Past award winners

YEAR 2023

NAME Avik Halder

REASON Avik is Stantec’s Technical Development Leader for its New Zealand Water business, responsible for ensuring technical excellence in project delivery.
He has 25 years’ experience in engineering consultancy, working for local and central government authorities in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland. He has broad governance experience and has led several accreditation assessments for tertiary institutions across the country.
He has contributed his expertise to overseas reviews as part of the International Engineering Alliance, and served on the Nelson-Marlborough Branch for six years. The future generation of engineering is top of mind for Avik. He is a Wonder Project Ambassador and was one of the first Chairs to include student representation at committee level, providing a student voice to their vision.

YEAR 2022

NAME Christchurch Earthquake Expert Engineering Panel

REASON The expert engineering panel was established to support the resolution of outstanding residential insurance claims in the Canterbury region. Panel members were selected for their technical expertise and experience, their ability to clearly articulate engineering principles in a way that non-engineers can understand, and their ability to work with both insurers and homeowners in the challenging post-quake environment. Since late 2018 the panel has contributed to the resolution of hundreds of claims by supporting the work of the Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service and the Canterbury Earthquakes Insurance Tribunal. The effect of this work in helping to restore the public’s faith and trust in the engineering profession cannot be overstated. The panel members’ dedication, empathy and expertise is a credit to the profession and to Engineering New Zealand as the host organisation for the panel.

The panel members are: Alan Dallas, Andrew Marriott, Chris Burrell-Smith, Geoff Bunn, Gregory Clark,
Jitendra Bothara, Julius Long, Murray Frost, Philip Cook, Phil Paterson, Simon Finn, Steven Knowles, Ana Pereira, Donald Bruggers, Elliot Duke, Geoffrey Farquhar, Jan Kupec, Nick Traylen, Robert Kamuhangire, Dave McGuigan, Paul Campbell, and recently retired members Mary Ann Halliday, Terry Kayes, Warren Batchelar and John Henry. Richmond (Dick) Beetham receives the award posthumously.

YEAR 2021

NAME Sina Cotter Tait

REASON Sina has shown exceptional leadership at a grass-roots and governance level as well as being a huge champion for diversity. Sina is a civil engineer with 20 years’ experience across engineering, governance, and education. She runs her own consultancy to serve clients whose values match her own, holds many governance roles and was a previously a board member of Engineering New Zealand. She’s currently completing a PhD in construction management and procurement for public sector projects. Sina is very engaged with the Diversity Agenda. She uses her voice to speak up on important issues like the need for more equity in our sector for Māori and Pasifika. She also advocates for more women to consider engineering as a career.

YEAR 2020

NAME Kennie Tsui

REASON Kennie Tsui has been awarded the 2020 Fulton-Downer Gold Medal for her impressive leadership, including as Chair of Engineering New Zealand’s Wellington Branch. Kennie is an enthusiastic and energetic engineering leader who has a clear drive to inspire the next generation of engineers. She has played a significant leadership role in the direction of her branch and in direct support of the wider Engineering New Zealand strategic direction. As Chair, she led the organisation of over 30 events each year, focusing on Engineering New Zealand’s four pillars and promoting themes such as resilience, engineering our future generations, and engineering with our community. She helped the branch to have a voice on issues relevant to Wellington, including the Wellington City Council 10-year plan and 2019 urban planning process, and supporting immigrant engineers. Kennie is also an enthusiastic Wonder Project ambassador and a practice area assessor. Since 2016, Kennie has been Chair of the International Partnership of Geothermal Technologies. She is currently a Principal Analyst at the Interim Climate Change Committee.

YEAR 2019

NAME Stephen Jenkins

REASON Stephen is a practice area assessor and has served for the past seven years as Chair of the Competency Assessment Board. Under Stephen’s leadership, CAB has introduced new systems and streamlined application processes. His support of training and development for assessors has improved consistency and reduced the number of appeals against assessment decisions. Stephen has represented Engineering New Zealand on International Engineering Alliance panels reviewing the competence assessment processes and standards in Peru and Australia. He has presented professional development courses on behalf of Engineering New Zealand and the International Association of Consulting Engineers. He is also a member of Engineering New Zealand’s Professional Development Advisory Committee.

YEAR 2018

NAME Simon Lovatt

REASON Simon has served as a member of the Standards and Accreditation Board for 8 years, much of that time as Chair. During that time, he has played an active role in Engineering New Zealand’s accreditation process, participating in or leading accreditation visits to Victoria University of Wellington, Massey University, the University of Canterbury and a number of Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics. Key achievements under Simon’s leadership of SAB have included the development of criteria for the accreditation of postgraduate degrees and the strategic statement on engineering education. He also led the development of processes for the accreditation of the NZ Diploma in Engineering and our admission as a full signatory to the Dublin Accord.

