OLM consulting is operated by Robin Mitchell & Richard Lamburn
Richard Lamburn
Richard has spent the last 7 years with Swim England as the Head of facilities, he is a vastly experienced expert in swimming pool operation and design.
How it started:
Richard began his career operationally managing facilities, following that he spent 5 years as a pool plant technical manager for a training organisation, leading on the training of over 3,000 operators a year. He is now providing advice and consultancy ensuring that new built facilities and refurbishments are fit for purpose and sustainable for the future.
Experience and Qualifications:
Richard has been a member of the PWTAG technical committee for over 10 years the past 4 of which he has spent as a PWTAG Council Member. He is also a long standing representative of the British Standards working group for European standards of swimming pools. Furthermore, he has worked closely with the HSE on numerous projects, Richard has delivered seminars on swimming pool design and operations at various conferences across the globe including; splash international in Singapore, the World Aquatic Heath Conference (WAHC) in Phoenix Arizona and various exhibitions and conferences within the UK and Europe.
Robin Mitchell
Having worked in various management and technical roles within the leisure industry, education and retail Robin now runs his own swimming pool technical consultancy business offering a solutions based approach for the swimming pool water treatment sector. Delivering certified and bespoke training, compliance audits, water analysis, sales of specialist products as well as dabbling in swimming pool podcasts and YouTube channels all with a view to helping the industry to drive and improve health and safety standards.
How it started:
Robin’s journey in the leisure industry began by achieving a degree in Leisure Management from Abertay University in 1996. The qualification was put to good use when he commenced working as a supervisor at the prestigious Crieff Hydro Hotel Leisure Complex. Robin worked his way up a variety of management roles within the company over the 6 years in the business.
After flirting with the retail sector for a year in an area managers role Robin moved back into the leisure industry through the education sector working as a Tutor for Perth College. When this fixed contract was complete, Robin moved back into the swimming pool side of the industry by working as an Account Manager for Brenntag covering Scotland and the North of England. During his time with Brenntag Robin gained a vast amount of experience in the technical and chemical aspects of swimming pool water treatment. Providing solutions to pool plant and water treatment issues suffered by clients was a major part of the role as were site visits, audits, technical advice, delivering certified pool plant training and developing customer confidence through relationship management.
Going it alone:
After 7 years of working within the swimming pool chemical sector Robin started a swimming pool technical consultancy company called “Pioneering Pool Solutions” The company opened in 2011 and continues to serve swimming pool clients the length and breadth of the country to the present day. The portfolio of services the business offers includes:
- Delivering PWTAG Accredited Pool Plant Trainer Assessor for the Institute Of Swimming
- Delivering PWTAG Accredited Pool Plant Trainer Assessor for PALM Academy
- Bacteriological and chemical analysis for pools/spas/open water
- Compliance audits
- Sales of specialist swimming pool products
- Creation of pool plant compliance technical bespoke manuals
- Consultancy services for pool plant and water treatment
Robin’s profile and stature has grown within the industry over the last decade. He has been asked to deliver papers at the 2019 PWTAG conference, has become a mentor for pool plant tutors and assisted with train the trainer programmes for the Institute Of Swimming along with helping develop pool plant resources and manuals for the Pool Plant Courses. Robin has also been instrumental in the nation-wide organisation of recent “swimming pool technical” seminars which were extremely well attended and valued by the industry. During lockdown, Robin was asked by the RLSS to deliver swimming pool technical webinars for the industry to help pools nationwide deal with Covid 19. In addition, Robin is a key player in the management of the Swimming Pool Network Facebook page, YouTube Channel and the “Poolcast” Podcast!! Recently Robin was voted onto the PWTAG Council as members representative and elected Director.