Devandran Nagaiah
General Manager, SWA Malaysia
Devandran is a Mechanical Engineer and he spent 15 years working in multinational companies before joining SWA Malaysia in 2009.
“I’ve always worked in this industry and have worked across the whole spectrum of water, including industrial complex development.
I studied with Khailash Dhasan so I knew him long before I started working at SWA Malaysia. The opportunity came up and I could see there was so much synergy between my experience and the direction of the business, so I made the decision to join the team.”
Day to day, Devandran works across business development and projects. He is involved in everything from design to construction, making site visits and overseeing the execution of the works. And it is the variety of his role that gets him out of bed in the morning.
“Every job is unique. There are new challenges. The work is the same, but the location and the clients’ needs are different. We work across industries in a project environment and that’s what makes it exciting.
We have the EPCC capability all under one roof. We can offer our clients the whole solutions, because all of the expertise is in-house. It’s quite rare that a single organisation will be capable of completing all the components of a project… but we are.
That in-house capability and expertise have also benefited me greatly on a personal level. The sharing of information and my growth in terms of knowledge have been phenomenal.”
Devandran registered with the Board of Engineers – Malaysia – as a Professional Engineer with a Practising Certificate. This is the highest qualification for an engineer. And we are fortunate to have his skillset in our business.
“Water is a compliance issue. The client will always want to know that whoever is leading the team has experience and is capable and competent. As a professional engineer, I can certify our designs and drawings to say that a competent engineer has drawn them. We do a lot of quality submissions. They all need to be endorsed, and because we have that in-house, we can move things through more smoothly.”
As for his passion, at work it is knowing that as a team and a business we are building something great. Outside of work he loves travelling, reading books and driving.