YEAR 2023

NAME Waldo Posthumus

REASON Waldo is a Senior Civil Engineer at Aurecon, and an active and engaged member of his local engineering community, and beyond. His commitment to climate action is clear, hosting a recent Engineering New Zealand webinar to discuss our country’s engineering response to climate change. Waldo is active in supporting young engineers, currently acting as newsletter editor on the Bay of Plenty Young Engineers committee, of which he’s been a member for two years. He is passionate about diversity in engineering. He has organised multiple Pride month events as Aurecon’s LGBTQIA+ pillar lead, and is seeking to set up an LGBTQIA+ Special Interest Group for Engineering New Zealand members.

YEAR 2022

NAME Emma Lowe

REASON Emma is a civil engineer at Beca, and the Engineering New Zealand Young Engineers Chair for Auckland. She has proven to be a strong and driven leader supporting her committee to deliver a diverse range of events for members. Emma is part of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) future leaders working group for Climate Change and has been a committed supporter of Engineering New Zealand’s work to launch its Engineering Climate Action programme. With the recent lockdowns, Emma also supported members in the Auckland region through events such as a wellbeing webinar. Before her time as a Chair, as a student Emma was on the University of Canterbury Engineering Society (ENSOC) committee and President of the University of Canterbury Women in Engineering group. Emma regularly engages with Engineering New Zealand and the profession in multiple ways.

YEAR 2021

NAME Yaser Shakib

REASON Yaser Shakib is a tireless volunteer for Engineering New Zealand and a strong supporter of the Diversity Agenda. Now a civil engineer at Maven Associates, Yaser was one of our student reps while studying at Unitec and is passionate about supporting students to excel. While studying, he ran several events and continues to be involved with Unitec and the student community. Yaser has volunteered numerous times for Engineering New Zealand and is vice-chair of the Auckland branch committee. At every place he's worked, he's been the Engineering New Zealand liaison person. Yaser is very engaged with the Diversity Agenda and was a key speaker at our Diversity Agenda Accord launch, where he gave a fantastic, powerful speech. Outside engineering, Yaser maintains strong links with the community. He was invited to Parliament to take part in the Eid celebrations and he's started his own YouTube channel dedicated to teaching and entertaining children in the Iraqi dialect.

YEAR 2020

NAME Troy Brockbank

REASON Troy Brockbank (Te Rarawa, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) has been awarded the Fulton-Downer Silver Medal, which is given to an Emerging Professional in recognition of outstanding achievement within the engineering profession. Troy is an impressive emerging leader and one of engineering’s brightest young stars. He is dedicated to naturalising Te Ao Māori within the engineering industry and is actively contributing to setting best practice through cultural integration. Troy led the integration of Te Ao Māori within the Wonder Project curriculum and has provided Engineering New Zealand with great insight and advise on effectively engaging with Māori in the profession. He has challenged Engineering New Zealand to become truly multicultural in all the work we do. Troy has won numerous national awards for his application of mātauranga Māori and kaitiakitanga in developing sustainable stormwater design solutions and promoting waterway protection and restoration. He is currently serving on the Board of Water New Zealand and was previously Deputy Chair of the Water New Zealand Stormwater Group. He has twice been awarded the Arthur Mead Environmental Award, was Beca’s 2018 Young Water Professional of the Year and was a finalist in two categories of the 2019 ENVI Awards.

YEAR 2019

NAME Lauren Croft

REASON Since her student days, Lauren’s volunteer work has made an impact on the profession and the wider community. She’s been involved with Engineers Without Broders, the Engineering New Zealand Young Engineers group, and the Diversity Agenda. Never one to shy away from difficult topics, Lauren is happy to challenge current thinking and pose new ideas. She’s been a valuable sounding board, providing constructive feedback for many Engineering New Zealand projects and initiatives. Her boldness and creativity are a huge asset to us and the profession as a whole.

YEAR 2018

NAME Campbell Dawson

REASON Campbell became President of ENSOC shortly after a particularly challenging issue had arisen. Campbell confronted head on the challenge this created for ENSOC, and worked to rebuild the group’s credibility and reputation. He has sought out and taken advice, being mentored by one of our Emerging Professional members in 2017 and holding meetings with senior engineers and Susan. Under his leadership, the culture of ENSOC has changed and the group has a much more mature awareness of the impact of their activities on engineers’ collective reputation.

YEAR 2023

NAME Stewart Hobbs

REASON Stewart Hobbs is owner and principal engineer of Proconsult Engineering and Architectural Services, and his commitment to Engineering New Zealand and the engineering profession is highly regarded. Stewart is a Life Member of the Society of Structural Engineering New Zealand and editor of its journal. He has been involved with a number of Engineering New Zealand Investigating and Disciplinary Committees and provided specialist advice to Investigating Committees. Stewart has been a Competency Assessment Board member for six years and carried a significant workload as Chair of this Board for the past four years.

