Edition 01
Welcome! Welcome to our new 28 OFR employees, who joined the NZ operation 2 weeks ago as our new National Fire Services group. The Fire group sits within our Property and Buildings market sector. Integration has commenced at a strong pace over the first 2 weeks across our teams, they’ve connected well to capitalise on the strengths of our respective organisations. A number of our fire teams have worked with GHD or are known to each other which has been helpful during the early days of our integration.
There have been a number of positive communications and catch ups over this period, resulting in immediate opportunities for joint technical and client focus, including: • We’ve been invited to pursue an RFP for a new build hotel project in Queenstown where we will be responding to MEP, Fire and acoustics services • Next week our Dunedin City Council long term panel tender is being submitted; this will be supported by local, NZ and international based resources including our integrated offering of Fire services and fire engineering
Staff engagement and social activities During week 1, Donna Bridgman hosted a series of GHD staff briefings at Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington offices to update staff on the acquisition, synergies, organisational structure and opportunities GHD is looking to realise through the coming together of our people. Donna also met the Wellington fire team and got a great update on the wide range of projects and clients they are working with by Peter and the team. This week we hosted the first of our social events with the Christchurch teams from Structures, MEP, Architecture and Fire getting together on Tuesday afternoon at the GHD offices. This provided a great opportunity to share a bit about each other and project work as well as connect on a social level over drinks and nibbles. The opportunity was also used to show the Fire team around their new home. The highlight of the night was seeing everyone enagage with each other so well. Robert Sinclair, our Wellington/Central Area Manager met and got to know the Wellington Fire team on their home ground on Wednesday and is looking forward to hosting the Fire team in GHD’s office in the next week or so. Andrew Roy, our Northern Area Manager is in the process of arranging dates for the Auckland Fire team to meet their Property & Building peers the week commencing 24 October, once everyone is back from leave. On Monday 17th, Russell Hawken, GHD’s NZ Property and Buildings (P&B) Market Leader will be in Christchurch meeting the team to provide an informal overview around the NZ P&B strategy and information around our P&B national clients.
Technology & learning Things are ramping up and our IT experts Derek, Barry and Jemely are in preparation mode for the technology release to the Olsson Fire team. Over the next few days the fire teams in each of our three reigions will have received a GHD laptop which will enable the team to navigate and familiarise themselves with our systems. This is a great time to get started on some of GHD’s eLearning modules that underpin our values of Safety and Integrity. They will also provide you with greater knowledge of some of GHD’s other policies and processes, which are important for you to understand. You’ll also receive your username, password and directions on how to complete the eLearning modules on the day each offices receives their pool laptop.
Our brand We are working hard on developing some guidelines for the use of the co-brand moving forward, which we will be sharing with you all shortly. The intention is that in October, the OFR team will move to using the GHD and Olsson Fire & Risk logo together on documentation. This will include documents such as letterhead, proposals, reports, business cards and email signatures plus others we are working through. In its written form however, we will all be known as GHD. We recognise that there is great value in the Olsson Fire & Risk brand in the market, which is why we will retain this for a period of up to 12 months. In the meantime however, it is business as usual! We look forward to sharing more on this soon, should you have any queries in the meantime regarding brand or marketing, please do not hesitate to contact Sarah Mason, Marketing & Communications Manager.
An exciting new opportunity!
A new project
GHD was approached by Plus Architecture to work together on a project we’re extremely excited about. We’re currently working through stage one of a six stage residential apartment, retail and car park building in Auckland. On completion, this job will amount to 17,000 square metres of construction, with a fee to the value of 2.5 million for our portion of the project. Why are we so excited about this project? It’s an excellent opportunity for GHD and Olsson Fire & Risk to work together! Stage one involves the integrated offering of our MEP, Fire and Structures teams, which is one of our key selling points. Our bid lead, Peter McBride, engaged the support of Amy Chao as Fire Design Lead with great support from Cam Stuart as Fire Protection Engineer and Alan Page as Technical Director overseeing compliance and QA.
What’s coming up?
