Carmine Ciccocioppo, 33
Operations Manager, South Australia, for United Utilities Australia, Adelaide

Civil engineer Carmine Ciccocioppo is the United Utilities Australia’s (UUA) operations manager for South Australia.
This position entails taking overall managerial responsibility for the operations and maintenance of all of UUA’s projects within the state. 20 people report directly to him, including trade qualified and professional staff.
Ciccocioppo is a director of the Australian Water Association, which has over 4000 individual and corporate members.
A graduate from the University of Adelaide with a BEng (Honours), Ciccocioppo subsequently gained a masters of environmental engineering science from the University of NSW and a MBA from the University of Adelaide. He was awarded the 2005 Playford Capital Prize for Entrepreneurship, part of the Adelaide MBA degree program, for the most outstanding student in the subject of entrepreneurship.
Activities outside of engineering and work that are important to him include spending as much time as possible with his family, which includes two young daughters, as well as tennis, golf and fishing.

Rebecca Barker, 26
Chair of Young Engineers Australia’s National Committee, Melbourne

Rebecca Barker took over the chair of Young Engineers Australia’s National Committee last month. “I see the position as a huge responsibility and privilege, and I recognise the amazing opportunity it embodies to influence issues facing young engineers and our profession,” she said.
YEA comprises Engineers Australia’s young engineers and students. At present this group represents about half the total membership of the Institution, with the majority being free Student members.
A graduate from Melbourne University in civil engineering and applied mathematics, Barker works for Maunsell Australia in Melbourne in infrastructure management.
Earlier this year she spent several weeks in the Maldives as a volunteer inspecting the structural safety of school buildings affected by the Boxing Day tsunami last December.
Barker is also on the board of the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Engineering.
In her spare time she likes bushwalking and cross-country running.

Daniel Almagor, 28
Founder and President of the Australian branch of Engineers Without Borders, Melbourne

Witnessing the devastation from a massive earthquake while travelling in India in 2001 motivated Daniel Almagor to set up the Australian branch of Engineers Without Borders (EWB). The organisation started operating in November 2003 and now has nearly 1500 members. It has been running projects in several countries including India, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, East Timor and South Africa.
The projects span from electricity and water supply to educational facilities.
Almagor graduated in 2001 from RMIT in Melbourne with a double degree in aerospace engineering and business administration.
In 2003 he and a medical doctor set up Medivax, a service provider that organises staff vaccination programs for large organisations.
For relaxation he likes being outdoors – gardening or playing sport such as soccer or golf.

Terence Jeyaretnam, 34
Principal of consulting firm URS, Chair of Engineers Australia’s Society for Sustainability and Environmental Engineering; regular columnist in Engineers Australia magazine, Melbourne

Terence Jeyaretnam has become a significant voice on sustainability issues. His monthly column on sustainability has been published in Engineers Australia magazine since July 2002, and he is the current chair of Engineers Australia’s 1000-member Society for Sustainability and Environmental Engineering. He has been the editor of the Society’s journal The Environmental Engineer since 2000, and sits on the editing panel of the US Journal Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy.
He is a principal of environmental and engineering consulting firm URS Australia in Melbourne.
Jeyaretnam graduated in environmental engineering from the University of Western Australia in 1993.
In his spare time, he enjoys playing basketball and is a keen photographer.

Simon Clarke, 30
Operations Executive, South Australia, for Parsons Brinckerhoff, Adelaide

Simon Clarke is Parsons Brinckerhoff’s operations executive in South Australia, reporting directly to the company’s state manager. His responsibilities include ensuring client needs are met with respect to personnel and project delivery, commercial support for project managers, profit and loss for the office and oversight of human resources and professional development.
“We have our project managers delivering numerous projects. I work with them to look at project risks, ensuring the jobs meet the clients’ expectations as well as being commercially successful,” he explained. In all, he is responsible for over 85 staff.
In his leisure time Clarke is a “keen photographer” and enjoys cycling through the Adelaide Hills.

