Australasia’s peak body representing public works infrastructure management has announced a change of baton, with industry guru Peter Way PSM stepping down from his role as National Asset Management Strategy (NAMS) Chair after 12 years.
IPWEA Australasia has appointed Murray Erbs as the new Chair of the Institute’s flagship NAMS portfolio. The announcement was made at the IPWEA Australasia NAMS Council meeting, held on Saturday in Melbourne.
IPWEA CEO Robert Fuller said: “After conducting an extensive search and receiving strong candidate nominations from both Australia and New Zealand, it was decided that Murray brought the right balance of expert knowledge across all aspects of asset management, interstate experience across two IPWEA Divisions and Boards, management of engineering departments and executive management spanning the full range of scale, having overseen Council services to communities from smaller rural regions to major metropolitan areas.”
“We are thrilled that Murray has agreed to join the IPWEA Australasia team and has accepted management and Chair of the NAMS portfolio.”
Mr Erbs holds an engineering degree from Swinburne Institute of Technology and post-degree qualifications from Deakin University and University of Southern Queensland.
He has worked at senior engineering and management roles in Redlands City Council, Moree Plains Shire Council, Severn Shire Council, Warren Shire Council, Shire of Heywood, and in the private sector with Rocla Concrete Pipes Ltd and The Monier Rocla Concrete Division.
Peter Way, who holds the Public Service Medal (PSM), will relinquish his day-to-day role as IPWEA Director Asset Management on 30 June 2017. He will remain with IPWEA to continue as its representative on the Standards Australia Mirror Committee for the ISO AM Standards and as International Chair of the Finance Working Group for ISO TC 251, as well as providing strategic direction and advice to IPWEA and the NAMS Council.
Murray Erbs said he was honoured to be given the chance to lead IPWEA’s asset management into the next era, where challenges of environment, cost containment and higher expectations from the community would be key priorities.
“There is no doubt that many within the local government sector still struggle with perfecting the combined challenges of long term financial planning, balancing community requirements, and ensuring that operational and financial asset management is integrated into deliverables by local government. NAMS is the industry recognised and endorsed system to help local government and private sector asset managers improve their decision making, while at the same time building internal expertise and capacity,” Mr Erbs said.
Mr Erbs’ appointment is not the only changing of the guard for NAMS. John Howard – who has been the NAMS Project Manager and principle author of many of IPWEA’s industry benchmark Practice Notes – will also be stepping down.
Mr Fuller said: “John Howard, Peter Way and John Comrie, together with former IPWEA CEO of 15 years, Chris Champion, are the intellectual giants of the industry who have established IPWEA’s status as the peak body leading public infrastructure asset management across Australia and New Zealand. Fortunately, we are retaining this intellectual powerhouse within IPWEA, while transitioning new incumbents into these very big shoes.”
Steve Verity, a senior asset manager and national trainer of NAMS and NAMS.PLUS systems from JRA (a TechnologyOne company) is succeeding Mr Howard, having taken over the Project Manager role for NAMS. Mr Howard will continue to provide his experience and quality assurance for all future IPWEA publications.
The NAMS Consultants’ Roundtable, which advises the NAMS Council, consists of the leading private sector consultancy firms that work in partnership with local government, to ensure that the work of NAMS is finely tuned to the future needs of the industry. This delivers a seamless alignment between private and public sector management of Australia and New Zealand’s public infrastructure. The NAMS Consultants’ Roundtable and the NAMS Council met last week in Melbourne to progress the pipeline of key AM work of NAMS and IPWEA for 2017-18.
IPWEA produces world best practice documentation, training and leadership of asset management for all three tiers of government, utilities and private sector.
Images: 1: Peter Way, outgoing IPWEA Director Asset Management2: Murray Erbs3: John Howard4: Steve Verity