Marie is an ICT and Security Associate Director with 12 years of experience in New Zealand and overseas. She has worked on several multi-discipline small to large industrial, transport infrastructure, commercial and residential projects within diverse teams. Marie has sound design practices, including the successful delivery of tender documentation and early design packages, early collaboration with stakeholders to ensure technical delivery is appropriate, and ensuring deliverables produced by contractors are technically accurate and in line with the project’s requirements.
Through her involvement in the Building Industry Consulting Service International South Pacific, as a past board member and continuing volunteer, she advocates for training and standard implementation and technical excellence in the ICT industry. She is also a Wired Score Office Development accredited professional.
Marie understands high-tech requirements for efficient, resilient, and highly available network infrastructure and brings experience designing large complex systems in brown and green field environments.
Q. What is your favourite AECOM project that you’ve worked on and why?
A. The best project that I have worked on while at AECOM must be the Mediaworks Headquarters refurbishment. We were lucky to work with a client who wanted a building that really represented their culture, both with the look of the building and also with how it operated.
It needed to be secure from public access but not feel too enclosed to the staff. We had the opportunity to work with the stakeholders and develop a solution that was tailored to their needs.
The integration piece with the broadcasting was particularly interesting as it is an element of communications we rarely get exposed to. We had the opportunity to share our knowledge in ICT and audio-visual designs, all while learning from experts in broadcasting.
Overall, I feel like I was part of a team that delivered an excellent outcome to a client that feels very proud of their environment, and it was a great achievement in my career.
Q. What are the key challenges and opportunities ahead for the industry?
A. The adoption of 5G technology will enable new applications and technologies to be rolled out, thanks to its lower latency, faster, and more reliable connections. This presents a fantastic opportunity for the adoption of technologies such as the Internet of Things, driverless cars, and augmented reality, but it also increases the requirement for network security. As society relies increasingly on technology, Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the impact of cybersecurity breaches become more critical. It will be an ongoing challenge for cyber security professionals to anticipate emerging threats and protect their assets while companies embrace the advancements that these innovative technologies offer.
Q. What career advice would you like to share?
A. There are two key pieces of advice that I would like to share. The first one is to stretch yourself. Say yes to an opportunity that might seem challenging. Over the past five years working on the City Rail Link project, I have been presented with opportunities that might have been challenging at the time, but taking them on has grown me as a professional.