The Committee

Management Comittee

Elected Committee Members

Chair - David Burns

David is an engineering geologist at AECOM NZ (formerly Maunsell and prior to that, Worley Consultants).  He has a masters degree in Earth Science from the University of Waikato and has been practicing in the fields of engineering geology and geotechnical and civil engineering for 30 years.

Projects have taken him to many out-of-the-way places in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the length and breadth of New Zealand.  Particular areas of interest are the volcanic geology of the North Island and Indonesia, natural hazard assessment, and civil engineering projects such as hydroelectric and transportation developments, particularly the early stages of site reconnaissance and feasibility assessment.

Email: david.burns@aecom.com

Vice-Chair & Treasurer – Gavin Alexander

Gavin’s has specialized in geotechnical engineering since graduating from Auckland University in the mid 1980’s. Following graduation, he spent seven years with Arup Geotechnics in the UK and Australia working on large building and infrastructure projects. In that period Gavin spent a year at Imperial College, London and was awarded an MSc and DIC in Soil Mechanics and Engineering Seismology.
He joined Beca on his return to NZ in 1993 and has led its Geotechnical group in Auckland, and geotechnical and multi-disciplinary teams on projects thoughout New Zealand and in Australia and throughout South East Asia.

Gavin’s current focus is on the technical direction and review of projects, and his current challenges include wind turbines on karstic limestone, highway embankments on peat, and mine infrastructure in Indonesia and the Northern Territory of Australia. Variety is the spice of life, and is what attracted Gavin to geotechnical engineering.

Email: gavin.alexander@beca.com

Simon Woodward

Simon has 28 years experience as a Consulting Geotechnical Engineer, and formed Geotek Services Limited in 1994.

He pioneered soil nailing here, and later, introduced Dynamic Probing into New Zealand and developed its use for assessing stabilisation requirements of low volume roads, stream and foreshore stabilisation.

The introduction of AS2870 into Section 17 of NZS3604:1999 prompted him to explore the issue of expansive soils in more depth, and saw him co-author an “Acceptable Solution for Foundations in Expansive Soils” for the Manukau City Council in 2001.

Outside of work, he is a (col-) lapsed runner, sporadic (as in both time and direction) golfer, and a born-again fisherman.   He and his wife have three children and live in Howick.

Email: simonwoodward@geotek.co.nz

Sjoerd Van Ballegooy

Sjoerd Van Ballegooy is a geotechnical engineer with 10 years specialist experience in hydraulic and geotechnical engineering.  He has been involved in a wide range of complex geotechnical and hydraulic projects including stream diversion design work, quarry investigation and design work, bridge foundation and embankment design, commercial and industrial development projects involving foundation engineering, ground water modelling, slope stability remediation including the award winning Kawakawa Bay Landslide stabilisation project (which received the 2010 ACENZ gold award) and earthquake engineering including liquefaction assessment and design.  Sjoerd has had a number of papers published.

Sjoerd has been closely involved with the Earthquake Commission and Government since the Darfield and Canterbury Earthquakes to undertake the land damage assessment and develop the land remediation options and concept design.

Email: svanballegooy@tonkin.co.nz

Distinguished Speaker Contact – Charlie Price

Charles is the Chief Geotechnical Engineer, Asia Pacific Design, with MWH in Christchurch.

He has a Civil Engineering undergraduate degree from Trinity College, Dublin, and an MSc in Engineering Geology from Imperial College, London.

His 38 years of geotechnical experience has included Resident Engineer positions on water supply and hydropower projects in Africa and Pakistan, investigation work in Ireland and offshore engineering mainly in UK and Norwegian waters. This included the design of most of the subsea foundations for the Foinaven Field, the first British offshore development in the ‘Atlantic Frontier’, West of the Shetlands, and first deep sea field in British waters. He spent seven years working with URS in their Christchurch office before moving to MWH in 2011.

He moved to New Zealand in 2003 to work on Project Aqua, and has now settled in Canterbury.

Email: Charlie.H.Price@nz.mwhglobal.com

Tony Fairclough

Tony is a Christchurch based University of Auckland educated civil and geotechnical engineer with over 20 years experience. During his career Tony has worked on numerous private development and public infrastructure projects throughout New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region including Australia, Malaysia (4.5 years), Vietnam, Hong Kong (1.5 years), Fiji, The Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, the United Arab Emirates, and, the United States of America.

Tony is currently employed by Tonkin & Taylor Ltd, who he joined in October 2000, and previously worked for Worley Consultants Ltd (1986 – 1990), Soil and Rock Consultants Ltd (1991 – 1993), and, Woodward Clyde (NZ) Ltd / URS (NZ) Ltd (1993 – 2000).

Email: tfairclough@tonkin.co.nz

Appointed Committee Member

Management Secretary – Amanda Blakey

Amanda Blakey’s role as the society’s Management Secretary is varied. Membership of NZGS now exceeds 750, and as well as providing administration support to the NZGS Committee and Chairman, she is the first point of contact for the NZGS’s growing membership.

