Transpower Announces 2023 STAR Awards Finalists

Transpower today announced the finalists for the 2023 STAR (Safety Thanks and Recognition) Awards.

Presented every two years, these awards provide the opportunity to reflect and recognise the work of people within the electricity transmission industry who ensure health and safety remains at the forefront of their work.

Transpower Chair Dr Keith Turner said the 20 finalists were selected from more than 40 nominations submitted by Transpower staff, service providers, sub-contractors and engineering consultants who work across the transmission sector.

“The nominations illustrate how the sector comes together to ensure a safe environment for everyone working in it, and members of the public” he said.

The judging panel consists of experts from the sector and health and safety leadership.

Joining Dr Keith Turner to select the finalists were Francois Barton, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum and Chair of the STAR Awards selection panel, and Peter Berry, Executive Director for the Electricity Engineers’ Association of NZ.

Mr Berry said the panel was impressed by the high quality of submissions across all award categories.

“The nominations include insights into best practice that can be applied across the entire industry,” he said. “We’re looking forward to recognising the approach our finalists take to health and safety over the coming months.”

Mr Barton noted “The selection of finalists illustrates the diversity of health and safety challenges, and the steps that are taken by people to ensure safety always comes first.

“Congratulations to all nominees and our selected finalists.”

A gala awards ceremony announcing the winners will be held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum on Wednesday 11 October.

The 2023 STAR Awards finalists are:

Frontline Leadership:

• Aaron Maxwell – Downer Ltd
• Evan McKenzie – Venita Ltd

Future of Safety:

• Harry Baker – Omexom Ltd
• Jairao Kadam – Downer Ltd
• Matt Spence – Ventia Ltd
• Seff Curle – Northpower Ltd

Hauora Wellbeing:

• Healthy Minds Programme – Ventia Ltd
• Incident Resilience Programme - WSP Ltd
• What’s My Why Programme - Dialog Fitzroy Ltd

Safety Innovation / Safety by Design:

• Blast Deck - Altitude Resurfacing Ltd
• Enabling a safe and effective solution for the replacement of urban conductors- Groundline Ltd & Transpower Ltd
• Ladder anchor system with fall restraint – Northpower Ltd
• Tower to pole replacements – Lumen Ltd
• Towing frame for controlled transformer movement – Omexom Ltd

Team Safety:

• A united team in a time of crisis – Restoring power to the Hawke’s Bay safely – Downer Ltd, Omexom Ltd & Ventia Ltd*
• Protection and automation improvements – Venita Ltd, Omexom Ltd, Downer Ltd, Northpower Ltd and Transpower Ltd
• The safety journey of Tower Painting – Cake Commercial Ltd, Altitude Resurfacing Ltd, Dialog Fitzroy Ltd, SRG Global Asset Services NZ Ltd & Northpower Ltd

Thought Leadership:

• Craig Moore – Ventia Ltd
• Gene Peters – Omexom Ltd
• Phillip Armstrong – Omexom Ltd

*This was originally two separate nominations by Venita Ltd, and Downer Ltd & Omexom Ltd. Our judges wanted to recognise how our industry came together and collaborated to restore power to the Hawke’s Bay region following Cyclone Gabrielle, so they have considered the nominations as a shared effort.
 

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