Graham's early career was spent in municipal engineering in his home territory of coastal Lancashire. There he worked on a number of coastal defence and drainage projects. These culminated in the management of a substantial part of the Mersey Estuary Pollution Alleviation Scheme. Following this, his career took him to Scandinavia working on a range of infrastructure projects and encountered sustainable drainage techniques for the first time.
He returned to the UK to head up the engineering consultancy at Telford & Wrekin Council, including one of Severn Trent Water's most successful sewerage agencies and the provision of technical input to the development processes in an area of very high growth.
Graham is a member of the National Sustainable Drainage Working Group and has also worked with the UK water companies and research organisations on projects such as the performance and whole life costing of Sustainable Drainage Systems, environmental information systems and designing drainage systems for exceedance events.
Graham has represented local government on a number of project boards relating to flood risk, urban drainage and sustainable drainage systems. In recent years, he has worked directly with Defra on the Integrated Urban Drainage workstream and in the development of SUDS policy. Outside of this area of work, he has a personal interest in wider sustainability issues and in the quality of the built environment.
