Harrison Grierson grows by 200%

June 18 2013

Media release

Harrison Grierson grows by 200%

An explosion of work on the Christchurch rebuild has seen staff numbers grow by over 200% in 12 months for Australasian engineering consultancy, Harrison Grierson.

Managing Director, Glen Cornelius, says the company’s Christchurch office has grown from 15 people in May last year to 35 people, with another 15 roles to be filled by May 2014.

“There is a heavy demand for the highest level engineering and planning expertise, which has been challenging to accommodate,” says Mr Cornelius. “We have been fortunate to recruit several internationally recognised specialists whose levels of technical expertise and large-scale offshore projects make them an important resource for the whole country.”

Mr Cornelius said it was inspiring that a number of Harrison Grierson’s 250 professional staff had requested transfers to Christchurch because they wanted to be of service and part of the rebuild.

“The new people in our Christchurch office have heard the call and relocated their partners and families from as far as the United Kingdom, to live, work and play in Christchurch.

“For them, it is all about doing using their skills to engineer a brighter future in the Christchurch region.”

The key international recruits for Harrison Grierson are:

David McInnes - Planning Manager for Harrison Grierson in the South Island. He has wide international experience having worked in 51 countries, including extended periods in Australia. He is a Doctor of Science, a Master of Town & Country Planning, a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts. David has advised extensively in urban and regional planning, strategic, economic and retail master planning, tourism and policy planning. He has been involved in the analysis and development of economic and investment opportunities for a wide range of national and international institutional clients, in the formulation of resort projects as well as major mixed use developments in several countries. He is an acclaimed expert in shopping centre development and feasibilities, alpine and ski field development and as a project director in highly complex and diverse cultural environments. He has also been involved in international airport privatisation.

Nik George - Structural Manager and a civil engineer from the United Kingdom who has a Masters of Civil Engineering (Hons) from the University of Glasgow. Major projects he has worked on offshore include the $20M redevelopment of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, which included a series of trusses spanning 30 metres over workshop areas supporting dance halls and on-site residential units. Nik also worked on the Olympic Village Media Centre multi-storey car park where he was responsible for the design delivery of this car park to the exacting standard required for all Olympic works. He also worked on a central village 10- storey carpark which sat on top of a cut and cover network rail tunnel which was active during the construction.

Ioannis Prionas - Team Leader Structural Engineering. Ioannis is a Senior Structural Design engineer with a scientific background and more than 17 years’ experience designing, managing and controlling the structural engineering aspects of a wide range of complex, high-value civil engineering and construction projects - including three Olympic Stadiums in Athens.

He has significant experience in seismic isolation of bridges and structures, seismic retrofitting and structural dynamics. His experience includes structural analysis and design of large new build public structures, alterations/ refurbishments to existing buildings, transport infrastructure projects and highway engineering, as well as pushover analysis, structural dynamics, temporary retaining walls, and deep excavation design.

Ioannis has a Masters of Science in Analysis and Design of Earthquake Resistant Structures from the University of Athens plus a Diploma of Civil Engineering and a BA in Civil Structural Works. He is based in Auckland but works predominantly in Christchurch.

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