Sulo Shanmuganathan, Technical Director, Holmes Consulting LP, New Zealand.

Why do you do what you do and do you enjoy it?

As a Technical Director at Holmes, I do many things ranging from meeting with our customers and understanding their priorities for solving infrastructure challenges, to helping colleagues develop technical solutions for some of these challenging infrastructure problems.

In between the two, I do a lot of tasks to deliver our projects effectively and efficiently.

What I do might be a small contribution towards improving our living standards and enhancing the infrastructure that would serve for present and future generations.

Of course, I enjoy every single bit of my work otherwise I would not be doing what I do for the last 30 years. When I began my career in engineering the big and challenging projects lured me. As I grew older and became a bit wiser, I realised that even a small contribution has a huge impact collectively.

I started to appreciate the human values and team dynamics to achieve the best for the project and ultimately for communities to which the infrastructure serves. The job I do now is more about how we can work collectively with other disciplines and professionals to bring about enhancements to our existing infrastructure and improving living standards.

Greatest challenges?

Personally, I like to convert my challenges into great opportunities for learning and growth. I was born in Sri Lanka and spent the first 25 years on the beautiful island of the Indian Ocean. So, when I first went to “Bonnie” Scotland, the biggest challenge was the communications with the Scots, who have big hearts, warmth, and great hospitality.

It did not take long to settle down and learn Scottish (I mean English). Jokes aside, living in a foreign country can be a challenge as well as a blessed opportunity to learn new skills.

Another personal challenge that I had to deal with was going out to construction sites especially early on in my career and articulating my views to get buy-in from the experienced workers on site.

I had this perception that people (especially crew on site) would ridicule my thoughts and send me back in tears – at least that was what played in my mind constantly, until I had a proper stint as a site engineer for Britomart Underground Station, where we (site staff and design team) worked collaboratively and respected each other’s ideas.

I think that developing the self-belief and working towards greater-good lifted the lid of my fear of failure and other self-created obstacles.

Most exciting project worked on?

The projects that I got to work on, in the early part of my career, such as The Sydney Olympic Stadium and Britomart Underground Station really stretched my engineering skills. They were such cool projects providing me with unlimited opportunities to expand my knowledge and experience.

Later in my career, I saw the value that each of us brought to the team and the way to bring out the best in every one of us. A good example is the rejuvenation of Makatote Rail viaduct, which took almost 6 years to complete from first we got involved.

It was one of the most exciting projects to work on and work along with some of the talented team members.

Where did you study?

I did my first degree in engineering at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. Followed by a Masters in Structural Engineering at the University of Dundee, Scotland with a scholarship from the Association for Commonwealth Universities (ACU).

Subsequently, a Doctor of Philosophy from the Nottingham Trent University, England for the research on optimisation of CUBIC space frame structures.

First work experience

My first job was a teaching assistant at the university from where I graduated in Sri Lanka. I was helping undergraduates with tutorials and lab tests. It was interesting but I wanted to learn more to become a lecturer. That propelled me to pursue higher studies and travel overseas.

Do you recommend this profession for young women?

A big FAT YES. Women have a greater role to play in engineering our future. It is true that we have lacked women in science and engineering fields due to our lifestyle choices.

For society to evolve and move forward, engineering requires a greater proportion of women taking significant roles.

As we know, engineering in general has evolved over a few centuries now. We are more cognisant of the growing population and the availability of the limited resources.

Engineering is more focused on preserving and restoring the planet than simply using the available resources. I think engineering is now more attractive for women than ever before for right reasons.

Favourite Book?

While I have a list of books that are my favourite, these two have been at the top of the list:

• The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

Greatest inspiration?

Acts of kindness, compassion, and unconditional love – all these inspire me beyond words can describe. I had a wonderful experience of trekking at high-altitude last year (with great difficulty, of course) in Tibet, where strangers (local Tibetan people) stopped to offer their oxygen canisters to those (foreigners) that could not acclimatise easily.

Often, we see these acts of kindness in our daily lives, if we take a moment or two to slow down and watch around us.  The virtues of humanity are the greatest inspiration for me.

Favourite quote?

As Mahatma Gandhi pointed out, we must be the change that we like to see around us. I always remember this quote when I get frustrated or become impatient and desire for changes around me.

“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Gandhi¹

How do you relax after a long day?

Having worked over 30 years, I have learnt to organise my days better so that I do not have long days at a stretch. I do not find much joy by being busy or running from one meeting to another – sometimes it is unavoidable though.

I have chosen my work such that I thoroughly enjoy all of it and even a long day does not seem to bother me too much.

If everything I said above did not work then I take refuge in my meditation practice to bring the clarity that I desire.

 

Reference

1. 1964, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume XII, April 1913 to December 1914, Chapter: General Knowledge About Health XXXII: Accidents Snake-Bite, (From Gujarati, Indian Opinion, 9-8-1913), Start Page 156, Quote Page 158, The Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi at gandhiheritageportal.org)