Melissa Griffith, 26
President of Engineers Australia’s Queensland Division; civil engineer in KBR’s Maritime & Coastal Section, Brisbane

Melissa Griffith is president of Engineers Australia’s Queensland Division, representing over 15,000 engineers in the state.
“My focus has been on keeping the Division involved in the infrastructure debate that has been happening particularly in southeast Queensland,” she explained.
“I also wanted to reform the Women in Engineering Group in Queensland, which we have done this year.”
Griffith is a civil engineer with KBR’s maritime and coastal engineering group in Brisbane.
Outside of engineering, she enjoys spending time with her husband, family and friends, as well as travelling overseas, and eating out. She is involved with the Brisbane City Church and runs its professional women’s work.

David Hobbs, 31
Young Professional Engineer of the Year, senior rehabilitation engineer with NovitaTech, Adelaide

David Hobbs has just completed a tour of Engineers Australia’s Divisions around Australia. He gave presentations at various functions including the launch of a Tasmanian chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Australia in Hobart.
A biomedical engineer from Flinders University, Hobbs is a senior rehabilitation engineer at NovitaTech, the technology division of Novita Children’s Services in Adelaide. He is developing new programs, products and ideas to assist people with disabilities.
Earlier this year he spent time in Cambodia as part of a special project to assist the Cambodian School of Prosthetics and Orthotics in Phnom Penh.
Hobbs is the secretary of the South Australian branch of Engineers Australia’s College of Biomedical Engineering and a member of the Institution’s National Committee on Rehabilitation Engineering. He is also on the board of the Australian Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Association and Engineers Without Borders Australia.

James Moody, 28
Director, Divisional Business Strategy for CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra

Last December, Dr James Moody was appointed director of divisional business strategy for CSIRO Land and Water. In this role, he is responsible for developing new business opportunities, managing resource utilisation, improving business practices, overseeing technology commer-cialisation, and contributing to divisional strategy and policy development.
Throughout his career, Moody has been involved in a number of projects.
Fedsat was one of the major ones. “The satellite is still up there and working.
“I have also had a number of roles with the UN, such as cochair of the UNEP Youth Advisory Council. The latest was as the executive secretary of the taskforce on science and technology for the UN Millennium Project.”
Moody sits on several government and private industry boards, including the Australian Spatial Information Business Association, the Brisbane Institute, the Australian Statistics Advisory Council and the National Environmental Education Council.
Last year he became known to a wider audience through being a judge on the “New Inventors” TV program.

Rohan Gamble, 34
Managing Director of Virgin Money Australia, Sydney

Rohan Gamble started Virgin Money Australia on behalf of its UK parent company in 2003, with 10 people and a temporary office. The company now has over 500,000 customers and more than 40 staff.
It started with a credit card and launches superannuation next month.
Gamble graduated in 1993 from Monash University with a combined degree in civil engineering and economics, and holds a MBA from the prestigious management school INSEAD in France.
One of his ambitions is “to start up my own business and create a brand name which represents great product and service for people. Ideally this will be travel related and globally focused.”
Gamble loves travelling. “I’ve always prioritised travel as well as my career, and have visited every continent and almost 50 countries.”
His engineering studies taught him “how to go about solving a problem – taking something complex and making it simple. Business for me is largely about digesting complexity and finding simplicity.”

Steve Buchanan, 35
Senior Associate of Connell Wagner, Brisbane

Steve Buchanan is a senior associate of Connell Wagner. His responsibilities include managing the company’s marine group in Queens-land and leading a range of consulting engineering commissions for port authorities and port users in the state. He manages the resourcing of about 40 staff, with more direct supervision and involvement on a day-to-day basis with about 15 of those.
Buchanan is the leader for several major marine and seaboard bulk materials handling projects including the $50 million Tiebaghi Shiploading Facility in New Caledonia and $60 million RG Tanna Coal Terminal.
He is married with three young sons and is on the board of Scripture Union (SU), an interdenominational, nonprofit Christian organisation.

Engineers Australia Magazine, Volume 77 No 6, June 2005.

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