Jemi Heselden’s obituary. Tribute to a quiet entrepreneur
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An obituary column is not somewhere which often reveals the nature of entrepreneurship, but I was reading about the life of the late Jimi Heselden who died in an accident on September 26th 2010.
His combined knowledge of geology, soil science and history as well as a traumatic event during his working life led him to focus on devices for structural support.
Heselden had been working in coal mines, and was aware of the dangers of flooding, particularly at Lofthouse colliery where in 1973, flood defences gave way and seven miners were drowned.
He was made redundant in 1984 when his pit closed. His knowledge of geology, soil science and use of redundancy pay led him to reinvent the medieval defence system of gabions (stone filled baskets, packed together) to create makeshift walls. He patented the “Bastion” and set up Hesco Bastion Ltd to manufacture them.
Jemi Hesleden enterepreneur and philanthropist
Jemi Heselden’s modern take on the gabion, the “Concertainer”, is constructed with large, prefabricated, flat packed, portable wire cages. Twenty minutes work for two men and a loading machine, could erect a wall of the Concertainer units, replacing 1,500 sandbags, filled in seven hours by 10 men. This resulting rise in productivity is particularly desirable in an emergency, and remains a significant element of the product’s USP.
The ‘Bastion’ was marketed as a river or coastal defence against erosion and floods, civil use of his invention developed in the early 1990s, after Heselden installed it on a stretch of Yorkshire coastline at Ulrome, near Bridlington. Yet it had clear advantages for military engineers..
Civil Engineering Coastal Defences
The Ministry of Defence could see productivity gains in the erection of defence works, but the Bastions were a more effective blast barrier than sandbags.
The Concertainers were used during the 1991 Gulf War and their flat-packed walls have been used in campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans to protect tanks, helicopters and troops. Export orders included Bastions for flood defence teams in New Orleans. The United States Army placed £53m worth of orders between 1998 and 2003.
Other products manufactured by Hesco Bastion include the R-House, temporary housing for up to eight people, suitable for use after a natural disaster like the Haitian earthquake.
He was an entrepreneur who built up a successful business, who was keen to help others in deprived parts of Leeds through his charitable donations to The Leeds Community Foundation .
Jemi Hesleden had donated over £23 million to help people in need in Leeds. Given that he was a military contractor, he was also keen to support The Help For Heroes campaign.
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