Engineers to benefit from alliance

The international alliance of the building engineering groups of Connell Wagner and Mott MacDonald will shape the future career paths of New Zealand engineering graduates, says John Leuchars.

Mr Leuchars, a New Zealander, has become the London-based managing director of Connell Mott MacDonald.

"There is a worldwide shortage of engineers with five years experience or more," he says. "New Zealand is a major recruiting ground for engineers and we are unique in providing engineers with multi-disciplinary experience, particularly in the seismic field."

Mr Leuchars says the alliance with British-based Mott MacDonald would allow employees of Connell Wagner, a New Zealand and Australian company, to work overseas while still remaining with the firm.

The firm is working on one of the biggest engineering projects worldwide, the redevelopment of the Wembley Stadium in London.

"The way we have run Wembley Stadium demonstrates the effectiveness of international teamwork," Mr Leuchars says. "We have designed the roof in Sydney, we are doing the mechanical engineering in Melbourne, the electrical in Denver and the main seating bowl in Sheffield. And it's all being orchestrated from a site office at Wembley."

Other joint contracts include the new Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 and the Dubai Marina, one of the Persian Gulf's largest building projects.

"The advantage of forming an international alliance is that it gives more stability to the whole firm," Mr Leuchars says. "Building work goes through cycles in every country, but when you are working in a number of markets those cycles are less likely to coincide. So if you've got a surplus of work in the UK you can feed work to New Zealand engineers, and vice versa."

While that may contribute initially to the brain drain, Mr Leuchars believes engineers will eventually return to New Zealand and bring their experience with them.

The new organisation will employ more than 850 engineers in 50 countries worldwide, including 100 in New Zealand. The alliance will have a combined annual turnover of $762.35 million.

Outside of the alliance, the two organisations will continue to provide a range of multi-disciplinary services under their respective brands. Connell Wagner has seven offices in New Zealand and 19 in Australia, and employs 1500 people worldwide.

Mr Leuchars says the two organisations have a 30-year association and have built up mutual shareholdings which bind the firms together.

He says huge advances in computers have knocked some of the No 8 wire mentality out of New Zealand graduate engineers.

"That basic grasp of commonsense and that feel for engineering is something that you have to really work hard to keep when you're training graduate engineers."

The modern graduate is still good as those of the past, however, he says.

Mr Leuchars has a master's degree in civil engineering from Canterbury University and a business administration degree from Victoria University.

He formed his own consultancy, Smith Leuchars, in 1980. It merged with Rankin and Hill in 1990 and two years later merged again with Connell Wagner. He was managing director of Connell Wagner New Zealand and a director of Connell Wagner Group Pty Ltd.