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Consulting Matters
Industry updates
Industry updates APPOINTMENTS
Kerryn Coker and Kate West have been appointed as new co-Chairs for Arup in Australasia, and Murray Kretschmer as Chief Operating Officer, with plans to enhance the firm’s focus on sustainable development including climate services. Kate and Kerryn will succeed Peter Chamley who is retiring after a distinguished career in global senior management and as the leader of highly complex infrastructure projects. Murray takes over from Bruce Tanner who will move to a new executive role after seven years as COO. Rohitha Silva has joined Beca as a Technical Director in its NSW Transport and Infrastructure business. With 25+ years’ civil and structural engineering experience in Australia and Thailand, including more than 12 years in Sydney, Rohitha has been involved in the design and construction of numerous major Transport Infrastructure projects. Key career highlights include working on the NorthConnex (NCX) Tunnel in Sydney, and on the Pacific Highway Upgrade, South West Rail Link and North West Rail Link Projects. HKA, the global leading consultancy for multi-disciplinary expert and specialist services in risk mitigation and dispute resolution within the capital projects and infrastructure sector, announced that Dr Kourosh Kayvani has joined the firm as Principal, Forensic Technical Services, based in Sydney. Kourosh, a chartered professional engineer and Fellow of Engineers Australia, brings with him a wealth of specialist engineering, expert witness, and failure investigation expertise, as well as a long and distinguished history of directorships, industry accolades, academic appointments and speaking engagements.
Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) has announced its next Managing Director for New South Wales, Stephen Mee, marking the start of a new era for Australia’s most respected quantity surveying firm in 2021. During his 37-year career with RLB in NSW, Stephen has built a reputation as one of Australia’s most respected and trusted quantity surveyors. He works with some of Australia’s largest and most successful development and construction companies.
Aurecon’s Chief Executive Officer, William Cox (left), announced the appointment of Giam Swiegers (right) as Chair to the Aurecon Group Board effective 1 January 2021. "As Chair, Giam brings valuable perspectives on the global business landscape as well as deep understanding of the Aurecon strategy to Aurecon board discussions and decisions,” Mr Cox said. A highly regarded business leader in Australia with over thirty years leadership experience, Mr Swiegers is a respected authority on business strategy, technological innovation, and the transformation of organisational culture. Tonkin is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Olivia Oliver to the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer. Having joined Tonkin just over four years ago, Olivia has held a number of positions in the organisation including Team Leader—Stormwater and more recently Technical Manager, and Operations Manager, Queensland, and Northern Territory. Olivia’s expanded accountability covers all Tonkin activities across Australia.
EMM Consulting Chairman Gary Flowers recently announced the appointment of two new members to the company’s board of directors, effective immediately. Joining the board are Nicole Armit and Paul Gibbons, in an exciting evolution of the company’s governance, management and strategic direction. Both Nicole and Paul bring with them a wealth of experience and a diversity in thought. Their combined skills and experience including industry reputation, technical/professional skills and behavioural attributes were acknowledged and endorsed by all board members. Helen Davidson is the newly appointed CE of ACE New Zealand taking up the role in March 2021. Formerly, a general manager at Engineering New Zealand, after studying law and biomedical ethics at the University of Otago, Helen worked across health law, professional regulation, patient safety policy and biomedical ethics in New Zealand and Canada for 15 years. And then switched from the health sector to the engineering sector and spent the past five years with Engineering New Zealand before joining ACE.
INDUSTRY NEWS On 26 December 2020, Australia lost one of its most passionate public transport advocates with the passing of Michael Apps. Michael has devoted the best part of the past two decades to the development of creative solutions to assist our nation’s policy makers in tackling the many challenges that confront us in respect of moving people around cities, regions, and states. Consult Australia offers its condolences to Michael’s family and friends and the team at BIC. Stantec has signed an agreement to acquire GTA Consultants (GTA), an Australia-based transportation planning and engineering firm with a diverse portfolio of long-standing clients across the public and private sectors. GTA provides award-winning expertise in transportation advisory, planning and analytics; transport engineering; and technical design, having worked on many of Australia’s largest and most iconic transportation projects.
