meet the team
Derek Astbury
Managing Director
Derek is a Structural Engineer with 35 years in the industry practicing as a consultant has been with ASG & Shepherd Gilmour for a total of 28 years and has been a director since 2001.
Derek is experienced in structural design and practice management in both the UK and the Middle East. Derek’s Experience encompasses the structural design of a vast range of buildings in all forms and types of materials, structural assessment of existing buildings, acting as a professional witness. Derek is somewhat of a massive Leeds United FC fan, an often sore subject during Monday morning Coffee.
Derek is a Dubai Municipality certified engineer for unlimited storey height design.
David Podesta
Director
David is a structural engineer with over 20 years of experience. He started at Shepherd Gilmour as a graduate engineer in 2003 in the Manchester office and has progressed through the company to Director level.
David moved to Dubai in early 2007, opening the first overseas office in the Shepherd Gilmour portfolio, and has now gained a wealth of experience on both continents and an in-depth knowledge of the Middle East and GCC construction sector. David loves tinkering and outside the office will be found in his garage repairing motorcycles when not wallowing over the Everton results.
David is a Dubai Municipality certified engineer for unlimited storey height design
Priyanka McCullough
Director
Priyanka joined ASG in 2013 and is now a director in the company.
She is a chartered structural engineer who has over 20 years of experience in the industry, 7 of which has been in Dubai. Priyanka leads a variety of projects, collaborating with clients and project teams to pursue and achieve new levels of design excellence.
Osama El Hakim
Technical Director
Osama runs a team of engineers & technicians and has responsibility for day-to-day management of a range of projects in our Dubai office.
Osama is a very experienced structural engineer with around 30 years experience and over 20 years of experience in the middle east working on a range of projects and sectors including mixed-use developments, retail, hotel, commercial and residential projects.
Osama is a Dubai Municipality certified engineer for unlimited storey height design.
Omar Korshom
Associate Director
Omar has been with ASG for over 7 years and has a proven track record of delivering our larger-scale projects on time and on budget. Omar manages a team responsible for the delivery of ASG's more complex projects. Omar is a keen footballer and is often seen gracing the right-wing for ASG F.C
Anila Thomas
Associate Director
Anila is an extremely well-respected engineer in the region and manages a large structures team within ASG. Anila is our in-house expert on cinema design having undertaken the design of a considerable 200+ screens within the UAE and KSA over the past 5 years.
Ramsel Pinto
Associate Director
Ramsel has been with ASG for over 10 years, starting out on our Graduate Engineer program straight from University. Ramsel is a testament to the ASG ethos, that ability, and hard work is highly rewarded, and often trumps experience.
Momen Taher
Associate Director
Momen is one of the Associate Directors in the UAE office.
Momen is an experienced structural engineer with more than 17 years of experience and over 16 years of experience in the UAE and GCC areas.
Momen has led design teams to deliver various successful projects over the years including Residential, Commercial, Leisure, and Hospitality projects.
Amira Abdulameem
Senior Architect
Amira is responsible for ASG Architect of Record department and manages the procedures and details required from initially lodging the projects with the municipalities to the issuance of the final building permit. Amira has a wealth of experience dealing with the intricacies of local approvals with DM, DCCA, DCD, and Trakhees.
Sham Kumar
CAD BIM Manager
Sham has the full responsibility of overseeing the preparation of design and detail drawings, as well as managing the CAD and Revit resources effectively in the office.
He has extensive experience with CAD systems including AutoCAD, Microstation, and Revit, providing guidance and training to the staff on new up and coming advances in the BIM field. When he's not sorting out the I.T. for ASG Sham will be found covering miles on his roads bike through the desert.
