About Simon Crowther
Simon Crowther is an award-winning Civil Engineer and Chartered Water & Environmental Manager, recognised by Forbes Magazine in their top ‘30 Under 30’ Europe list for his work in the industry. Simon was recently included in Attitude Magazine’s 101 List as an LGBTQ+ trailblazer changing the World.
Simon is CEO of the FPS Group, founded in 2012, which comprises of Flood Protection Solutions Ltd and FPS Environmental Ltd.
Simon founded his first company, Flood Protection Solutions Ltd aged just 18, whilst still at university. Within five years the company had a turnover of two-million pounds, with clients ranging from homeowners through to heavy industry, including the likes of the NHS, Environment Agency, and Thames Water.
Simon’s passion for minimising flood risk derives from the traumatic experience of his family home being flooded in 2007.
Crowther is known for his involvement in the upliftment of the LGBTQ+ community.
The flood risk sector is an incredibly difficult and challenging industry, with investment sporadic and often a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to flood events. To ensure a successful future for the business, Simon invested in technology and launched an e-commerce site in 2017, making the best equipment readily available to all.
Simon has launched FPS Environmental Ltd to focus on flood risk and environmental consulting. This launch is driven by Simon’s desire to provide the highest-level of advice to customers, ensuring maximum flood risk reduction. Within 3 years, the turnover is expected to reach in excess of two-million pounds; placing the group’s turnover in excess of five million.
Despite his successes at such a young age, Simon remains grounded and is fully focused on both raising awareness of flood risk, and subsequently helping to reduce it. He is regularly featured by media outlets and recently featured on a Channel 4 documentary investigating the likely impact of climate change on the U.K. – A Summer of Wild Weather.
A Timeline of Simon’s Work
The journey started back in 2007 when Simon’s family home was flooded. Simon was aged just 13.
Simon is pictured standing in his flooded home. Following the flood, the family decided they never wanted to go through the upheaval, expense, or stress again, and with Property Flood Resilience measures not widely available, they purchased a Canadian system called the ‘Water-Gate’.
In 2010 Despite still being at school, the flooding experience had given Simon a desire to help prevent others from going through the same trauma.
Whilst at School Simon created various technology projects such as ‘Flood Alert’ – an early warning system that detected and alerted of an expected flood by text message. As a result of his efforts, Simon was awarded an Arkwright Scholarship, and represented the U.K in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, where he was awarded a diploma by the Crown Princess Victoria and dined with the King and Queen of Sweden.
2012 was a busy year for Simon, not only was he completing his A-Levels, and heading off to university to study Civil Engineering, but it was also the year he founded his award-winning business, Flood Protection Solutions Ltd.
In 2012, rains the like of which would normally be seen in the tropics hit the village where Simon lived, the Main Street once again became like a brown, fast-flowing river. Fortunately, the Water-Gate barrier was deployed and completely saved the house from flooding. Simon knew this rapidly deployable system was much- needed in the U.K and contacted the manufacturers. Simon ended up arranging a meeting in Paris with the suppliers and (aged 18) secured the sole UK distributor rights for the product. Simon combined his engineering passion, with an entrepreneurial and innovative approach, all with the aim of helping others reduce their flood risk.
Between 2012-2015, Simon juggled running Flood Protection Solutions Ltd alongside his degree.
The company was beginning to grow, and Simon had employed staff to help assist during this time. In 2015, Simon graduated from the University of Nottingham with an Upper Second-Class Honours Degree in Civil Engineering and entered Flood Protection Solutions Ltd ‘full-time’.
In 2016, Simon’s entrepreneurial endeavours were recognised when he won Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, powered by NatWest. Simon was also listed by real-leaders.com as a Top 100 Visionary Leader in the World.
In 2016, Simon helped raise awareness of the dangers of flooding, along with how to help mitigate the risk through various TV appearances with SKY News.
In 2017, the company saw extensive growth, with the turnover exceeding two-million pounds for the first time.
Simon is hugely passionate about supporting the next generation of ‘STEM’ individuals and became an Arkwright Scholarship ambassador (just seven years after he was first awarded one). Simon began sitting on the interviewing panel for Arkwright and continues to contribute his time and energy to this organisation. Simon also began revisiting his former school to help prepare students for interviews, along with run presentations on careers in engineering to inspire the next generation.
2017 was also the year that Simon showed excellent innovation by launching floodandwaterpumps.co.uk to enable wider access to high quality water pumps. Through conducting numerous site visits across the country, Simon noticed most clients either had the wrong style of water pump which would not work in anger or did not have one at all. The site was launched primarily to help deliver on the mission statement of helping reduce flood risk, however it also had the secondary benefit of making the business more sustainable in a particularly difficult ‘feast and famine’ industry.
In 2017, Simon also supported the Cumbria Flood Resilience Showcase Project both contributing his time for an educational video with Mary Dhonau OBE, and also through donating a puddle pump to the Botcherby Community Centre.
In 2018 Aged 24, Simon’s work was recognised by Forbes Magazine as a leader within Industry.
In November 2018, Simon was awarded MCIWEM C.WEM status when he became Chartered with the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management. The Chartered Water and Environmental Manager qualification (MCIWEM C.WEM) is the ultimate demonstration of skill and technical excellence in the field of water and environmental management. It is bespoke for those who have chosen a career path in the environment and water sector and it recognises the specialist skills that you have attained. This provides the assurances sought by employers, clients, peers and the public of that they will provide the highest of professional standards.
2020 brought the pandemic
Simon was fortunate enough to be able to adapt the business, and not furlough any staff. With the company widely recognised as leaders within industry, the workforce doubled during 2020.
During 2021, Simon launched FPS Environmental Ltd, bringing focus to the consulting division of the company.
The decision was made once again to enable the group to raise awareness of flood risk, and subsequently enable it to be better managed through the availability of excellent advice.
Throughout 2021, Simon helped raise awareness of flood risk by contributing to many media outlets, including being featured by Channel 4 as their flood expert on a climate change series.
Simon featuring on Channel 4 as their ‘Flood Specialist’ in a Climate Change Series.
Simon featuring on ITV discussing the 2021 London Floods.
Simon featured on ITV news talking about the London floods and how ill-prepared we are for flooding. Highlighting how impermeable paving is creating surface water flooding.
In 2022, Simon featured in FloodRe’s Build Back Better video, along with being invited to introduce the policy change at Parliament.
FPS Environmental Ltd was also voted as one of London’s fastest growing companies.
Simon was often referred to as ‘The Flood Guy’ and in 2022 he trademarked this moniker to become ‘The Flood Guy’ ®.