carbon reduction initiatives.”
Share a piece of career advice.
Sometimes during your career, you can feel lost or unsure of what your next step should be. My advice is to reflect on what aspects of your work you enjoy the most. Is there anything that gives your energy? If so, it might be worth checking with your line manager and colleagues if you could get more of those tasks or even a higher responsibility in that area. You don’t know where that path might take you, but I am sure that you’ll enjoy the journey.
