Chief Mechanical Engineer
John Buckingham has been a Chief Mechanical Engineer at BMT since 2004. He is responsible for maintaining the professional standards and the development of tools, information and methods to support mechanical engineering activities. John reviews the quality of our technical outputs, inclusive of approving the release of deliverables.
John has project managed and worked on numerous platform development studies as the lead design engineer with specific involvement in power and propulsion, hydraulic systems, Heating Ventilation and Air-Conditioning and heat management systems. He was BMT’s lead propulsion engineer for the design and specification of the hybrid power and propulsion system of the UK RFA MARS tanker, the Tidespring Class and the Royal Norwegian Navy’s Logistics and Support Vessel, RNoMS Maud.
John has developed in-house software tools which analyse P&P systems on naval and commercial ships. The tools allow BMT to create technical ship models to design its P&P systems to match the ship’s prescribed operating conditions. The technical model can also be compared to the ship’s own technical operating data so that the model can be refined.
In the past ten years, John has worked more and more on the studies to reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions, from naval and commercial ships. John has developed models of ship’s propulsion systems and energy saving technologies (EST). These models allow BMT to identify the individual and collective benefits of such technologies to ship operations using ship-data from past voyages. Working with UK agencies such as the MoD, the Energy Systems Catapult and the UK Energy Technologies Institute, John is involved in the current UK-based efforts to achieve zero-carbon in shipping by 2050.
He contributes to IMarEST fuel and emissions forums and industry journals and magazines on low carbon shipping. He has been the BMT representative on the UK Low Carbon Shipping and Shipping in Changing Climates projects and is currently the BMT representative at the Decarbonising UK Freight Transport “ (DUKFT) project. John has provided over 20 papers at a number of international conferences on a wide range of topics including EST, future fuels, air conditioning and propulsion.
Through-out his 35 years of marine engineering experience, John has acquired a good knowledge of the workings and the organisation of the UK maritime defence market. Working with other defence and commercial shipping companies has allowed John to be able to be heavily involved in multi-disciplinary project teams, often set across a consortium of companies which consider design for support and reliability considerations.
Chief Mechanical Engineer
John Buckingham has been a Chief Mechanical Engineer at BMT since 2004. He is responsible for maintaining the professional standards and the development of tools, information and methods to support mechanical engineering activities. John reviews the quality of our technical outputs, inclusive of approving the release of deliverables.
John has project managed and worked on numerous platform development studies as the lead design engineer with specific involvement in power and propulsion, hydraulic systems, Heating Ventilation and Air-Conditioning and heat management systems. He was BMT’s lead propulsion engineer for the design and specification of the hybrid power and propulsion system of the UK RFA MARS tanker, the Tidespring Class and the Royal Norwegian Navy’s Logistics and Support Vessel, RNoMS Maud.
John has developed in-house software tools which analyse P&P systems on naval and commercial ships. The tools allow BMT to create technical ship models to design its P&P systems to match the ship’s prescribed operating conditions. The technical model can also be compared to the ship’s own technical operating data so that the model can be refined.
In the past ten years, John has worked more and more on the studies to reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions, from naval and commercial ships. John has developed models of ship’s propulsion systems and energy saving technologies (EST). These models allow BMT to identify the individual and collective benefits of such technologies to ship operations using ship-data from past voyages. Working with UK agencies such as the MoD, the Energy Systems Catapult and the UK Energy Technologies Institute, John is involved in the current UK-based efforts to achieve zero-carbon in shipping by 2050.
He contributes to IMarEST fuel and emissions forums and industry journals and magazines on low carbon shipping. He has been the BMT representative on the UK Low Carbon Shipping and Shipping in Changing Climates projects and is currently the BMT representative at the Decarbonising UK Freight Transport “ (DUKFT) project. John has provided over 20 papers at a number of international conferences on a wide range of topics including EST, future fuels, air conditioning and propulsion.
Through-out his 35 years of marine engineering experience, John has acquired a good knowledge of the workings and the organisation of the UK maritime defence market. Working with other defence and commercial shipping companies has allowed John to be able to be heavily involved in multi-disciplinary project teams, often set across a consortium of companies which consider design for support and reliability considerations.
Sales Account Manager - UK Ships
Toby Drywood is a Senior Sales Manager at BMT with responsibility for the organisation’s UK Ships portfolio. One of BMT’s largest customer accounts, the UK Ships portfolio covers the entirety of BMT’s ship design, consultancy and in-service support offering. Toby has spent seven years with BMT, largely in delivery roles into the UK MOD, managing ever bigger and more complex projects.
His most recent role involved secondment to the MOD to be the Deputy Head of Engineering and Chief Electrical Engineer for the Ships Domain (c2000 staff, 38 Vessels, seven Classes from patrol boats to aircraft carriers) as well as being the Technical Discipline Lead for all electrical staff in DE&S. He is an inclusive leader and strong team player who thrives on both building and working within collaborative business environments.
Building on his 25 year service in the Royal Navy, he has utilised his leadership, deep engineering and management skills to lead significant elements of the Common Support Model programme, to overhaul the entirety of how all complex warships are supported, by the MOD-BAE-Babcock alliance. This project successfully captured best practice from across multiple and diverse teams, produced 50+ approved business processes and successfully rolled it out to 3000+ staff across five sites, and to 35 delivery teams. This project received a CEO for DE&S commendation due to its successes and benefits.
