Stephan is a chartered civil engineer specialising in geotechnics. He holds a Doctorate degree and has 15 years’ design and research experience. He has been involved in a wide range of projects, including tailings and water dam design across six countries in Africa, geotechnical investigations, retaining wall design, numerical modelling and engineering in soft ground in the UK.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Stephan joined Rust Geotechnical Consultants in 2011 working as a civil engineer, whilst pursuing his Honours and Masters degrees part-time. In 2015 he relocated to the UK to work as a research student at the University of Cambridge, culminating in his PhD in 2019. Subsequently, he has gained invaluable consultancy experience in the UK, whilst working for Mott MacDonald from 2019 to 2021. During this time, he carried out and led geotechnical projects on the Environment Agency, Thames Water and Severn Trent frameworks, designing flood storage embankments and retaining walls to form part of the Boston Barrier Scheme.

In 2022, Stephan re-joined Jones & Wagener as part of the UK team as a senior geotechnical engineer, and became a director in 2023. He is a Chartered member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in the UK. Stephan’s area of expertise is geotechnical engineering with particular emphasis on the design of water dams and tailings storage facilities, retaining walls, geotechnical investigations, numerical modelling and laboratory data interpretation, as well as engineering in soft soils. He is adept at writing reports including ground investigation and geotechnical design reports.