Beca has appointed Rupert Hodson as regional manager for its northern region, based in its Auckland office. Rupert will partner with leaders across the business to ensure the company’s northern region clients are receiving the best of the firm’s multiple service offerings.

Beca has over 1,100 staff in its Auckland office providing engineering, environmental, project management, design, advisory and community infrastructure services across multiple markets.

Don Lyon, Beca’s chief strategy and operations officer (CSOO), said, “The northern New Zealand market is a hugely important one for us. Rupert will ensure that our Auckland and Northland clients continue to benefit from the breadth and depth of our expertise and services while our business expands in new markets across New Zealand, Australia and Asia.”

Rupert has 17 years of experience in planning and environmental consulting in New Zealand and the UK. He has led and participated in the stakeholder and planning components of a wide variety of multi-disciplinary projects, including site master-planning and precinct planning through to large infrastructure projects.

Alongside his regional manager role, Rupert will continue as business director of the Environments Business Line, which has nearly 50 planning and environmental practitioners based in Auckland.

Rupert said, “This is an incredibly exciting time to take on this role with Beca. Auckland is in the middle of a period of growth and dynamic change with record internal migration, immigration and economic growth. We are also increasingly competing with other major cities across the South Pacific for investment, events and talent. This creates an unprecedented number of challenges and opportunities for the city, while at the same our northern region grapples with wider economic development opportunity and infrastructure challenges. At Beca, we will do our utmost to support and enhance our communities during this period of rapid change.”