Profile: Abbey Middlemiss, Interior Designer, Wellington, New Zealand

Wellington, New Zealand based Interior Designer, Abbey Middlemiss, says it was only natural that she work for Opus.  “With my love of art and graphics I went straight to the Auckland School of Interior Design after leaving school and qualified with a Diploma of Interior Design.  It then seemed only natural that I would work for Opus when I graduated,” she says. 
“I am really enjoying working with the Wellington architecture team.  It’s a relatively small ream of 20 working on a range of different projects.  In the three years I have been with Opus I have contributed to many of our main architectural projects in the Wellington area including the administration building at Rimutaka Prison, the Maserton Police Station, the Palmerston North Police Station and the new Opus Architecture studio.”
Abbey also enjoys the project management side to her work and has taken management responsibility for interior fit-outs for the Waitangi Tribunal and the Maori Land Court.   She has also reconfigured an existing office space for the Wellington District Court. 
On a personal front Abbey says it’s sometimes a bit of a challenge to make people aware of the skills she has and how she can contribute to projects.  “I’m working at breaking down the preconceptions about what my job entails,” she says.  “I have a broad range of skills relating to interior layout and space planning, customised joinery, design, textiles, furniture specification, interior product specification, window treatment and presentation skills such as rendering and presentation boards.”

Profile: Chris Mallows, Archaeologist, Hamilton, New Zealand

Chris Mallows is an archaeologist based in our Hamilton New Zealand Office.  He is one of eight archaeologists employed by Opus, and is part of the nationwide heritage team. 
His role involves assessing and highlighting the archaeological risk of project sites and providing recommendations to make sure that projects can go ahead as effectively as possible.
Chris’ speciality is in human remains, or osteoarchaeology and he can determine the age, sex, and provide detailed metric data from the analysis of bones. 
Before he arrived in New Zealand in 2005 Chris’ career took him to Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina (working for the UN and the International Criminal Tribunal on the Srebrenica massacres sites), England and Australia.  Chris says he arrived in New Zealand, looking for new challenges and a change of lifestyle.  “New Zealand has an extraordinary complex archaeological record for such a relatively short human occupation, he says.  “From the Maori occupation through to the initial contact of the discovers and whalers, the early settlements, the military sites such as pa’s and redoubts, and the early kauri gum diggings – there is a proliferation of material that is of interest to archaeologists.”
“I am fairly sure I am going to be kept pretty busy,” he says.

Profile: Ben Holland, Manager - Central Laboratories, Wellington, New Zealand

When Ben arrived in Nelson in 1998 he took on the role of road safety manager for 400km of local State Highway network, keeping the travelling public as safe as possible. Ben then progressed to deputy and ultimately team leader for this project. At the same time he became a committee member for the Road Asset Management Sector and the Road Safety Engineering interest group.  “After carrying out the role of team leader for a number of years, I was privileged to be offered the Business Manager’s position in Nelson, leading a great team of roughly 30 people from various disciplines. This was a thoroughly enjoyable position that is both hugely challenging and rewarding.” Despite taking on this role he retained the flexibility within Opus to carry out exciting projects, including the large team for the tender design for the Tauranga Harbour Link Project which is estimated to be worth around $200 million. “I truly got the best of both worlds: running a business whilst retaining the technical challenges, which was the reason I trained as an engineer after all.” 
“The real highlight for me, however, is working with the people in Opus. The willingness to help and offer support and advice within Opus sets us apart from other businesses. We provide the best teams backed up by the rest of us and get to work on some really exciting schemes.”  Ben is now the Manager of our Central Laboratories team in Wellington.

Profile: Bob Hodges, Director - Bridge Engineeing, Rossett, United Kingdom

Bridge Technical Leader for the UK, Bob Hodges, is also responsible for the management of Rail Sector work within Opus. With over thirty-three years experience, his expertise in the design, inspection and assessment of bridges is used to lead the Bridge Team at Rossett, ensuring that the longstanding work for our clients continues to be delivered to a high standard.
As Project Director for the Opus work with Network Rail, he manages the ten year term commission to inspect and assess domestic bridges in the London North Western Territory. Additionally, Bob leads the Bridgeguard 3 Framework, which Opus has with Galiford Try Rail.  “The bridge construction is planned many months in advance and scheduled around possessions, when trains are not operating. One of Opus’ strength is that key dates are always met to enable the contractor to maximize the amount of work carried out in possessions."
With possessions driving the programme, the team at Rossett offers quality engineering solutions and details schemes to avoid disruption to rail services and road users.
Bob can reflect on a number of other achievements within this sector.  "On Christmas day in 2003 on the A500 scheme at Basford, near Crewe, I was able to watch, as the 195 metre five-span railway bridge, for which Opus carried out the initial preliminary design, was launched into position over the West Coast Main Line.’’

