People Spotlight Series: Meet George Mavroyeni
Our People Spotlight series gives you an inside look at our technical experts around the world. This week, we are highlighting a technical director, independent verifier from our Global Transportation Business Line and providing an insight into their inspiration and work.
George Mavroyeni joined AECOM as a Technical Director in 2016 and has been leading the Independent Assurance Services business in ANZ. He is responsible for pursuing and winning contracts with major clients to review designs and construction of major projects to assess compliance with clients’ project scope and technical requirements. Independent Assurance Services provide a significant contribution to ensuring the quality of work meets the clients’ requirements.
Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry
Transport is such an important part of our daily lives and it is wonderful to be part of teams and organisations that make significant contributions to improving the way we travel — more efficiently and safely. When I graduated as a civil engineer, there was a huge program of major road developments happening in Victoria, Australia. I just had to be part of this exciting development work. So, I joined VicRoads, the organisation responsible for the arterial road network in Victoria. I had a long career in VicRoads because of the development opportunities in diverse areas of work, the constant exciting challenges I was provided, the wonderful training programs and teams I was part of, and opportunities to train and develop people.
My main passion was to lead major project teams to develop and deliver some of the most complex and challenging road projects, which I achieved. In the latter part of my career, I became general manager for road safety at VicRoads. In this role, I was responsible for developing and implementing Victoria’s road safety strategy and action plans. It was a fantastic and rewarding experience to be able to put actions in place, which resulted in saving many lives and significantly reducing serious injuries. I love working with people in our industry and what we do to create a better world.
What is your favorite AECOM project that you’ve worked on and why?
The Melbourne Metro Tunnels and Stations is a AU$10.9-billion project that will transform Melbourne’s rail network into an international style metro system. AECOM was awarded a contract to independently review the design and construction of this mega complex project involving five large underground stations and 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) of twin tunnels. I was the bid leader for this project and it was exciting to draw on our global capability in major rail projects in the process of preparing our tender.
After winning this contract, I took on the role of project director and guided our team in meeting our independent review obligations. We have several major sub-contractors providing various review services and we have used AECOM’s global experts to provide advice on some significant technical challenges in the design and construction of large underground stations. The project is approaching the half-way mark and it is pleasing that we have not had any safety incidents involving the independent review team. The client places significant value on AECOM’s assessment of compliance with technical requirements and acknowledges the issues that the team raises. We are making a significant contribution to the delivery of this iconic project and it is great to be part of it. The project has provided a wonderful opportunity to train and develop many of our employees including several graduates.
Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community.
At the heart of each major road project I led, were the positive community benefits that were delivered.
For the broader community, this was increased traffic capacity, reduced travel times, a better driving experience and connected road network, and safer travel.
For the local community, the benefits included a shared path facility for pedestrians and cyclists, aesthetic architectural noise walls, as well as effectively reducing traffic noise, improved access to the arterial road network, and enhancements to local parks and playgrounds.
One of my innovations, many years ago, was to initiate nighttime asphalt at one of the busiest intersections in Melbourne. We did this successfully and it paved the way for more nighttime roadworks in Melbourne, which is now a business-as-usual approach. This has resulted in less traffic disruption than closing major roads during the day, and less disruption to local businesses and residents.
Share a piece of career advice
Go with your passion. You will likely dream about your passion on the way to achieving big goals, but make sure you bring others along with you. I strongly support our corporate messages about the importance of embracing diversity and inclusiveness. Involving others with diverse skills, experience and backgrounds will enrich your chances of achieving great things.