YEAR 2022

NAME Professor Jan Evans-Freeman

REASON From 2009 until September 2021 Jan was the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Engineering at the University of Canterbury. Jan’s academic career (after studying a music degree and spending time as a music teacher) focused on electrical engineering and electronics research in the United Kingdom, where she completed her doctorate. She has published over 100 research papers and held senior academic positions before immigrating to New Zealand in 2009. She was made a Distinguished Fellow of Engineering New Zealand at the start of 2021, and her citation recognised the combination of engineering, research and teaching skills she brought to this role. “The 10-year transformation plan Jan proposed for the college post-earthquake was completed three years early, delivering benefits including growth in student numbers and increased research and industry engagement.” Jan has been a member of the Engineering New Zealand Board since 2014, during a time of significant change as the organisation moved to be more relevant and attract a membership that better reflects society. She is a significant role model for diversity and inclusion, actively contributing to conferences for women in leadership, particularly women in engineering. She has been instrumental in heightening bicultural awareness of staff and students and embedding this in taught programmes. Jan has been appointed to boards in the power industry, industrial and crown research centres and for the University of Canterbury Quake Centre; showcasing and promoting the value that engineering skill can bring to governance. In 2021 she was appointed as the University of Canterbury’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Sustainability. Her role is to deliver the university’s environmental sustainability goals from its Strategic Vision 2020–2030, including being carbon net neutral by 2030.

YEAR 2021

NAME Don Thomson

REASON After graduating from Canterbury University in the early 1970s, Don quickly became known for his affable manner and enquiring mind. He worked in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom before he started his own consultancy, Don Thomson Consulting Engineers, in 1987. Don's model has always been to train engineers to be self-reliant and to give them as much autonomy as they can handle. He encourages people to try and engage first and ask a lot of questions, rather than giving them detailed instructions. This means his engineers start being the face of their projects and taking responsibility very early in their career, in proportion to the complexity of their work. Junior engineers are back-stopped by a QA system that involves review at key stages. About 20 years ago, Don set up the Wellington Small Practitioners Group after he recognised the need for engineers to support each other and encourage communication. The group grew to approximately 50 members and met regularly, with professional development encouraged and lessons learned shared in a no-blame environment. In 2019, this group merged with the Engineering General Practitioners Group, with Don becoming a committee member and Wellington representative for the group. As Don's business has grown, he’s donated his time and experience back to the profession. He has volunteered as a CPEng assessor for many years and completes more assessments each year than any other assessor. He also serves on Engineering New Zealand’s investigating and disciplinary committees. Recently he has personally been involved with projects such as defining boundaries for structural engineers undertaking geotechnical work as well as providing feedback on initiatives begun by Engineering New Zealand. He has also freely donated the time of his senior engineers to help work on projects for the benefit of the profession.

YEAR 2020

NAME Andrew Read

REASON Andrew Read has been awarded the MacLean Citation, which recognises a member’s exceptional and distinguished service to the engineering profession. A Fellow and Past President of Engineering New Zealand, Andrew is a Chartered Professional Electrical Engineer with over 30 years’ experience. His leadership and contribution to the profession have been ongoing and sustained. Andrew is continuously generous with his expertise and advice to Engineering New Zealand. Over a number of years, he has supported Engineering New Zealand’s complaints and disciplinary work, has been a practice area assessor for both CPEng and Engineering New Zealand applicants, has driven the Week of Engineering events and is on Engineering New Zealand’s Fellowship Panel. All of these are voluntary roles, as is serving on our Board, of which Andrew was President in 2015/16. During 2019 alone, Andrew engaged significantly in Engineering New Zealand’s occupational regulation consultation, participated in economic research to determine the value of engineering and was one of the ENVI Awards judges. Alongside being the Managing Director of Pedersen Read, Andrew has dedicated his career to furthering best practice in engineering consulting. He currently serves on many expert panels, including the Engineering Programme Advisory Committee of Ara and Chair of the Business Practice Committee of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers. He is also on the CEAS Board.

YEAR 2019

NAME Paul Campbell

REASON A Fellow of Engineering New Zealand, Paul’s contribution in the structural engineering space, especially in the wake of the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes, represents significant service to both the profession and New Zealanders as a whole. Paul was Engineering Team Leader for the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority after the February 2011 earthquake. Generous with his expertise and advice, Paul has served on many expert panels, including the Canterbury Residential Advisory Services technical panel and, more recently, Engineering New Zealand’s panel supporting the Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service. He has provided technical advice to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment on an array of structural topics, as well as input into technical standards like the revised Seismic Assessment Guidelines and the subsequent revision of section C5. Currently immediate Past President of SESOC, Paul continues to serve on its Management Committee. He is a SESOC life member.

YEAR 2018

NAME Sarah Sinclair

REASON Sarah Sinclair is a Fellow of Engineering NZ and one of NZ’s leading women engineers. She is currently the Chief Engineer for Auckland Council. This is the pre-eminent engineering leadership role in Auckland. Sarah’s leadership is characterised by technical excellence, high influence, determination to make a difference, collaboration and a willingness to do the ‘hard yards’ alongside her colleagues to ensure the best result for all is delivered. Sarah’s commitment to engineering has also resulted in additional leadership roles including board roles with IPWEA (NZ), Southern Response Earthquake Services, Sustainable Business Network, Women in Infrastructure Advisory Board.