Building a successful career

‍

‍

For Cam, working at Ernslaw is a return to his roots. He grew up just over the hill from Ernslaw’s Tapanui office, on a sheep and beef farm.

‍

Cam joined Ernslaw three years ago as Harvest Planner which gradually morphed into his current role as he took on more responsibility. His previous experience in engineering and construction provided the perfect launch pad into a career in forestry.

‍

After finishing school, Cam became a qualified and licensed builder.  Then, aged 22, he decided to retrain and graduated with a Forestry engineering degree.

‍

In his final year at University of Canterbury he received some good advice from a forestry veteran, who just happened to work at Ernslaw - “get some civil engineering experience under your belt before you come into forestry.”  

‍

After being Contracts Manager with a construction company on both commercial and residential projects, Cam took up an engineering role in the Civil Division of Fulton Hogan.  This saw him work on a wide variety of civil projects including bridges, pump stations, pipelines, fuel stations and capital upgrades at Tiwai Smelter.

‍

“All roads have led to my current role at Ernslaw, my construction background has been hugely beneficial in understanding forestry structures and engineering project management.   Also having been a builder, I have a complete understanding and appreciation of timber and its application in construction.  Now I’m right at the very beginning of the supply chain where we are growing and producing that timber.”

‍

Cam splits his time between office work, where he carries out desk top exercises before heading into the field to verify his approach. He thoroughly enjoys working among a solid team of professionals who he can rely on.

‍

He plans engineering and harvesting operations for the South Island which is a diverse role and includes aspects from design for capital roading through to strategic harvest planning. He describes the challenge as “ensuring delivery of optimal roading and harvesting sequences with the goal to maximise revenue while meeting our all-important company objectives.  

‍

“I’ve always had an interest in forestry.  I worked for Ernslaw in the summer holidays when I was a final year engineering student and wrote a dissertation on sediment mitigation from cutovers in forestry.

‍

“I really enjoy the engineering and technology behind what we’re doing and the continuing innovation in our operations”

‍

Cam is now working towards his CPEng (Chartered Professional Engineer), a quality mark of competence, from Engineering NZ, confirming the engineer is qualified to deal with complex engineering problems requiring expert technical knowledge.  “I plan on nailing it within a year.”

‍