Speaking her mind and embracing challenge has rewarded quantity surveyor Raine Selles with a career she loves and a chance to make a difference for women in the construction industry both here and abroad.

She arrived in this country with New Zealand-born partner Mark and their four young daughters for a month’s stay two years ago, on February 11, the day of the quake. The couple got married – second time around for Raine – in a rose garden in Hawke’s Bay, and returned for good in April 2012 when she accepted a job offer from Construction Cost Consultants in Auckland.

Raine, who is also a trainer and lecturer on dispute avoidance and collaborative working, quickly immersed herself in the work. “I like to get involved with a project right at the start so I can make a difference. I am a quantity surveyor who wants all projects to start off with an ethos of collaboration.”

Four months after arriving in Auckland, Raine launched the Auckland branch of the National Association for Women in Construction (NAWIC), attracting more than 200 female professionals. And she isn’t stopping there – plans are underway for the imminent launch of the Christchurch branch. Raine says she had a head start, having launched NAWIC in the UK ten years ago.

She says the Auckland branch has a fantastic committee of exceptionally motivated and talented women from all professional backgrounds. There are plans for a big diary of events, both social and educational, a mentoring programme, and a campaign to get employers to invest in people and encourage school leavers to enter the industry.

When she is not working or involving herself with NAWIC, Raine is busy transforming the family’s 1906 bungalow in Oratia. “We have a lifestyle block which has the ugliest house in Auckland on it. The bungalow has Rimu floors, panelled ceilings and lots of other lovely features but, unfortunately, someone decided to cover the Kauri weather boards with disgusting “bricklite” cladding in the 1980s, perch it on top of a block work ground floor plan and install an interesting ensemble of aluminum windows of different colours that don’t even fit the holes.

“On top of that, we have external plumbing and brown painted block work. There is also a very interesting unconsented deck to two elevations that needs to be replaced. So, I have my work cut out.” Raine says she is naturally driven. Friends call her “the machine”. “I am always thinking of ways to change things, things to do, people to see,” she says. Raine’s entry into the construction industry, aged 17, was the result of a coincidental meeting.

“I was working in Kent as a barmaid at 17, saving up to go to a kibbutz with my older brother. Two quantity surveyors came in and we got chatting. They told me I should apply for a secretarial job they had at their company. “I thought, ‘Hell, someone is going to catch on that I’m working in a pub under age’ so I went to the interview and got the job.”

Her new boss, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors fellow John Webster, was not impressed. He told her at the end of the first day she was the most useless secretary he had ever had. “We’ll have to find something you are good at,” says Raine recalling his words. From that day on, she became an apprentice quantity surveyor and John her mentor.

He enrolled her in a part time business course in Hastings, East Sussex and taught her “everything about quantity surveying and contract administration”. While sponsoring her through a distance learning law degree at Holborn School of Law and the University of London, John took Raine with him to site meetings throughout the UK and set her some difficult challenges.

“He made me deliver a lecture on the JCT80 form of contract when I was only 19 to a bunch of contractors that looked ancient at the time but who were probably only my age now. “A year earlier, I remember him telling me I would go far as I ‘didn’t suffer fools gladly’. I don’t remember why he said that, but have often thought about that remark over the years.”

Raine spent 10 years working with John at Ameccon, his company, and helped complete projects in the United Arab Emirates including work for Riyadh Zoological Gardens, the University of Beirut and Mitsui Engineering. During that time she got married but continued to work hard while caring for her eldest daughter, Kirsty. In the late 1980s, when work dried up due to the oil crisis, the focus moved to work in the UK – administering contracts for Land and Property Act receivers, preparing tenders, claims for large subcontractors as well as expert witness work, arbitration and High Court litigation.

Later, the big early 1990s recession meant huge lay-offs at Ameccon, leaving Raine and John the only ones left. Raine says it meant she was given the chance to broaden her experience, with large amounts of work for Land and Property Act surveyors. She and John were taking over projects when contractors or clients went bust, producing schedules of work and drawings, and engaging contractors to complete them.

“I worked closely with a female architect called Angela Beale and we proved to be a great team. Going around with contractors doing snagging lists was particular fun. We always had great rapport, enjoying a couple of pints of Guinness with them after work.” A desire to develop more civil engineering experience finally led Raine to say goodbye to mentor John and she moved to a position at Commercial Management Consultants in Kent, which employed 50 other quantity surveyors.

She was studying for her MSc in construction law and arbitration in the evenings and says it was hard going. No stranger to the “work hard, play hard” ethic, she is unafraid of challenge. Raine designed, developed and project managed six of her own homes in the UK, the last an equestrian centre in a conservation area in Kent, which she ran for several years as a qualified riding instructor, dressage judge and trainer.

And her penchant for speaking her mind resulted in the establishment of NAWIC in the UK, of which Raine went on to set up six branches. NAWIC was formed following her response to a Building Magazine report in 2002 about the skills shortage, which asked readers for their opinions about its cause. “Being the outspoken person that I am, I replied with my views and invited women to join me in establishing an organisation to address it.

“I received some 200 emails in three days supporting the idea and we held a launch party at London’s Centrepoint with several hundred guests and speakers from government and industry. “Women make exceptional engineers, quantity surveyors, project managers and architects because they are natural organisers and have good attention to detail. The industry needs these qualities.”

She believes women have a growing role to play in the industry, and says they can make a real difference. “Go for it,” Raine urges would-be apprentices. “How cool is it to drive past a building and say, ‘I was part of that’?”