6 minute read
Z People – Emerging Leaders
The Z People Awards were developed by Civil Contractors NZ, with support and sponsorship from Z, to recognise the outstanding achievements of individuals within the civil construction industry.
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Hamish Race Z People – Emerging Leader
Schick Civil
Hamish has been with Schick Civil Construction for 4 years. He got involved within the industry straight out of school, deciding to complete his Diploma in Civil Engineering. After completing this and working 2 years at the consultancy, Hamish knew that he needed to ‘get on the tools’ to gain experience if he was going to be able to competently lead skilled field staff and understand all facets of the civil industry. Knowing Hamish, his personal goals and the company goals are quite well aligned. He has a saying along the lines of ‘too often the civil industry finds the person rather than the person finding the industry’. The civil industry was always somewhere he wanted to be, but he believes that all too often, kids leaving school don’t end up in the industry by choice.
Hamish is motivated to teach students what the industry has to offer but also put time and effort into our staff so they can get the qualifications they are after and working with them to get to where they want to be for their careers.
The opportunities for Hamish are endless but for now, he is firmly focused on making the Schick Nelson Marlborough branch a sustainable and successful branch of the business with longevity.
Hayley Scott Z People – Emerging Leader
McConnell Dowell
Hayley joined McConnell Dowell in December 2018 on the completion of her Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons), from the University of Canterbury. She spent a semester of her final year in Denmark, studying Water Supply Engineering and joined McConnell Dowell on her return.
Almost immediately she found herself in American Samoa working on the Pago Pago International Airport Runway Apron project, which is where she was when Covid-19 interrupted our world. Caught on island due to travel bans, while several of her team were stuck back in New Zealand, someone had to step up and make sure the team were safe, informed and on track.
During her studies, Hayley enjoyed the study and decided she liked the opportunities for travel and advancement. The challenges of civil construction piqued her interest so she followed through into the construction side of the industry and has found her niche. She is looking forward to seeing where the industry takes her but she’s definitely not afraid of taking charge of her own destiny!
Jay Dangwal Z People – Emerging Leader
Fulton Hogan
Jay came to our attention as a participant in the highly-competitive Project New Grad programme having secured one of three places from over 200 applicants. Throughout the three year rotation within Auckland Transport, GHD and Fulton Hogan, Jay displayed outstanding leadership qualities from the offset and a positive team mindset, so we were delighted that he chose Fulton Hogan once the programme was completed.
Having now worked in our organisation for five years, Jay has experienced a rapid career progression currently holding the position of Construction Manager for our high-performing Auckland Transport South Urban Road Maintenance Contract.
Jay’s is honest, intelligent, people-focused and customer driven with a rare ability to communicate to all levels of the business, bringing people on the journey with him. He exemplifies everything that leadership is about and his approach of people first sees him support and challenge his teams so that we, as a business, continue to seek and achieve better performance over time for our clients.
He genuinely cares about the development and well-being of his people which is a quality that has earned him the respect of teams throughout Fulton Hogan; from senior management, his own crews, peers and staff members who see his innate ability to lead.
Read about the winners and finalists from the people and companies who nominated them.
Nipun Jayaweera Z People – Emerging Leader
Downer NZ
Nipun Jayaweera is currently a Regional Technical Lead with Downer in Auckland. He started working with the company in 2013, shortly after graduating from the University of Auckland. As a young graduate, he was interested in working outside of Auckland, so he took up a graduate role based in Napier.
Nipun recounts how at his job interview with Downer in Napier, he was introduced to an older gentleman sitting in on the interview, a Dr. Dave Hutchison. At the time, Nipun didn’t know what Dr.Hutchison’s position at Downer was (and didn’t yet know him as Dr. Dave), but he found him to be “a really nice, humble chap, and we had a really interesting discussion about roads and bridges”.
Nipun says he didn’t enter the civil industry with a plan – he just knew he wanted to build roads and bridges. He is still driven by that enthusiasm to learn something new every day. However, he now sees that work also must have a high engagement factor as well as answering the call on the social issues that are (topical/relevant/problematic) in our communities. He believes that as engineers, we have a big responsibility in this space. He is excited about continuing to connect with the people he works with and the customers they serve.
Tomas Kettell Z People – Emerging Leader
Isaac Construction
Tom has been employed at Isaac since 2013. Tom studied a Bachelor of Science Degree in Quantity Surveying and Commercial Management in the UK. He then came to New Zealand on a working holiday visa in 2013 and applied for roles, one being an Estimator at Isaac Construction. Although Tom did not have Civil Experience, we saw potential in him do due his qualification, character, and overall positive can-do attitude. He was the right person for the team, he just did not have the skills yet, however we were confident he would get them quickly.
Tom is extremely innovative by nature, and having already implemented many new initiatives for Isaacs, over and above his day-to-day role, I can see him continually adding huge value to the civil industry throughout his entire career.
Tom is the kind of person that always goes the extra mile to ensure objectives are achieved. He continually pushes himself to improve and having recently completed his MBA (achieving Distinction), Tom plans to use his acquired business acumen and newfound skills to help Isaac achieve their goals to grow and develop the business so the people within have opportunities to do the same.
He has also recently been elected as a CCNZ Committee Member for the Canterbury/Westland branch and plans to support and give back to our industry.
Nikhil Vishwanath Z People – Emerging Leader
Downer Roadscience
Over the past six years Nikhil Vishwanath ‘Nik’ has built on his natural leadership skills within the Road Science business. He has shown the ability to not only influence his peers and direct reports in positive ways but also senior management.
Nik has been involved with the civil industry for six years.
Nik’s professional goals are: • To be a thought leader in the transport industry • To become a leader who puts an emphasis on developing his people • For his work to provide positive tangible change to the industry
