The Christchurch rebuild and subsequent earthquake strengthening regulations, town planning and wider infrastructure projects have all placed huge demands on New Zealand’s surveying and engineering sector.

To help meet that demand, one of New Zealand’s oldest engineering, project management and surveying consultancies has expanded its capacity.

Rebranded as Calibre Consulting, the new business combines the former Spiire from New Zealand and Brown Consulting from Australia and Singapore, to produce a team of 600 professionals.

In New Zealand Calibre Consulting’s Executive General Manager Mark Campbell heads up a team of 130 spread across eight offices.

“Our team is firmly focussed on New Zealand first, but having our colleagues in Australia and Singapore means we have the resource and access to leading edge development from throughout the whole of the business,” Mr Campbell says.

A former Royal Navy helicopter pilot who has an engineering degree and an MBA, Mr Campbell was a Lieutenant Commander and the chief operations officer for a 400 person naval squadron before he was entice back to his engineering roots.

He was national Business Development and HSEQ manager for Brown Consulting in Australia before being seconded to New Zealand after Brown’s parent, Calibre Group, bought the former Spiire from Downer EDI earlier this year. ASX listed Calibre Group reported revenue of A$709 million for the year ended June 30, 2014, with net profit after tax (NPAT) of A$24.4 million.

“The New Zealand business has a fantastic history, starting as Duffill Watts & King more than 65 years ago,” Mr Campbell says. “These days we have also developed some niche areas of expertise too, such as biological process design. Our waste technology, for example, has helped expand the lifespan of some New Zealand waste water plants, meaning some local government councils have been able to stretch their capital expenditure programmes.”

Calibre Consulting’s New Zealand team also contributes to international aid. Pamela Arconado, an engineer from the Auckland office, has just left for a three month stint working with Red Cross in the Philippines. She will be a technical adviser and project manager tracking NZ Aid funding to that country after the destructive Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 and subsequent devastating floods.