Peter had worked closely with Amy in the past on the award winning Christchurch Boys’ High School, the Ministry of Primary Industries and the Lyttleton Library. We’ve also engaged Sam Toulmin, Structures Service Group Manager, for the structural concept and QA of the projects along with Kai Ku, Senior Structures Engineer and our Auckland MEP team: Stuart Wyllie, National Group Manager, Christopher Chin, Senior Electrical Engineer, Steven Wang, Mechanical Engineer and Lagos Nemedi, Senior Mechanical Engineer. Our pièce de résistance is going to be our Mandarin speaking team! Amy Chao, Christpher Chin, Steven Wang, Kai Ku and Joy Chen will help us to navigate customs, language and culture with sensitivity. So keep your fingers crossed for this exciting opportunity - we’ll keep you updated on the results!
What’s Happening
Who
When
Christchurch office meet and greet
Christchurch Structures, Fire, Tuesday 11 September MEP and Architecture
GHD logins and passwords
For OFR Team
Friday 14 September
GHD Laptop for each office (great opportunity to do your eLearning in down time)
OFR team
Monday 17 September through to physical integration
Auckland Meet and Greet
Christchurch Structures, Fire, MEP and Architecture and W/C 24 September Interiors
Auckland Induction day
Wellington and Auckland Fire Monday 8 October Teams
Christchurch Induction day
Christchurch Fire Team
Tuesday 9 October
Invite to first Team Brief
Fire teams to the office Team Brief
October TBC
Wellington meet and greet
OFR Project Directors
Upcoming
Project Director Training
OFR Project Directors
Upcoming
Project Manager Training
OFR PMs
Upcoming
Meet our people Ben Vallet
Senior Fire Engineer - Auckland
Can you describe your role at Olsson Fire & Risk? I am a Senior Fire Engineer, and I am hoping that I can describe my role as a project and people enabler. What project have you most enjoyed working on while at Olson Fire & Risk or what project of interest are you working on at the moment? I have enjoyed working on a wide range of projects, and in different roles (from graduate to ‘project manager’). I have also very much enjoyed developing Client relationships. What are you looking forward to, with the transition of GHD and Olsson Fire & Risk? Opportunities! I am quite excited to join a multi-services company and hopeful that as we build up confidence and trust in each other, we will be able to benefit from each other’s experiences and deliver some great projects. What takes up your time outside of work? I am a very outdoorsy type of personality so I very much enjoy everything which does not include staying inside for too long (tramping, camping, surfing, skiing, mountain biking). What is at the top of your bucket list? Definitely a Round the World trip (maybe saying hi to GHD’s staff in each and every office?)
Hannah Blythe
Service Group Manager - Structures Auckland Can you describe your role at GHD? I manage our team of 9 structural engineers and drafters, focussing on marketing and winning work, timeliness and quality of deliverables, resourcing projects and providing varied and interesting challenges to the team to allow them to grow their careers. What project have you most enjoyed working on while at GHD or what project of interest are you working on at the moment? I shifted with GHD from Australia to Auckland in March this year. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the larger property and buildings team and seeing some positive results in how the larger team is working and coordinating together. I’m finding the works we are doing on the seismic assessment and strengthening of buildings fascinating as it’s all new to me and is a steep and challenging learning curve, but part of what this transfer was about. What are you looking forward to, with the transition of GHD and Olsson Fire & Risk? I’m looking forward to being able to offer our clients another in-house technical service which complements the work we are already doing in the building space. What takes up your time outside of work? My young family, travel - with a focus at the moment to explore this new city and country, and getting to the gym or pool when I have a spare hour. What is at the top of your bucket list? How do you choose just one??….. Extended travel through South America (6 months at least!) live/ work/travel in Canada, explore NZ top to bottom in 2-3 years…… ;-)
Patrik Gustafsson
Amy Williams
Fire Engineer - Wellington
Team Leader - Structures Wellington
Can you describe your role at Olsson Fire & Risk? I am a fire engineer in the Wellington office. In a short summary – I deliver fire reports for building consent and provide technical advice on how to achieve compliance from a fire engineering perspective.
Can you describe your role at GHD? I lead the team of Structural Engineers in the Wellington office. Our team of 8 engineers and drafting staff delivers a diverse range of projects including seismic assessments, commercial and institutional new builds and water infrastructure. My role involves helping my team to grow in their delivery of well thought out solutions that meet our clients’ needs and overseeing the successful execution of structural designs.