Toby is also the BMT lead for ships in the Aurora Engineering Partnership, helping the MOD to reduce costs of their engineering services, whilst ensuring the UK’s Armed Forces receive the best equipment and support.
Sales Account Manager - UK Ships
Toby Drywood is a Senior Sales Manager at BMT with responsibility for the organisation’s UK Ships portfolio. One of BMT’s largest customer accounts, the UK Ships portfolio covers the entirety of BMT’s ship design, consultancy and in-service support offering. Toby has spent seven years with BMT, largely in delivery roles into the UK MOD, managing ever bigger and more complex projects.
His most recent role involved secondment to the MOD to be the Deputy Head of Engineering and Chief Electrical Engineer for the Ships Domain (c2000 staff, 38 Vessels, seven Classes from patrol boats to aircraft carriers) as well as being the Technical Discipline Lead for all electrical staff in DE&S. He is an inclusive leader and strong team player who thrives on both building and working within collaborative business environments.
Building on his 25 year service in the Royal Navy, he has utilised his leadership, deep engineering and management skills to lead significant elements of the Common Support Model programme, to overhaul the entirety of how all complex warships are supported, by the MOD-BAE-Babcock alliance. This project successfully captured best practice from across multiple and diverse teams, produced 50+ approved business processes and successfully rolled it out to 3000+ staff across five sites, and to 35 delivery teams. This project received a CEO for DE&S commendation due to its successes and benefits.
Toby is also the BMT lead for ships in the Aurora Engineering Partnership, helping the MOD to reduce costs of their engineering services, whilst ensuring the UK’s Armed Forces receive the best equipment and support.
Maritime Autonomy Technology Lead
Eshan Rajabally is BMT's Maritime Autonomy Technology Lead. He is a chartered engineer with over twenty years of experience in research and innovation, technology development, and demonstrator prototyping.
Eshan spent his earlier career working with the military air division of BAE Systems where his interest was sparked in artificial intelligence, developing an expert system to assess pilot performance in flight simulators.
Moving to Rolls Royce, Eshan led their road-mapping towards the vision for commercial uncrewed shipping, and managed the subsequent development of several supporting technologies. This resulted in field-leading prototype demonstrators in autonomous navigation, remote engine room inspection, and machine situation awareness for collision avoidance.
Maritime Autonomy Technology Lead
Eshan Rajabally is BMT's Maritime Autonomy Technology Lead. He is a chartered engineer with over twenty years of experience in research and innovation, technology development, and demonstrator prototyping.
Eshan spent his earlier career working with the military air division of BAE Systems where his interest was sparked in artificial intelligence, developing an expert system to assess pilot performance in flight simulators.
Moving to Rolls Royce, Eshan led their road-mapping towards the vision for commercial uncrewed shipping, and managed the subsequent development of several supporting technologies. This resulted in field-leading prototype demonstrators in autonomous navigation, remote engine room inspection, and machine situation awareness for collision avoidance.
Head of Innovation & Research
Jake Rigby is Head of Research & Development, responsible for the portfolio management of internal research projects. This covers a broad range of research topics from ship and submarine design to digital twins and artificial intelligence. Through this role he leads the horizon scanning activities of BMT, tracking external trends and developing the reactive technology roadmaps. He is always on the lookout for the next emerging technology that can revolutionise or incrementally change the way we and our customers operate.
He is a charted engineer and Member of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects originally training as a Naval Architect specialising in ship signatures before his current role of Head of Research & Development. He is a proud member of range of different industry research and technology forums; one of which is the recently formed Maritime Research and Innovation UK (MarRI-UK) for which he leads the “Clean Maritime” research theme. This is an area he is particularly passionate about, investigating how industry, government and academia can work together to provide an economical and sustainable future for the maritime sector.
Jake is also responsible for Academic Engagement at BMT. In recognition of his work to progress Academic Engagement in the maritime sector he was awarded the title of Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Exeter, and continues to engage in a range of collaborative research projects.
Head of Innovation & Research
Jake Rigby is Head of Research & Development, responsible for the portfolio management of internal research projects. This covers a broad range of research topics from ship and submarine design to digital twins and artificial intelligence. Through this role he leads the horizon scanning activities of BMT, tracking external trends and developing the reactive technology roadmaps. He is always on the lookout for the next emerging technology that can revolutionise or incrementally change the way we and our customers operate.
He is a charted engineer and Member of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects originally training as a Naval Architect specialising in ship signatures before his current role of Head of Research & Development. He is a proud member of range of different industry research and technology forums; one of which is the recently formed Maritime Research and Innovation UK (MarRI-UK) for which he leads the “Clean Maritime” research theme. This is an area he is particularly passionate about, investigating how industry, government and academia can work together to provide an economical and sustainable future for the maritime sector.
Jake is also responsible for Academic Engagement at BMT. In recognition of his work to progress Academic Engagement in the maritime sector he was awarded the title of Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Exeter, and continues to engage in a range of collaborative research projects.