Beca proud finalists for 2023-24 Consult Australia Awards

We are honoured to share that Beca’s Shathie Nkoni and our Australian Water business have been named finalists for the prestigious Consult Australia Awards for Excellence 2023-24.

Shathie Nkoni - Project Management Associate in our Advisory team, and our Beca HunterH2O Australian Water business in partnership with Stantec, Jacobs and Yarra Valley Water have been nominated for the incredible results they have achieved delivering community-shaping water projects across Victoria.

They have been shortlisted for the following awards:

Shathie Nkoni – Future Leader

This award acknowledges professional staff of member firms aged 38 years and under who have made a significant contribution to their firm and added value in a demonstrable way.

A passionate consulting professional with an incredible background story and strong sense of community service, who wants to leave a positive legacy for her native Botswana, Shathie Nkoni is fast emerging as a Future Leader within both Beca and the Australian Water industry more broadly.

Since joining Beca in 2016, she has made her mark as a leader of both people and project management process. Today, she performs the dual roles of Delivery Manager for the CH2M Beca Joint Venture – overseeing a portfolio of 80+ active projects, and is Client Relationship Manager for Greater Western Water – one of our long-standing Australian Water clients.

Outside of work, Shathie pursues diverse interests, including part-time modelling and 'digital entrepreneurship' in fashion and lifestyle, which she documents on her various social media platforms. By setting a positive example for her two children Zade and Zara, and other professional mothers, she wants to demonstrate that work-life balance is achievable and leads to better and more enjoyable work performance.

Collaboration for Project Excellence: Working with Government

This award recognises exemplary project team collaboration initiatives between an organisation and their government client. This is a joint entry between Beca-Stantec (the 'Ripple Joint Venture'), Jacobs and Yarra Valley Water.

Leveraging the combined experience, capability, and ideas of Beca, Stantec and Jacobs; Yarra Valley Water's Engineering Services Partnership (ESP) provides a collaborative model for delivering a large utilities capital works program that has inspired other water authorities across Australia.

Beca and Stantec form one half of the ESP under the 'Ripple' Joint Venture banner, whilst Jacobs completes Yarra Valley Water’s Engineering Services Partnership. Yarra Valley Water themselves are the largest of Melbourne’s three government-owned retail Water Corporations, serving more than two million people and 61,000 businesses across the city’s eastern suburbs.

Appointed for up to 10 years from January 2022 to deliver their $5.6 billion capital works program, Yarra Valley Water’s ESP is already making real progress 18 months on. This includes significant cost savings and avoiding unnecessary tendering; benefits that wouldn’t have been possible had Yarra Valley Water taken the traditional approach of tendering work from each firm on a competitive basis.

About the Consult Australia Awards

Consult Australia is the industry association that proudly represents small, medium and large businesses in the design, advisory and engineering professions. The Consult Australia Awards for Excellence were established to celebrate excellence amongst firms and individuals who practice in these sectors.

The winners will be announced at a gala dinner at ICC Sydney on Thursday, 14 March. Good luck to all finalists! More information about Beca HunterH2O here.