About Connectioneering
Experience earned at every level of the operation.
Independent thinking informed by a 40-year operating career across quarry, asphalt, concrete, brick and heavy industrial businesses.
Our purpose
Connecting sound engineering with sound business.
Connectioneering was established to make hard-won industry experience available to businesses facing important decisions. We work with owners, boards and management teams who value clear analysis, candid advice and practical action.
Our focus is the heavy building materials value chain—where operational detail, commercial judgement, safety, people and capital all have to work together. We bring an operator’s mindset to every engagement.
40+
Years of international experience
Andrew Talling · Founder & Director
From mining engineer to operating leader.
Following the completion of his tenure as Chief Operating Officer of Hap Seng’s quarry, asphalt and bricks business at the end of 2025, Andrew established Connectioneering Sdn. Bhd. to make four decades of operational and executive experience available to clients.
That tenure included a documented turnaround of a loss-making operation through rationalisation, margin improvement and lower operating costs. It returned to profit after both the 2018 loss and the exceptional pandemic-affected loss of 2020, before recording RM22.2 million quarry operating profit in 2024.
His career has encompassed turnarounds, greenfield development, acquisitions, capacity expansion and operating leadership with Hap Seng, Pertama Ferroalloys, INSEE Aggregates, Stevin Rock, Hanson and Pioneer. That breadth provides a rare view across mature and developing markets—and every level from the quarry face to executive management.
Career history
Four decades, built from operations up.
A career shaped by responsibility for complex assets, diverse teams and businesses where performance has to be delivered—not simply proposed.
2017–2025
Malaysia
Hap Seng Building Materials
Chief Operating Officer
Returned to lead a difficult business turnaround. Hap Seng reported the quarry, asphalt and brick operation moving from an RM56.4 million loss in 2018 to profit in 2019, followed by a post-pandemic return to profit in 2021 and RM22.2 million quarry operating profit in 2024.
2013–2017
Malaysia
Pertama Ferroalloys
General Manager & Project GM
Established the operating organisation for a US$500 million greenfield smelting plant in Sarawak, later taking responsibility for project recovery and bringing production onstream in June 2016.
2009–2013
Malaysia
Hap Seng Building Materials
Director of Operations
Doubled quarry output from 3 to 6 million tonnes annually, added six quarries and six asphalt plants, and expanded brick production from 3 to 15 million pieces per month.
2003–2009
UAE & Thailand
Stevin Rock & INSEE Aggregates
General Manager / Director
Delivered major restructuring and growth programmes, including expanding Stevin Rock from 8 to 25 Mtpa and establishing a new aggregates business for the Holcim Group in Thailand.
1995–2003
Hong Kong & Thailand
Pioneer & Hanson
Operational leadership
Led quarry, asphalt and concrete operations, major plant investments and productivity programmes—including a network of 35 concrete plants, 300 trucks and more than 800 people.
1986–1995
United Kingdom
Pioneer Aggregates
Operations Manager
Built the practical operating foundation of a career spanning quarry production, engineering, people leadership and business performance.
Background
Technical foundations. Commercial perspective.
Mining Engineering
Honours degree from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London.
Business Leadership
MBA from the University of Lincoln and Humberside.
Industry Standing
Fellow of the Institute of Quarrying.
International Scope
Senior roles across the UK, Hong Kong, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
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