The principal, Frances Bennett started her career in geotechnical and environmental consultancy in 1972 working for a large Consulting Civil Engineering firm, Howard Humphreys and Sons (now Brown and Root) in London, Birmingham and Leatherhead. Work undertaken involved consultancy on the M4, M65, Main Drainage for Benghazi & Tripoli, Libya, and for numerous local authorities in southeast England, slope stability, tunnelling through mined ground and compilation of geotechnical and geoenvironmental reports on all aspects of development. Frances Bennett worked subsequently for the government, helping to set up an Engineering Geology Department in Edinburgh for the British Geological Survey undertaking geotechnical site supervision and reporting for the Scottish Development Board, and compiling a data bank for all drilling undertaken in the North Sea. Frances Bennett moved next to become an associate of a firm specialising in geological, environmental and mining consultancy in Stoke-on-Trent before establishing the Ashton Bennett Consultancy in West Yorkshire.
Frances Bennett is the Managing Director and is a Chartered Geologist, Fellow of the Geological Society, Chartered Environmentalist, Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Mining and Metallurgy, Member of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management and Member of the Institute of Environmental Science and Associate Member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment.