What project have you most enjoyed working on while at Olson Fire & Risk or what project of interest are you working on at the moment? I am currently working on Southern Cross Hospital in Newtown, Wellington. What are you looking forward to, with the transition of GHD and Olsson Fire & Risk? I look forward to working alongside the building services team and get an insight to how fire engineering can impact a project from their perspective. What takes up your time outside of work? As an avid tennis fan, I keep up with what is happening in the world of tennis. I also play tennis, and I enjoy tramping (original, I know). What is at the top of your bucket list? I don’t give things like this much thought to be honest. I like climbing mountains and watching tennis, so I’ll give a split answer – Climb a 6,000 m peak (preferably in the Andes) and attend a Grand Slam final (preferably Roland Garros).
What project have you most enjoyed working on while at GHD or what project of interest are you working on at the moment? I have really enjoyed working on the delivery of the Dixon Street pump station. This 6m deep underground structure included the challenges of getting compliance for innovative construction methods and integrating new proprietary products into a bespoke design. The program required collaboration between the contractor, their engineer and GHD to produce a design that simplified construction and allowed the early procurement of key elements. What are you looking forward to, with the transition of GHD and Olsson Fire & Risk? I’m looking forward to having the in house fire expertise on hand as projects develop. By creating this dialogue, between form and safety, early in the design stages we will be able to implement a wider range of solutions to structural and risk challenges. What takes up your time outside of work? I have always been interested in sewing and fashion. I meet with friends every week to challenge each other to learn, experiment and sew together. As my children grow older, I have also rediscovered skiing and the joy of sharing days on the snow with them. In quieter moments, I am always partial to excellent coffee or beer. What is at the top of your bucket list? I am not one for bucket lists, preferring instead to build community around myself and family. Though, if I had to choose 1 bucket item, it would be to get at least halfway through the NZ craft beer tasting list.
Peter McBride
MEP Lead - Christchurch Can you describe your role at GHD? I form part of the building services team of which fire plays an ever increasingly important role in the design process. What are you looking forward to, with the transition of GHD and Olsson Fire & Risk? For us in MEP, the in house decoding of the Fire report into services speak will be great! Save a heap of email traffic and telephone natter!
What project have you most enjoyed working on while at GHD or what project of interest are you working on at the moment? To date one memorable project – small but exacting was the Christchurch Boys High school, others for other reasons. Just quietly - Lyttelton library because it was so close to home! What takes up your time outside of work? Presently my extra 40m2 house renovation project is competing with yachting and GHD (both losing I am afraid!) What is at the top of your bucket list? And the bucket list includes (but not limited to) doing more GHD work from my cockpit based hot desk on board my yacht.
James McBryde
Fire Leader - Fire Engineering - Christchurch Can you describe your role at Olsson Fire & Risk? In my role at Olsson Fire & Risk I am the Fire Engineering Associate. This is a client facing role focused on both the procurement and delivery of project related work. I am the fire engineering lead on a number of key design projects providing technical expertise to clients and the wider design team, and I also provide mentoring/training and quality assurance to developing fire engineers in Christchurch. What project have you most enjoyed working on while at Olson Fire & Risk or what project of interest are you working on at the moment? A memorable project that I have been involved in for the last couple of years is iFly Queenstown. The building is centered around a vertical wind tunnel that is used for indoor skydiving and which presented some unique design challenges from a fire engineering perspective. The facility just opened in the last couple of weeks, so make sure you check it out next time you are in Queenstown.
A project of interest that I am working on is the Western Springs Stadium. The project is still in the early stages, but involves the redevelopment of the existing speedway facility into a multipurpose stadium, national cricket ground and concert venue. What are you looking forward to, with the transition of GHD and Olsson Fire & Risk? Working with my wife!! What takes up your time outside of work? My family and outdoor sports take up most of my time outside of work. My wife and I both love mountain biking, skiing and camping and we are keen for our young family to experience these activities. What is at the top of your bucket list? Skiing powder in Japan and experiencing the culture/ food with my family.