Team Spotlight on….. Tim Kennedy, Building Surveyor
So you can get to know us a little better, we are continuing our Staff Blog series and this month we are talking to our newest team member, Tim Kennedy:
Hello Tim. You have been working for Jones Battye for 3 months now. Tell us a bit more about your role.
“I act as a contract manager for an insurance company client. When a policy holder puts in an insurance claim, I scope the necessary remedial works and coordinate contractors to get the work done as quickly as possible.”
What do you like best about your job?
“I get a lot of satisfaction from putting things right after a disaster. We are obviously dealing with particularly stressful and disruptive events and helping people, particularly vulnerable people, get their lives back on track is very rewarding. My preconceptions of the insurance industry have also been wiped away. The emphasis is always on making sure that policy holders never finish up with anything less than they had before.”
What don’t you enjoy so much?
“There are real peaks and troughs of work which can be stressful. I am just getting through the large volume of work caused by ‘the Beast from the East’. There have been a lot of ‘escapes of water’ caused by burst pipes!”
You are originally from New Zealand. Apart from family and friends, is there anything you really miss?
“The two countries are actually really similar. I always say that the 3 main similarities are the weather, sheep and rugby. The landscape in New Zealand is also sort of similar, but like Wales on steroids! In New Zealand the hills and mountains are still peaked, and the valleys are often more ‘v’-shaped, whereas everything tends to be more rounded here. What I do miss is the space. I grew up on a farm with 5,000 acres as my playground.”
What do you make of Welsh culture and language?
“Obviously, there are cultural differences mainly due to the age gap between the two countries and I also really notice all the different regional accents. In New Zealand there are hardly any changes in accent across the whole country. When I first came to live in Wales I commented to my wife that there seemed to be a lot of Eastern European tourists around and felt very foolish when she told me they were speaking Welsh with a North Wales accent!”
You live in Cardiff now. Any ‘top tips’ on where to take the kids for a good day out this summer?
“We live near Dyffryn Gardens and go there a lot. Actually, we have become National Trust members. The kids can run about and there’s a great new natural log playground there which the kids love. I also like Victoria Park in Cardiff which is great for them to ride their bikes and have an ice cream.”
Congratulations on recently qualifying as an Associate Member of the RICS! What are your plans for the future?
“I always want to know more, and this new job has been a steep learning curve. So, I guess just to keep improving my technical knowledge and also to become an RICS Registered Valuer and keep expanding my professional capabilities.”
To find out more about Tim, see his staff profile at https://bit.ly/2tvREFO
