Our People

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Our consultants are our most valued resource.

We offer intrinsically more than many other project services providers, engineering practices and law firms. Our people started their careers by qualifying in a range of professions and technical disciplines and have since gained extensive practical knowledge and experience to become experts in their areas of practice.

We prioritise spending time and investing in our people’s ongoing training, education, and providing them broad practical experience. This allows us to afford your business with the most well-resourced, knowledgeable and talented people to deliver services in our key industry sectors.

Neuplan is the product of the strength, capabilities and diversity of our consultants.

How our people are qualified.

Neuplan offers a range of professional consultants working across all levels with extensive experience in the delivery of all types of construction, mining and resources projects. Our personnel are primarily qualified at tertiary level in:

Engineering
Law
Project and construction management
Quantity surveying

Many have extended qualifications or relevant experience in complementary disciplines, such as electrical, architecture, health and environment, safety, applied science, human resources, and have refined exceptional programming skills.

A selection of our senior staff.

Czarek Czajka

Managing Director – Legal & Commercial

Czarek (pronounced ‘Cha-reck’) is a qualified lawyer with 20 years of experience in dealing with complex contractual and commercial issues, having acted for many years as a private practice lawyer and then later becoming an in-house commercial manager and legal counsel for various leading contractors and principals operating in Australia and abroad.

Czarek is well regarded for his thorough understanding of the commercial and practical challenges faced by parties operating in the construction industry.

Sean McEvoy

Director – Project Services

For over 20 years Sean has worked within construction, mining, oil & gas, resources and infrastructure (including marine). Sean is highly respected for his project management and cost control skills throughout each phase of the project life cycle, having held key management positions with top tier contractors and client-side organisations throughout his career.

Sean’s experience extends to both contractor and client-side project management, including as operations and project manager, deputy project manager, bid manager, quality assurance manager, estimator and quantity surveyor.

Chad Botha

Director - Project Development & Delivery

Chad is a project development and delivery specialist with 25 years of experience in assessment and delivery of mineral resource projects, both at a project and business level. As a qualified mechanical engineer, he has managed resource projects in Australia, Asia and Africa, in various stages of development, from pre-feasibility to commissioning. This experience has included multiple commodities and a broad range of delivery models.

Chad is well regarded for his commercial understanding and strategic approach – being highly experienced in end to end project management, contract negotiation, design, project delivery strategies and execution planning.

David Lamont

Associate Director - Project Controls & Planning

David is a highly experienced construction project management services specialist. With qualifications including a Master of Science in Project Management, David has invested many years at Neuplan developing his profile within the mining, government, defence, and oil & gas sectors. In 2020, we integrated David into our leadership team as Associate Director.

David offers the full spectrum of commercial management, contract administration and complex project planning services. Strategic and practical, David is well versed in cost estimation, tender compilation, project planning and defects management. He also has a special interest (and reputable profile) in claims preparation and project delay analysis, being highly competent in P6 Primavera, MS Project and Expert Estimation software.

Julie Panotidis

Associate Director - Workplace Legal & HR Advisory

A practising workplace legal and HR advisor, Julie is a highly experienced human resources consultant and manager. With a professional services career spanning more than 20 years, Julie's diverse role with Neuplan covers human resources and talent management, legal workplace and employee relations, recruitment, and general business development advice. Joining Neuplan in 2019, and becoming an Associate Director in 2023, Julie oversees our external Workplace Legal & HR Advisory Services.

With well-established skills and experience gained as a Lawyer, HR Business Partner and Legal Recruitment Manager (within private practice and as part of a highly regarded global recruitment services provider), Julie has a special interest and passion for supporting small, medium-sized and growing organisations to address their ongoing HR and Legal strategic business needs, in a constantly evolving national workplace landscape.

Darren Tull

Associate Director - Project Development & Delivery

A qualified mechanical engineer, Darren is a senior project manager and project delivery specialist. Before obtaining his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (with Honours), Darren's practical experience as an aeronautical engineer established his keen interest in higher level mechanics and its practical application. With a focus on mining and resources, Darren's mineral processing and plant construction experience covers diverse commodities such as nickel, lead, zinc, gold, iron ore, rare earths, lithium hydroxide and onshore gas. He has exceptional design, feasibility, construction and commissioning skills, which he delivers in a logical and practical manner.

Since qualifying in 2007, Darren progressed from business improvement and plant reliability roles through to senior project engineering and project management , including positions as Superintendent, Engineering Manager and Project Manager. We consider it the unique blend of his technical, contract and commercial management skills, backed by his approachable demeanour, which enables Darren to effectively oversee and implement complex project execution strategies.

Louis Eybers

Managing Associate

A qualified metallurgical engineer, Louis has over 20 years of experience managing and overseeing diverse national and overseas minerals processing projects and operations; Louis' early roles including Senior Plant Metallurgist, Plant Superintendent, and General Manager, working across South African and US-based projects for a large multi-national minerals recovery company. Relocating to Australia in 2014, Louis consults on major Australian (EPCM and PCM) projects as Project Manager and Feasibility Study Manager, in relation to commodities such as lithium, rare earths, bauxite, vanadium, iron ore, nickel, potash, coal, and manganese.

Motivated and diligent, Louis holds an MBA (UK) and is PMP certified. He enjoys establishing strong client relationships, and uses effective and direct communication to confidently analyse project prospects and enable the delivery of excellent project outcomes.

