Engineering excellence applauded

25/11/2009

Gareth James (1967-71) has been honoured at the 2009 IPENZ Supreme Technical Awards for Engineering Achievers, winning the Angus Award in the Utilities, Networks and Amenities category.

Gareth James

Gareth has fashioned a distinguished career in engineering with the bulk of his career devoted to local government engineering.

In more recent times he has been Chief Executive of a private company involved in waste management in an innovative public-private partnership with local government.

Gareth initiated and led the National Asset management steering group in its formative years and chaired the panel which developed the first New Zealand Asset Management Manual. He was also a major contributor to the pioneering thinking behind the development of the practice of asset management.

The work of that group led to the asset management provisions of the Local Government Act, with the model now adopted in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States of America with New Zealand’s documentation’s accepted as the best international practice.

The Supreme Technical Awards for Engineering Achievers are biannual awards that recognise those who have demonstrated excellence and leadership in engineering practice over their career to the benefit of the engineering profession.

IPENZ Chief Executive Andrew Cleland said Gareth had “demonstrated leadership, excellence and innovation.”