ONE OF Hampshire’s largest industrial plants has a new man at the helm and he’s back where he started.

Simon Downing is the new manager at ExxonMobil’s Fawley Refinery.

Mr Downing, who has been with the company for more than 30 years, takes over from Jon Wetmore who has returned to his native Canada after four years at Fawley.

After beginning his career at Fawley as an engineer in 1986, Mr Downing held several managerial roles in the UK and abroad, including the USA and Saudi Arabia.

Prior to his latest appointment, he was engineering manager, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (EMRE) at Fawley.

Simon said: “Having begun my ExxonMobil career here more than 30 years ago, it’s fantastic to have come full circle. We have a great team of people at the site and I am looking forward to working with them.”

Mr Downing said he was also passionate about ExxonMobil’s commitment to the community and to being a good neighbour.

“We contribute many thousands of pounds to worthy causes every year, and it’s wonderful to know that our support can help to make a real difference to people’s lives,” he said.

“We are also very mindful that we need to do everything we can to be good neighbours – we take that commitment extremely seriously and it has been, and always will be, a key priority for the Fawley site. I am looking forward to working with other key stakeholders in the local area to ensure we continue to play our part in the community.”

Fawley is the largest in the UK – approximately one in six cars in the UK operates on fuel produced there.

Earlier this year ExxonMobil announced a £28m investment in Fawley with the addition of a new plant to make Isopar products – a “new family” of solvents – used as a base in paints, inks, air fresheners and cosmetics.