Keith Marsden – Site Supervisor – 40 years and counting

Keith Marsden joined the business in 1984. Now, in his 40th year with Kimpton, we spoke with Keith to talk through what he’s learned, what changes he’s seen and to try and understand the secret to his longevity.

“When I started, it was initially for 12 weeks, to be part of the team on the project for Ashworth Hospital. At the time I was welding pipes and a lot of our work was at the bench, pre-fabricating the pipe work for the site teams to install. It was mainly iron pipes and the margin for error was quite low, as it’s difficult to make changes to it on site.

The changes the industry has seen in this area are incredible and most of the pipes on site are now crimped, rather than soldered. Even the bigger iron pipes can be crimped these days.

When I was working at Daresbury labs recently, I was proud to recognise some of my welding on an old pipe layout that I had worked on in those very early days. It was still in use and looked to be in good order, so the work must have been to a good standard.”

We then asked Keith, who has had an enormous number of apprentices and trainees under his wing over the years, how he has approached training and mentoring.

“This has been something I’ve enjoyed from the outset, which is I guess why I have had so many trainees work with me. I have always taken the attitude that I want to teach them to do their jobs brilliantly and at the same time, teach them to be independent and not need supervision.

It’s hardly fair to pick someone up for doing something wrong down the line, if it has been your job to teach them to do it right.

There’s quite a step up from working in a team, under supervision to being the one out there leading the team and supervising others. My role is to make sure that they have the right skills, are trained to think for themselves and confident to make that step up to the next level.

Keith has also completed training courses throughout his time with Kimpton from powered access to asbestos as well as different welding and pipe fitting techniques.

“Our industry has changed to such a degree that I think you need to be able to be super flexible these days. Even with pipework it could be soil pipes one day, sanitary the next and heating or chilled water the day after.

You have to be prepared to learn, push yourself outside your comfort zone and move with the times to stay relevant and useful.

So, whilst I’ve been here for 40 years, the job has been completely varied from one day to the next and different again from one month to the next.

I’ve enjoyed the role over the years, I’m proud of the young people I have helped develop and love the fact I have been trusted to set the tone for how many within our team approach working on site.

I had no idea when I started it would be a job for life, but I’m very glad it has been and I am loving the journey so far. Long may it continue.

Keith at Lipa

Back in 1994, one of the biggest projects Kimpton had undertaken, was the refurbishment of LIPA. It was certainly one of the most prestigious. And who was one of the key team members working on installing the plant room? None other than a much younger Keith Marsden, 10 years into his time with Kimpton.

Keith the Beekeeper

Working on site back in 2021, Keith innocently drilled through a wall, only to disturb a bees nest by mistake. The bees then starting dive bombing Keith. Not to be put off getting the job finished and letting down a client, Keith donned a beekeepers outfit to finish drilling the holes. With this completed he then helped relocate the swarm to a new home in Sefton Park, with the additional help of a local beekeeping expert.

You can read more about that here and the amazing feedback he got from the client.