Industry updates

APPOINTMENTS

Multi-disciplinary engineering and project management team WGA (Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec) has announced a significant Board appointment.

Mark Gobolos joins the Board as the company – which operates across Australia and New Zealand – looks ahead to build strategically after nearly four decades in business.

Gobolos joined WGA in 2003 as a structural engineer, and 18 years on is the company’s Group Technical Manager. He has led numerous high-profile projects, including the $2.2bn new Royal Adelaide Hospital, University of South Australia’s $220m Cancer Research Institute and is currently working on the $500m Australian Bragg Centre. In addition to his engineering qualifications, Gobolos has a degree in Computer Science and was on the South Australian Committee of the Concrete Institute of Australia for over six years, including President and Vice President.

At the same time, Andrew Woods, who has been on the WGA board for 20 years, has chosen to focus on project delivery and step off the Board. Andrew joined the company in 1986, and as a board member, has been pivotal in WGA’s growth over the past two decades, including his role as HR Director during the development of the People and Culture team.

WGA (Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec) has announced changes to its leadership structure as Nathan Silby and Ben Stapleton are appointed as joint Managing Directors.

They will officially take the reins from Peter McBean and Nick Lelos who will step down as joint MDs after eight years on 7 February 2022. Existing Director Nathan Silby is currently SA Regional Manager at WGA with over 25 years of Civil consulting experience. Nathan brings strong operational leadership skills and understanding of WGA culture to the role.

Silby’s appointment is complemented by the external hire of Ben Stapleton, who joins WGA having built up several decades of experience in leadership roles in the infrastructure industry with multi-national professional services organisations, most recently at Aurecon. He has a strong track record of leading teams that care for their clients and deliver outstanding business performance and will bring some fresh perspectives to WGA.

This new chapter comes as McBean and Lelos step aside after a combined nearly six decades at WGA. The pair took over as joint Managing Directors from WGA founders Geoff Wallbridge and Mark Gilbert in 2014 and in that time have more than doubled staff numbers to 400 and grown the company to an annual turnover approaching $80 million.

McBean and Lelos will remain a vital part of WGA's future, by retaining their positions as Board members and adding value through business development and technical engineering roles.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Consult Australia is delighted to confirm that at this year’s Annual General Meeting held on 21 October 2021 Andrew Mather was awarded Life Membership.

This was awarded to Andrew for his excellent service to Consult Australia as President from 20152017, as a long-standing member of the NSW Committee, and as Mentor for the NSW FutureNet Business Leaders Course. We thank Andrew for his continuing support for both Consult Australia and the industry at large.

Sun Cable announces Global Expert Team to deliver the Australia-Asia PowerLink Project.

A world-leading team of highly skilled experts from Bechtel, Hatch, Marsh, PwC Australia and SMEC (Surbana Jurong Group), have assembled to deliver this multi gigawatt scale project.

The Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink) will be one of the world’s largest renewable energy projects and will harness Australia’s abundant solar energy resource to deliver world-class dispatchable, competitively priced renewable electricity into Darwin, Australia and Singapore.

The AAPowerLink will unlock direct investment and job opportunities, R&D, knowledge sharing, and open up future growth in new and emerging industries.

The AAPowerLink’s total carbon emissions abatement is estimated at 8.6 million tonnes of CO2e per year.

Stantec, a global leader in sustainable design and engineering, announced it has entered into share purchase agreements (the “Acquisition”) to acquire the North America and Asia Pacific engineering and consulting groups (“the Select Assets”) of Cardno Limited (“Cardno”).

“Stantec’s global leadership in sustainability will be further augmented by the passion and entrepreneurism of Cardno’s professionals who, like us, work at the intersection between clients, science, and innovation to solve the ever-evolving challenges confronting communities around the world,” said Gord Johnston, President and Chief Executive Officer.

“We have worked closely with Cardno for many years. Cardno Group CEO, Susan Reisbord and her team have done a remarkable job in transforming their organization and returning Cardno to a strong growth path. The timing couldn’t be better to welcome their team to Stantec and grow together.

Cardno’s key strengths in ecosystem restoration, health sciences, infrastructure, water, and government services are completely complementary to Stantec’s offerings in these growing sectors of the United States and Australia. Together, we will continue to set the standard for sustainable design and climate change mitigation.”

Susan Reisbord, Group CEO of Cardno added, “Joining Stantec offers a tremendous opportunity to the people of both companies to accelerate our combined growth given how complementary our strengths are in the regions we operate. Our combined Australian operations will strengthen our position as a top tier engineering and design firm there, and this will open new opportunities for us. As this process has played out, the one thing that has been striking is the commonality between our values and cultures.”

Consult Australia pays respects to the memory of Peter Hollingsworth

Consult Australia is saddened to hear of the passing of Peter Hollingsworth. Peter was a Consult Australia Life Member and former chair of our committee in QLD, he continuously supported Consult Australia and the industry at large.

Peter qualified as a civil engineer from the University of Queensland in 1951 and as a licensed surveyor in 1954. He was involved in the construction of Warragamba dam, design and construction of precast prestressed concrete structures and problem foundations throughout Australia. Peter was also the founder of Coffey & Hollingsworth consulting in Geotechnical engineering in Australia and Southeast Asia. Throughout his career received a number of awards and accreditations including the Order of Australia in 2004.

We pass on our condolences to Peter’s family.