"It's good to know you're part of an organisation that constantly strives for improvement by encouraging everyone to identify ways of delivering to our clients better and which rewards individuals at all levels."
The number of awards Beca has won reflects the talent of people within the multidisciplinary consultancy, John believes. "The quality of the people in leadership roles and senior technical positions rivals any consultancy worldwide," he says. This is certainly true for Beca Planning & Design, which has received several awards over the last few years within both New Zealand and Australia.
John is the General Manager for the Planning & Design business line in New Zealand and is responsible for the commercial performance of this group.
As well as overseeing these operations from his Tauranga base, John regularly applies his technical skills to project work. The Kopu Bridge Replacement has been a long-term project for John, where he has been providing planning input since 1999 – consulting with over 1500 people during the course of the planning approvals process. Construction began at the end of 2009 and, on a personal level "it's great to see projects you are involved in and have helped to shape finally being built."
In addition, he is Project Director for a number of multi-disciplinary projects, including the Waipa District Growth Strategy, a 40 year strategic population, employment, living area and infrastructure study for the Waipa District - situated in the North Island of New Zealand.
John's current role is the result of 11 successful years with the business. Originally employed as a planner in the Hamilton office, he was identified as an emerging leader and participated in Beca's leadership programme in 2002. He was then promoted to planning team leader for the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki regions. From 2006 John managed and expanded Beca's Management Services team in Tauranga from about 20 to 40 architects, planners, surveyors and project managers until he commenced his current role in 2009.
Technical Papers: