As part of a series of stories profiling people of influence from around Beca, we asked Chief Technical Officer Stuart Tucker to tell us about his career journey and life outside of work.
Why did you choose to study engineering?
It wasn’t an active choice. I only had one plan which was to join the airforce and fly jets. At 18, I got as far as the officer selection course at Hobsonville, which was kind of like a Survivor experience where you got voted off, two at a time. I made it to Day 8 and then there was an activity I couldn’t do, and suddenly I was on my way home. That was the end of it.
I was pretty distracted for the balance of my final year at school – I played a lot of cricket and ended up with 125 marks in five subjects! My parents suggested that perhaps going on to university right away wasn’t the best idea. The local council was advertising for an engineering cadet. I got the job, and they put me through a New Zealand Certificate of Engineering, which meant I could go on to University and complete an engineering degree in two years.
Which council was that? Where did you grow up?
It was Matamata-Piako District Council – the job was based in Te Aroha. I was born in Rotorua and grew up in Morrinsville from age 5 to 20. Dad was a printer and he used to move around, setting up printing businesses. So I grew up in a small town which serviced the dairy industry. We were townies, but most of the kids at school were farm kids.
What were you like as a kid?
I was brainy, curious, and occasionally disruptive. I tended to ‘get’ things (particularly maths and science-related things) quite quickly and then I could become troublesome waiting for others to catch up! Some of my colleagues reckon this is still a potential feature of my personality.
I was a fairly committed student at university – I had worked for five years before going to varsity and so was pretty focussed – I tended to get stuff done. That work experience was a real advantage in understanding the practical application of engineering knowledge as well.
What brought you to Beca?
While I was at the council I did a lot of survey work in relation to the Te Aroha floods of the 1980s. Beca were doing the flood remediation design works, and so I was working with the Auckland-based geotech team. I would drive up to Auckland once a week and hand over survey updates – all by hand – there were no electronic formats then. The Beca team seemed like a pretty good bunch of people and easy to get along with. So when I went to university, my plan was to become a structural engineer and work at Beca. I started working here as a graduate in 1993.
You’ve worked on big projects in Auckland like the Waterview Connection and Victoria Park Tunnel. Do you find those big projects rewarding?
It’s not so much about the project for me. I became really interested in design management as my career developed. I really liked building teams of people that could deliver bigger and more complicated things. When projects are of that kind of scale with so many moving parts, you need a more systemic approach to design management. What interested me was how we could develop and implement efficient systems that enabled people to produce design in a way that was predictable, robust and delivered on the client’s expectations.
How do you explain your job title to people?
People outside of Beca often think Chief Technical Officer has something to do with technology – it’s not that at all. There are four key parts to it. I oversee our professional practice standards, accreditation, ethics and probity; our core quality management and project delivery systems; our project risk systems; and technical development and innovation.
Did you have ambitions to be on the executive team?
Not at all. In fact, if you ask our CEO, she will tell you I initially laughed at the idea! But despite my misgivings, I do think this role is quite a good fit for the range of skills I have developed over many years.
What do you like doing in your spare time?
I like sailing. A couple of years ago we bought a boat, which was a lifetime dream. We spent four weeks sailing around Northland last summer as a family, which was awesome.
I’m also a volunteer radio operator with Coastguard in Auckland. I do a shift every three weeks or so. My job is to remain calm and communicate between the person on the boat (who’s probably having a bad day) and the Coastguard duty officer who’s implementing a plan to help them out. We service the upper North Island so on a busy summer Saturday we might have 20 to 30 incidents. I like the community service aspect of it.
I’m an active relaxer. I have built a couple of small boats and I also built my home office in our garden during the second lockdown. It was a good project to do with my son and his rowing mates – a way to spend time together that was within the lockdown rules. It also meant that they could do all the heavy labour like digging drains and shifting earth.
Beca has a lot of people like yourself who’ve been with the company for decades. Why do you think that is?
I think Beca is a bit unique in its value set (Tenacity, Partnership, Enjoyment and Care) and our people really believe in them. So I think people stay because of alignment of values – and if your individual purpose aligns with Beca’s purpose, then bingo. I think that’s reflected in our long tenure and low turnover stats.
How would your friends describe you?
They would probably say I work too hard! That I’m always willing to lend a hand. That I’m a good bloke to go to the pub and have a beer with, and chew the fat on a variety of topics.
Tell me a bit about what life is like in your household
Catherine and I have been married for nearly 30 years. She’s a classically trained mezzo, choir trainer and pianist. There’s a lot of music in our house – the living part of the house is built around her grand piano.
We have two adult children who are still at home. Our son is in his second year of a Bachelor of Commerce. He also keeps bar at our local. Our daughter has just graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science and Psychology and is about to start her Masters in Marine Science. She would love to work with animals and has a casual job at an aquarium – I worry we’ll wake up one day and there will be a family of penguins downstairs that she’s smuggled home from work!