People of Impact - Kavita Kanda

Kavita Kanda is the Deputy Manager of Construction with Petrofac International Limited in UAE. She is a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the American University of Sharjah. She was born and brought up in Sharjah and her native roots are in Punjab, India.

Kavita's current role is to support the Vice President - Construction to drive improvements in business for the safe and efficient working of the organization. Her key focus is to ensure construction processes are carried out across the sites in line with safe practices and also with the expected quality level.

She conducts training for Right First Time Construction by guiding the construction personnel on how they can carry out construction by taking ownership of quality. This minimizes the reworks and helps to meet the client's expectations.

She also keeps the site team motivated by recognizing their contribution to Quality and Safety and providing certificates of appreciation straight from the head office.

Another of her key role is to implement the process improvement initiatives such as digitization of work processes which minimizes filed paperwork.

But did she always plan to be in the Construction Engineering role? No!

Had it not been for her 7th-grade school teacher, she would not have taken Engineering for her career. Inspired by her math teacher, she took math and science as her subjects.

While studying, she developed a keen interest in problem-solving and this is where she inclined toward an engineering career.

After all, that's what Engineers do -

They solve problems!!

If you look into her career path, this is a true demonstration of what kind of diverse personnel development one can expect from a career in EPC projects.

From Process Design to Construction Management!

She started her career as a Process Engineer and worked in the design of Oil and Gas plants for 6.5 years. She was in core design roles like conducting Process Design of Onshore Oil & Gas plants, FEED verification, and flow assurance test studies using simulation software such as HYSYS, PIPESIM, OLGA, Flowmaster, PVT sim.

Having worked in the design office for more than 6 years, she was excited to move to a project management role and made a move to project management team that expanded her knowledge of handling a project through its life cycle

Initially, she moved into the Proposals and Estimation role which is a great mix of technical and commercial acumen.

Her next step was into the Project Engineer role. She was a Project Engineer for 4.5 years in EPC Management and she oversaw the engineering, procurement, construction, modification, and testing of offshore wind farm substation platform.

After successfully completing the project she made another move to the construction department.

She found the construction aspect of an EPC project the most challenging and exciting. The construction phase represents 35-50% of the total project cost and hence for this reason it is often a deciding factor in the success of a project.

So what does she like the most about the EPC role?

Seeing complex projects coming to life-

From Concept to Production!

Few suggestions for young Engineers:

• Do not fear failure and keep moving forward.

When Edison was asked how it felt to fail a thousand times, he replied that the light bulb was invented in a thousand steps.?

• The key remains at recognizing your tasks as a young engineer and developing your skills as a people manager so you can successfully set the stage for next-generation engineers.
• Young female engineers should not let the bias faced from others make them doubt their own work

Never doubt your own potential. Show everyone you have a unique perspective to offer

Let's listen to her views about a career in EPC:

We wish Kavita all the best in her career. Thank you for inspiring us all!