Matt Lory

Matt is the person you want asking the hard questions before a transport project starts, not once it is underway. The front end is where he does his defining work. "I particularly enjoy the front end of a project. What's the right strategy and the right procurement approach? Who are the right people for the job? Where are the big-ticket risks? What are the small things that could catch us out?" Getting those calls right, he holds, is what decides whether a complex project is delivered well.

Matt is known for his judgment, "There is never one simple direct answer. It's about understanding how the factors affect each other; we operate in varying areas of grey, there is no black-and-white." Transport and civil infrastructure is his ground, often in live environments where the airport keeps operating, the ferries keep running or the road stays open while the work goes on around them. It is interface-heavy work, with many moving parts and many parties, where aligning people behind a single result counts as much as any technical call.

Much of his value to a client is as an impartial hand, the one trusted to set a project up properly and hold it to account through delivery rather than take a side. He trained as a civil engineer and has spent more than a decade at RCP. As a director he also takes the longer view of where the industry needs to head. "At RCP we are adapting to the environmental cost of construction, changing people's dispositions and behaviours to reduce carbon output. I see a need for our profession to change its approach to development, using our wider skills to help regenerate communities throughout New Zealand."