A chat with... Eleanor Grant

As part of a series of stories profiling people of influence from around Beca, we asked GM Industrial Eleanor Grant to tell us about her career journey and life outside of work.  
 

What were you like as a child?  

I would say I was quite independent. I was born in Northland and then we lived in Holland and then South Africa for Dad’s job. When I was 12, my parents were moving to America and I didn’t want to go. So at 14 I ended up moving back to New Zealand (where I hadn’t lived since I was 4) to go to boarding school. I think I was mainly keen on the idea of boarding school because I might be able to ride horses.  
 
My parents carried on living and working overseas - in Houston, then Singapore, then Holland. They didn’t come back to New Zealand until after I finished university.  

I got the horse though.  

What did your Dad do that meant so much travel?  

He was a chemical engineer in the petroleum industry. People in the industry will know him – his name is Bruce Marks. He worked at Beca for a while too, though he joined after me.  

How did you choose what to study at university?  

I thought I wanted to be a large animal vet, but then realised that would mean living in the farming world rather than in a city, and I wasn’t keen on that.  

I liked science and maths, and in my final year at school, a guidance counsellor asked if I’d thought about chemical engineering. I said: ‘I can’t do that, my Dad does that!’  

I think Dad was pleased when I chose engineering. Though Mum gets a bit fed up when we start talking about work!  
 
You’ve just started a new role as GM Industrial for Beca’s New Zealand business, after a role as Industrial Sustainability Lead. What are you most excited about in this new role?  

It’s a big and complicated business and there’s lot of variety in what we do in the Industrial space at Beca, which makes it interesting.  

There are lots of big changes coming at us (from sustainability to digital and AI) and I’m excited about the opportunity to help our clients embrace those and be successful.  
 
The industries we have in New Zealand are the backbone of our economy. I want to help keep them here and thriving, while balancing their impact on the planet. One of the things we don’t want to see happen is, we end up with a really sustainable country - but no industry.  

Where did your interest in sustainability come from?  

I did what a lot of people do and escaped overseas for a few years before coming back to Beca. I worked at a smaller consultancy in Manchester where they were doing a lot with renewable energy and waste management.  

I remember having to do a carbon balance on a particular solution for the first time and finding it really interesting to look at it with a different lens.  

Then an opportunity came up at Beca, at a time when New Zealand was starting to look at options other than landfill; thinking about the circular economy, waste minimisation and decarbonisation. I could see that it was something our clients needed. The best bit about my role over the last few years has been being able to learn so much from all of the amazing specialists we have in different areas of sustainability at Beca.  

What advice do you give to people who are starting out, and thinking about what to study?  

I often think that the degree you choose is not the be-all and end-all. You can always take your career in different directions, depending on what you’re passionate about and good at. A degree can be a ticket in the door, but it’s just the start – so don’t worry too much if you’re not sure about your degree.  

What advice do you give to people about career progression?  

For me, it has been about finding a gap where I can add value, and saying yes to it.  
 
There’s always an opportunity to learn in everything you do. You never know who you might meet, the connections you might make, and what it will lead to.  

What do you do in your spare time? Do you still ride horses?  

I recently restarted horse riding with my daughter, who is 10. She saw pictures of me riding and wanted to know if she could have a horse! So I agreed to lessons for her, and then decided to get involved myself. I’m using muscles I’ve not used in 27 years. Falling off is a lot more painful than it was at 17!  

What have you learned about yourself over the course of your career?  

I’ve learned I need to be patient and make sure I listen to everybody. Not everyone wants to move at the same speed as me, or in the same direction. So I’ve learned to be more patient, more collaborative. I’m still working on it.  

How do you describe your job to people outside of the industry? 

I try and relate it to products that people know, and the factories that build those products. 
 
I’ve done a fair bit with kids in schools (through initiatives like The Wonder Project) and the way I describe it to them is, think about how hard it can be to squeeze toothpaste out of a tube. Now think about how you get the toothpaste to go through the pipe in a factory. I love trying to explain the world of engineering to kids and get them excited about what you can do in terms of solving problems.  

I did one session at a primary school – it was a water feature project where we talked about pumps. I asked the kids to draw me a picture of a pump. Most kids drew a box with water going through it. One kid drew a propellor that made the water move! I thought, ‘Yes! I found an engineer!’