What is your job title? What are you responsibilities from day to day?
I am a Principal at Arup and leader of our building services team in Sydney. With 60 staff to look after there is a fair amount of management to be done but I also make sure that I stay involved in project work. In addition I lead building services engineering for Arup across the Australasia Region which involves developing business strategy and working with senior colleagues across the region to make sure that we are effectively sharing our skills, knowledge and resources.
What are you passionate about?
Leadership. I worked out early in my career that the easiest way to be successful is to surround yourself with great people and bask in the reflected glory of their achievements! Seriously though I am really passionate about building teams of people with complementary skills and creating an environment in which they can thrive and do great work. Good teams are then self sustaining provided you create a culture of generosity and meritocracy.
What has been your finest professional hour?
At my previous practice in the UK we designed and built our own headquarters. It was a little gem of a building in a rural setting and an early example of innovative sustainable design. Winning the Office Building of the Year at the Building Services Awards for that building when we were up against a range of much larger and higher profile buildings was a pretty special moment.
What important lessons have you learned in your career?
As a consulting engineer I consider that I am providing a professional service to my clients, which to me goes beyond a contractual or commercial arrangement. With the consolidation that has occurred in the consulting engineering market I fear that some of the big players are becoming very corporate in their approach, which I am not comfortable with.
I have learned that in our work no single person can achieve much without a team of others with diverse and complementary skills around them - not only other consultants but contractors, sub-contractors, suppliers, tradesmen and so on. Collaboration is the key to success but is often sadly lacking in the way our industry works.
I have also learned the value of acting with integrity and authenticity. Sometimes things don’t go to plan, mistakes are made, and disputes arise. In these circumstances it is important for me to be able to lie in bed and know that I acted honorably and was fair in how I treated others. In my experience taking this approach tends to facilitate solutions and achieve better outcomes in any case.
Whom do you most admire?
I have always admired Mike Brearley, the former England cricket captain. Actually a pretty mediocre batsman by international standards but held his place in the team purely on his leadership skills and ability to get the best out of those around him, most notably one I.T.Botham.
Professionally I have had the good fortune to work under a number of leaders who I have admired and who have helped mentor me through different stages of my career.
Dream sabbatical?
Joining the Barmy Army for an England tour of the West Indies. I am proud to say that I became an Australian citizen recently but I still draw the line when it comes to cricket!
What is your motto?
I wouldn’t say I have one but I do like Sartre’s “We are our choices” – the idea that we are defined by the choices we make. People sometimes say to me “don’t you feel lucky to live in Australia” and I think, well, lucky to have the opportunity maybe, but I chose to live here.
What has been your greatest personal achievement?
My two children, George and Anna, fine young people and a source of great pride to me.
What is your favourite book?
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s about what gives something ‘quality’ and the notion that rationality and romanticism are not mutually exclusive.
Favourite film?
Reign Over Me. I like films that either make me laugh or make my cry and this one did both, which was a bit embarrassing when I first saw it courtesy of Qantas in-flight entertainment!
Favourite website?
I look at the BBC News site and the Sydney Morning Herald app every day. I also love TED for inspirational videos and Flixster to check out the latest movies.
How would you describe yourself?
I see myself as a building services engineer (ie not mechanical/electrical/hydraulic/ESD, etc.) I was always taught to work from first principles to develop appropriate design strategies so I tend to make sure the fundamentals are right before taking interest in the detail.
Being an engineer I am naturally more logical than emotional although I try hard to understand people and be an effective leader. I am pretty even tempered and considered in what I do and being well on the way to fifty have a fair amount of experience under my belt.
What is success to you?
Personally the concept of success has changed for me over the years. It used to be about climbing the slippery pole of professional achievement, now it is about enjoying every day as it comes and making a positive connection with those around me, be they friends, colleagues, professional peers or clients.
As an organization Arup measures success by the quality of our design work, the satisfaction that our staff derive from working in our firm and the feedback we get from our clients. We know that commercial success follows from getting all of these things right, which is a different model to most commercial organizations who typically put pursuit of the dollar first.
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