Soon after I qualified from the University of the Witwatersrand with a B.Sc Town and Regional Planning and a short two years working as a town planner, I managed a private game lodge in the wildness area of the Tuli Block of eastern Botswana. It was here that I developed a true passion for nature, wildlife and the environment.
When I returned to South Africa, I settled back into town and regional planning work with the Johannesburg City Council for a period of almost 10 years. Much of my work focused on protecting the environment, in particular the rivers, ridges and sensitive areas of Johannesburg. Many of these policies are still being used today to manage development in terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations.
Shortly after the birth of Seaton Thomson & Associates in 1995, Environmental Impact Assessments became law for new developments and transformation of the land in South Africa. From this time, I became fully involved with and committed to EIAs as a full time profession. Over the last 24 years I have been involved in EIA‘s for a diversity of developments all over SA, including game lodges, residential golf estates, various types of infrastructure and roads, industrial, commercial, retail and residential areas, etc. I have also undertaken some project work in Egypt.
Outside of the office, I love to travel and explore the world and have visited Egypt many times, as well as several other Middle East countries, also Vietnam and Cambodia, India, Morocco, Peru, Bolivia and Turkey. My greatest passion is for the wild areas of Africa and I have experienced the great migration in the Serengeti in Tanzania and in the Masai Mara in Kenya. I’ve travelled frequently and extensively in all the wild areas of Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe and, of course, in South Africa.
