Herman Potgieter

Herman is the regional manager for Control, Automation, and Electrical for the Africa, India, Middle East region based in our Johannesburg, South Africa office.

He is an electrical engineer with substantial experience in electrical engineering deliverables through all the phases of project development for projects primarily in mining, materials handling, and mineral processing facilities.

Why do you believe in diversity and inclusion?

With diverse teams we can present our clients with a broader range of solutions and better ideas for their challenges. Things that we personally might not consider to be a challenge or issue, might be to others and with diverse teams a wider range of potential issues and challenges could be identified early on.

What do you think we need to do as individuals to improve inclusivity?

As individuals we tend to stick with what we know and what we are comfortable with. By exploring different viewpoints and respecting, accepting, and valuing others' ideas and opinions, we broaden our own horizons by including more diverse individuals. As individuals we should all make sure that our environment is such that all our differences are always welcomed.

What does positive change mean to you?

Change is not always easy, but changing to something better is always positive and allows us to grow not just as individuals but also as an organization. Our manifesto states that we strive to build solutions that innovative, and innovations come by doing things differently.

What do you think are the toughest challenges facing our clients?

We have clients with plants that were designed in past, with a changing workforce not all their operations might be suited to their workforce.

What are you most proud of?

The fact that we as an organization embrace diversity and inclusion and seeing first-hand the positive impact that it has on our teams and the designs that we deliver for our clients.

What do you like most about working at Hatch? How do you think the Hatch culture is different from other companies?

As an engineer, I like that we are committed to the pursuit of a better world through positive change. As engineers we all want to produce sustainable and innovative solutions and Hatch is in our DNA. I do not think any other company embraces this to the extent that we do.