John David Thompson

John Thompson is a qualified engineer from the U.K. He has made the Caribbean his home for the last 33 years having lived in the region since 1986. He holds chartered engineer status in the United Kingdom and “fellow” status in the U.K. Institution of Mechanical Engineers and U.K. Energy Institute. He is also a registered engineer in Europe and Trinidad & Tobago with over forty years of experience of contracts in the process industry including water treatment. His technical skills are supplemented by a Masters degree in Business Management from Cranfield University, which was gained through the grant of an engineering fellowship by the Engineering Industry Training Board in the UK.

John joined the Desalination Company of Trinidad & Tobago Limited (Desalcott) after nearly twenty years with George Wimpey and successor companies (the last being Carillion) where since 1993 as Projects Director he ran their process, energy and industrial sector work in the Caribbean. He previously worked for UK engineering company, John Brown Engineers and Constructors Ltd, having started his career, initially as an undergraduate apprentice, with Rolls-Royce.

Following being Project Director for Desalcott during construction of the Point Lisas Desalination Plant, John was confirmed as General Manager in 2002 and continues in this position to date. The plant originally operated at 8-22MIGD and has been progressively expanded to 40MIGD, producing up to 45MIGD at times, only rivalled by the San Diego desalination plant as the largest in the Western Hemisphere (Europe and the Americas).

John is currently an elected Director and Immediate Past President (June 2014 to June 2018) of the Caribbean Desalination Association (CaribDA) – an affliliate of the International Desalination Association. From 2013 to 2017 he also held positions for the UK based Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Honorary Secretary for the Americas Region, Treasurer of the Pan Caribbean Group and Corresponding member for Trinidad & Tobago.