International links with ISSMGE, ISRM and IAEG are also maintained by Amanda.  Amanda’s duties include responsibilities for the production of Geomechanics News, support for Branch events and presentations, organisation of NZGS short courses, assistance with awards, the production of guidelines and the NZGS Membership Information booklet.

Email: secretary@nzgs.org

Co-opted Committee Members

Dr C Y Chin

Dr C Y Chin is a Principal Geotechnical Engineer at URS based in Auckland and a former Chairman of the NZ Geotechnical Society. Educated in the UK about 20 years ago, he completed a PhD at Cambridge University and worked with Ove Arup & Partners based in UK. Further work saw him going to Brunei and Singapore prior to coming to New Zealand. He is currently chairing a NZGS sub-committee on developing Geotechnical design guidelines.

Email: cy_chin@urscorp.com

Co-Editor, NZ Geomechanics News – Paul Salter

Paul did his post-graduate studies in engineering geology at Auckland University in the early 1990’s.  He worked for a small geotechnical firm in South Auckland for 3 years, before joining Woodward-Clyde Consultants (now URS New Zealand) where he has been for the past 15 years.  Six of those were spent in California, where practicing as engineering geologist and hydrogeologist required state certification.  His work typically involves providing geologic input on slope stability, dam, pipeline, tunnel, and land development projects, and providing support for geotechnical design.  Paul leads the URS Auckland Geo-Engineering team and is co-editor of the NZGS Geomechanics News.

Email: paul_salter@urscorp.com

YGP Representative – Erica Cammack

Erica is an Engineering Geologist with Beca Infrastructure Ltd, based in Auckland.  She graduated from Canterbury University in 2002 with a BSc Honours degree in Environmental Science. After graduating Erica worked as a ranger for 4 years with the Department of Conservation based mainly on offshore islands. She joined Beca in 2006 and has since worked on a variety of projects involving engineering geology and hydrogeology throughout New Zealand.

Email: erica.cammack@beca.com

Ex-officio Committee Members

Immediate Past Chair – Philip Robins

Philip is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer at Golder Associates with more than 17 years experience in the field of civil/geotechnical engineering and project management. He has been involved in the design and construction of major infrastructure projects in New Zealand, California, Hong Kong and Southern Africa. His qualifications include a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Natal, Durban and an MSc in Geotechnical Engineering from University of California, Davis. Philip is a Member of The Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand and a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng).

His project experience ranges from planning and managing subsurface exploration programs including onshore/offshore drilling and sampling, and in situ testing through site evaluation to the design of deep and shallow foundations, major earthworks, fill embankments and retaining structures. Philip is particularly proud of his contribution to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span Seismic Safety Project and construction of Pier 400 Container Wharf at the Port of Los Angeles. His construction management experience includes supervision of piled foundations, slope remediation projects, ground improvement works, major earthworks and earth-fill embankment dams.

Email: probins@golder.co.nz

IAEG Australasian Vice President – Ann Williams

Email: ann.williams@beca.com

ISSMGE Australasian Vice President – Prof Michael Davies

Eemail: michael.davies@auckland.ac.nz

ISRM Australasian Vice President – Dr David Beck

Email: dbeck@beckengineering.com.au

Editors of NZ Geomechanics News

Paul Salter

Paul did his post-graduate studies in engineering geology at Auckland University in the early 1990’s.  He worked for a small geotechnical firm in South Auckland for 3 years, before joining Woodward-Clyde Consultants (now URS New Zealand) where he has been for the past 15 years.  Six of those were spent in California, where practicing as engineering geologist and hydrogeologist required state certification.  His work typically involves providing geologic input on slope stability, dam, pipeline, tunnel, and land development projects, and providing support for geotechnical design.  Paul leads the URS Auckland Geo-Engineering team and is co-editor of the NZGS Geomechanics News.

Email: paul_salter@urscorp.com

Hamish Maclean

Hamish completed his Civil Engineering degree at The University of Auckland. Following a short stint with Fletcher Construction working on the later stages of the second Manapouri tailrace tunnel, he has spent the past seven years working as a geotechnical engineer in the Tonkin & Taylor Auckland office. This has included a wide variety of projects with a focus on retaining wall design and landslip assessment and remediation.

Hamish is the co-editor of NZGS Geomechanics News.

Email: hmaclean@tonkin.co.nz

NZ Liaison with International Societies

NZ Liaison with ISRM – Marc-Andre Brideau

Marc-Andre completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. He joined the School of Environment at the University of Auckland as their engineering geology lecturer in the geology programme in May 2010. His main research interests include most things related to rock slope stability. His research projects typically include a fair amount of field mapping (sometimes supplemented by terrestrial LiDAR and photogrammetry) and he uses numerical modelling to test the conceptual slope models that were developed based on field observations.

Email: m.brideau@auckland.ac.nz

Australian Liaison with IAEG - Mark Eggers

Website Manager

Gitte Abildgaard

Email: webmanager@nzgs.org