Profile: Dougal Mason, Engineering Geologist, Cardiff, United

Dougal joined Opus’ Wellington office in 2004 as a hydrologist.  Having studied geology at university, he later transferred to the office’s geotechnical section as the team was expanding rapidly due to an ever-increasing workload.  “I spent the next couple of years working on geotechnical investigations and assessments for a wide range of projects such as wind farms, motorway developments, waste water treatment plants and bridges.”
The lure of moving to the UK proved strong and Dougal transferred with Opus to the Cardiff office where he is currently involved with geotechnical and geoenvironmental assessments for new developments in and around South Wales. “Getting to grips with contaminated land assessments is a new challenge for me, as it’s not something that I came across in my previous role in Wellington, as well as learning how to pronounce words in Welsh!”
Outside work Dougal is enjoying the UK lifestyle, particularly travelling around the UK and Europe and seeing new sights. “Transferring to the Cardiff office has meant I can enjoy living overseas whilst remaining within Opus and gaining experience on new projects.”

Profile: Jean Dupavillon, Drafting Manager, Sydney, Australia

Jean joined Opus in 1978 as an apprentice draftsman, while also undertaking a four year part time course at Sydney TAFE in which he successfully completed his Structural Engineering Certificate in 1981.  Jean then went on to become a senior structural design draftsman which provided opportunities to work on some notable projects using AutoCAD.  He then further progressed to the position which he now holds as Drafting Manager, a key role in managing projects, drafting staff and training of apprentices.  Jean is also involved in the Civil Engineering Cadetship induction course held in Wellington, New Zealand for 2 weeks once a year where new cadets sample the various disciplines Opus has to offer.  Jean brings over 29 years of experience to the company.  Significant projects Jean has worked on include the Quay Apartments, Circular Quay, the Network 10 Building Pyrmont, the Chinese Gardens Darling Harbour, the Sydney Olympics 2000, the Fijian Resort Pool, Waratah Mills (silo conversion to residential apartments) and the Chatswood to Epping Railway Line.

Profile: Robert Tutty, Roading Network Team Leader, Wanganui, New Zealand

During Robert's 20 years with Opus the project he's predominantly been involved with is the management of the New Zealand Transport Agency (formerly Transit New Zealand) state highway network. This involves the management of 750km of highways in the central/lower western North Island. Typically this involves managing an annual budget of approx NZ$15m of highway maintenance work. On this project Robert was involved at all levels from the boy at the bottom to the man at the top and everything in between.  "The Wanganui office has a great environment along with a great bunch of people - technical assistance is available through the Opus PIN groups which enable questions and answers to be promptly shared with colleagues via email. This enables the collective knowledge of all our technical staff to be easily and quickly collated not just from within New Zealand but around the world." 
"Opus genuinely cares for their staff and is extremely forthcoming with opportunities for staff to better themselves."

Profile: Mark Valentine, Director, Rossett, United Kingdom

Mark currently works as the Director of the successful Opus office in North Wales, working as Project Manager for various schemes. In recent years he has developed an increasing involvement with the ICE training schemes of Graduate Engineers, giving guidance where possible, and liasing with the ICE.  "I have had the opportunity to obtain and give advice with other Opus bridge engineers around the globe, through the Bridge PIN." 
"During my time at Burton House I have been fortunate to enjoy a selection of interesting and challenging work. I have completed the design of numerous structures including road bridges, culverts, a small dam, footbridges and floating pontoons within marina developments in Kuwait. This valuable experience coupled with an ongoing expansion of responsibility, has provided excellent career progression. I aim to explore the opportunities for further development now available as an Opus employee and have appreciated their new perspective on business and training, which now gives a more focused direction to our efforts."

Profile: Richard Jarvis, Manager - Infrastructure & Asset Management, Sydney, Australia

Richard's long career experience came from many public sector organisations, but always working with change and new ideas.  At Opus Richard has found a caring and supportive culture that fosters talent and empowers its people.  "The Opus culture assists in and encourages the developing of a personal level of contacts and relationships between people across the organisation, assuring a wide network of contacts, knowledge sharing, and support across the organisation."
"It is a culture that positively encourages new ideas and the sharing of knowledge.  If you strike a problem and you don't know how to deal with it, or are not sure about something, or if you just need a wider perspective, then you put out the word to colleagues via the intranet Practice Interest Networks, and they will give you a wide range of experience and perhaps nuances you may never have considered. And you see the replies to others' problems, and learn from the discussions and debates."  Richard has found the level of collaboration underwrites the achievement of excellence in the services we provide and generates confidence and pride in our work.

Profile: Sam Thornton, Transportation Engineer, Wellington, New Zealand

Sam Thornton joined Opus Wellington as a structural engineer in 2006 after graduating from the University of Canterbury with a BE (Hons) in Civil.  “I chose to work at Opus because it offered a friendly work environment and lots of different opportunities.  I am working in a supportive and friendly team who make the office a fun place to work. There is a good mixture of young graduates and experienced engineers in the office. Our office has a very social environment and I have had the opportunity to participate in numerous social and sporting activities throughout the year. Highlights include participating in a corporate multi-sport competition and being on the social committee helping to organise social events for the office.”
“Opus is very supportive towards its new graduates, I have a mentor who offers me support when I need it and I have had the opportunity to further my professional learning with numerous in-house training courses. There is also a lot of support from the experienced engineers in the office. Because of Opus’s global nature there are opportunities to move around and work in locations all over the world.”