Past Emerging Leader Award winners

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Find out more about our past Emerging Leader Award winners. 

2024

Winner - Sam MacKay, Technical Director and the Ground and Underground Engineering Practice Leader, Aurecon New Zealand

Sam is a Technical Director and the Ground and Underground Engineering Practice Leader for Aurecon New Zealand. She specialises in engineering geology, ground risk management and site investigations delivery for infrastructure projects across transport and energy sectors.

Sam is passionate about supporting clients and communities through resilient design, and her goal is to make the complex simple and embed best-in-practice ground engineering services.

For most of her career, she has been based on construction and remote mining sites in Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Throughout these experiences, she has worked to create positive health and safety cultures across projects and teams.

She is passionate about advocating for and engaging with emerging professionals and cultivating inclusive teams. Her focus is providing platforms for aspiring engineers to explore opportunities and develop meaningful careers across the engineering industry.

Finalist - Michelle Brock, Service Line Leader for WSP New Zealand National Bridge Design Team and Project Manager/Director, WSP

Michelle has more than 12 years’ experience successfully leading teams and managing delivery of a range of projects across the transportation engineering sector. 

As the Service Line Leader for WSP New Zealand’s National Bridge Design Team, Michelle also holds the role of Project Manager/Director. In this role she develops company strategies through establishing SMART goals and targets for various project delivery teams and works proactively to grow WSP’s major projects through close collaboration with client relationship managers and other project managers/directors.

Michelle’s approachable style means she quickly understands the client’s needs and expectations, providing support to delivery teams in upholding these requirements.

Embracing a collaborative, cost-effective and innovative approach, Michelle develops engineering solutions that include her passion for project wellbeing and positive delivery outcomes. She thrives in a team environment, enjoys drawing on the expertise around her, especially from her colleagues in the wider profession, along with supporting her colleagues in realising their potential.

A firm believer in reciprocal, respectful communication and empathy, Michelle demonstrates these qualities in creating high performing teams who can deliver positive solutions for their clients and communities.

Finalist - Dilys Fong, Transport Planner and Engineer, Tonkin + Taylor

Dilys Fong is a Transport Planner and Engineer at Tonkin + Taylor. She joined the consulting industry in 2021 with aspirations to work in people-centred infrastructure.

Her passion for transport and its impact on local communities emerged from an unconventional past in classical singing, followed by three years of teaching high school science in a low-decile environment.

With projects all over Aotearoa, Dilys’ work includes pioneering climate change adaptation planning for transport assets with Auckland Transport, design for cycle and pedestrian infrastructure in the award-winning Te Ara Tupua Alliance, business cases and consenting inputs, and mana whenua and stakeholder engagement.

Dilys also has key roles in internal company initiatives including those promoting te ao Māori, where she has been a leading rangatahi and tauiwi voice in discussions to develop business strategy, foster understanding, and provide learning opportunities across the business. 

Dilys’ leadership potential has previously been recognised and cultivated through the Ako Mātātupu Teach First NZ Leadership Development Programme in 2015, and as a Sir Colin Maiden Scholar in the University of Auckland’s Engineering Dean’s Leadership Programme in 2018.

Her exceptional contributions to the consulting industry are a continuation of this development journey, where she shows remarkable promise in leading at the intersection of transport, climate change adaptation, and kaupapa Māori.

Dilys is an empathetic and collaborative leader, seeing leadership as an opportunity to bring people together for better outcomes, to champion others in their strengths, and to grow collective capability. 

2023

  • Winner - Victoria Mills, Associate Environmental Engineer and Water Team Leader, Beca
  • Finalist - Cameron Chapman, Market Leader and Principal Engineer, ElectroNet
  • Finalist - Durgadevi Ragupathy, Lead Engineer, Aurecon

2022

  • Winner - Louisa Bloomer, Regional Digital Practice Lead for Asia-Pacific, Stantec
  • Finalist - Justine Quinn, Technical Director for Freshwater Science and Ecology, Tonkin + Taylor
  • Finalist - Jordan Reynolds, Director, Tactical Group

2021

  • Winner - Ryan Orr, Regional Leader Bay of Plenty and Waikato, GHD
  • Finalist - Courtney Chapman, Associate Structural Engineer, Beca
  • Finalist - Glenn Jowett, Technical Director and Digital Engineering Advisor, Beca

2020

  • Winner - Simon Fenton, Service Line Leader - Project Delivery, WSP
  • Finalist - Kezia Lloyd, Head of Specialist Services, WSP
  • Finalist - Amy Patterson-Horner, Business Group Leader - Hawke's Bay, GHD 

2019

  • Winner - Chris Maguire, Stantec
  • Finalist - Rebecca McMahon, Beca
  • Finalist - Steve Roskruge, Beca 

2018

  • Winner - Weng Yuen Kam, Beca
  • Finalist - Robert Lane, Lewis Bradford
  • Finalist - Thomas Small, Jacobs 

2017

  • Winner - Clare Tolan, Harrison Grierson 
  • Finalist - Catherine Morar, Aurecon 
  • Finalist - Carla O'Donnell, WSP 
  • Finalist - Steph McLeod, Stantec 

2016

  • Winner - Jenson Varghese, MRCagney
  • Finalist - Matt Bishop, BVT
  • Finalist - Andrea Jarvis, Holmes Consulting