Engineers Australia would like to welcome Kakoli Das and Peter Tow to the Sydney Committee for 2023. Elected committee members, headed by President Olivia Mirza, will work together across the year volunteering their expertise and time to provide leadership in key areas including the overall governance and strategic direction of Engineers Australia Sydney.
This year, some of the committee’s top priorities will be expanding the collaboration with other groups such as Women In Engineering, Young Engineers Australia and regional groups.
As STEM education is the top priority for Engineers Australia nationally, the Sydney Committee will further engage with engineers, business, education, government and experts to develop and advance rigorous, evidence-driven policy that reflects the highest STEM education. The committee will propose impactful strategies by collaborating with potential employers and career seekers to help to support skilled migrants engineers.
Sydney Committee aims to build industry connectedness, grow STEM education and drive job growth with skills training.
Each new member will serve the Sydney Committee for two years. You can find out more about each of the committee members below.
Kakoli is a technical director with Arcadis, where she leads the multidisciplinary building services team nationally. Kakoli has more than 20 years of experience in various sectors including infrastructure, commercial, retail, health, defence and more. She is passionate about improved diversity in engineering profession and mentoring of younger engineers for advancing their career.
Peter has more than 20 years of engineering experience across a range of companies, sectors and industries. Key professional highlights include Worley, Sydney Trains and Western Sydney University. Peter has spent time working in consulting, the public sector and project management. He also spent three years in Afghanistan leading internationally funded reconstruction projects.
Committee members returning for 2023 include;
Olivia was one of the sixteen Golden Jubilee Scholarship holders at the University of New South Wales in 2000. She graduated in Honours Bachelor of Civil and Environmental in 2002. She worked as a structural engineer for eight years before pursuing her academic career and is now a Professor in School Engineering, Design and Built Environment. Professor Mirza is a strong advocate for encouraging more women into the engineering profession. Australia like most other countries in the world has a shortage of engineers and it is Olivia's vision to increase the number of women engineers.
Don is an experienced project director and systems engineer in the defence sector. He has experience managing complex projects and working with diverse sets of stakeholders in defence and transport and has won several awards for his work. Don has been a volunteer and office bearer with Engineers Australia since 2015 and is a passionate advocate for the profession and for volunteering.
Elena is an Associate Director at KPMG with more than six years’ experience managing engineering teams. She has more than 18 years' experience working in different engineering and management roles in the transport industry, predominantly aviation. Elena is passion about helping migrant engineers to improve their job search experience in Australia.
Nicole is a Project Technical Leader at Laing O’Rourke working with Gamuda on the Western Tunnelling Package on Sydney Metro West. She has more than 20 years of experience in delivering complex multidisciplinary infrastructure engineering projects across Australia, Europe, the Middle East and Asia in a range of sectors including rail, commercial, cultural and civic, sports, and the water and wastewater industries.
A chartered environmental engineer with finance MBA and GAICD credentials, Benjamin has more than eight years’ experience across technical advisory, project management and commercial roles. Benjamin brings with him specialist knowledge and a passion to help businesses create sustainable value by managing effectively environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities. When Benjamin isn’t impersonating ‘Captain Planet’, he enjoys playing and writing music, travelling and losing at golf (still working on his technique).
Bruce’s career has spanned several decades within the electricity utility sector. He has contributed to the engineering profession in senior office bearer roles including National vice President for Marketing and Communications, National vice President for Finance and National vice President for Public Policy. He has also been Sydney Division President and was Chair of the Sydney Engineering Excellence Awards Committee. As a member of Sydney Committee Bruce actively supports engagement with and informing the community of the value, capacity and positive contributions engineers make to society.
Diana is a Chartered Engineer, Engineers Australia Sydney Committee Member and Austroads Bridge Taskforce representative for NSW. She was recognised as a NSW Transport Woman of the Year – Road Freight NSW finalist in 2018 and brings more than 20 years of experience to the Sydney Committee. Diana leads a team of engineers in the areas of bridges and structures, steelwork and concrete, tunnels and geotechnical, to develop and manage engineering standards relating to civil infrastructure assets across Transport for NSW.
We would like to thank the committee members whose terms ended in 2022 for their exceptional work on the Sydney Committee.
The 2023 committee welcomes members ideas on how to best serve the profession in the Sydney community. Please contact President Olivia Mirza at [email protected] with suggestions or discussion points.