Anton Pienaar

Managing Associate

Originally working in South Africa as a professional quantity surveyor, Anton transferred his skills to the Australian market with professional ease. His background in commercial, residential and government PQS matters aided him in developing as a senior cost management and quantity surveying consultant, working in WA on large scale projects and high-profile commercial construction projects, and more recently in the energy and resources sectors.

Anton is diversely skilled in our service capabilities of contract administration and commercial management, procurement, tendering, progress claims, variations claims assessment and delay claims. This is further to his formative specialties of cost planning, estimating, value engineering, design cost advice and cost control, meaning Anton is particularly skilled with measurement and estimating software such as CostX, Cubit and Buildsoft Global Estimating.

Emma Seaton

Managing Associate

A highly experienced and knowledgeable project planning specialist, Emma has an enthusiasm for data analytics and visualisation within execution and delivery of engineering design and construction projects. She has worked client and contractor-side for over 20 years, gaining end-to-end project life cycle planning and project controls experience on mass transit, infrastructure, industrial and mining projects. As lead planner utilising P6 (including the application of Cloud instances), Emma has produced bid and delivery planning schedules on a range of high-profile WA based projects.

An ‘Expert’ Oracle Primavera P6 and ‘Professional’ MS Project user, Emma’s work has included projects in: railway signalling, telecommunications, civils, track, SMP, E&I, mining, water treatment plants, solar plants and power stations. She is particularly well regarded for her ability to manage complex integrated and multi-disciplined schedules, and their proper interface with time, resources and cost data.

Nasser Tawasil

Managing Associate

A specialist planner with over 15 years of construction, mining and resources experience, Nass has worked with a cross-section of WA-based clients on private enterprise and government construction projects. Having spent his formative years planning the fabrication and delivery of high quality structural and mechanical steelwork, Nass later transitioned into estimating and planning complex infrastructure and earthworks projects, reinforcing his understanding of construction methodology. This, coupled with ‘boots on the ground’ experience, has ensured he is familiar with the idiosyncrasies of project delivery and that he is able to effectively and practically guide clients on best practice solutions.

Nass is passionate about forensic delay and data analysis, and he is well placed to develop robust project control systems. As an ‘Expert’ level user of planning software such as MS Project, Primavera P6, MS Excel, and Asta Power Project, Nass is also dedicated to keeping up-to-date with key industry developments. He has a thorough understanding of scope, contractual milestones, key procurement items and risk, and is highly proficient in assessing the project impact of schedule changes, variations, and delays.

Robert van Erp

Managing Associate

A versatile commercial manager and in-house lawyer, Rob has contracts specialist and legal skills across energy and resources, corporate and commercial law, intellectual property and technology. Having established core commercial and corporate law knowledge within private practice, Rob has since gained over 15 years of specialist experience through various commercial & contract management, legal counsel and compliance roles, dealing with diverse commodities such as iron ore and lithium.

Possessing project and operational experience extending to construction, projects and mining, Rob provides critical industry services including in procurement, contract drafting and negotiation, contract administration, claims management, and corporate governance.

Donovan Wong

Managing Associate

Donovan is a highly qualified mechanical engineer and Neuplan project manager, with extensive experience managing contractors and clients in large Mining Construction, Drilling and Exploration projects. Since obtaining a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Hons) from Curtin University, Donovan has for over 10 years worked as a senior project engineer, technical consultant and business developer. His foundations in mechanical engineering design and years as a field engineer have fostered an added keen interest in quality assurance and quality control.

With a blend of domestic and international experience, Donovan has coordinated and worked in diverse teams across the resource and energy sectors, including iron ore, Potash, oil and gas. Donovan is well able to blend his technical background with leadership skills and business acumen, providing thoroughly designed, budget conscious, well planned and strategic project execution.

Darek Grenda

Senior Consultant

A Neuplan Senior Consultant, Darek specialises in civil project engineering and has significant experience spanning site-based construction in mining and public infrastructure to a civil design office environment. Having originally established himself in civil design and drafting, Darek holds a Bachelor of Science (Engineering Science) and a Master of Professional Engineering (Civil).

This blend of highly sought after technical skills has seen Darek provide: project delivery and engineering services on tier 1 iron ore projects (overseeing the construction of the civil and earthworks scopes); complex mine-site infrastructure and road design concepts to Main Roads WA standards; materials take-offs and volume computations (for bills of quantities and tendering purposes) on behalf of civil contractors; and 3D modelling including roadwork and railway alignment, earthworks pads including ROM pads and water retaining structures, surface run-off catchments and drainage infrastructure.

Accordingly, Darek is now well versed in computer-aided design and the proper application of modelling software, such as Microstation, Power Inroads, AutoCAD, 12D, Revit, and Abaqus.

Andrew McCandless

Senior Consultant

A Neuplan senior consultant, Andrew is an experienced package manager and project engineer in mining and marine engineering. Having obtained his Mechanical Engineering degree from UWA (with Honours), Andrew’s hands-on experience as a maritime mechanical design/commissioning/operational engineer has been formative in establishing a technical and practical approach to project management. He has worked as a senior package engineer on WA-based major mining and major capital project teams, in relation to the construction of processing plants and materials handling, performing contract management, subcontractor management, electrical and design engineering.

Andy is particularly interested in end to end project development, implementing industry innovation, safety and sustainable development concepts across large mining and resources projects. Andy has a broad skillset that includes CAD design and relay logic, diagnosis of electrical and mechanical failure, noise and vibration analysis and condition monitoring.

Ciaran McKaigue

Senior Consultant

Having worked on a diverse range of construction projects within the UK, Ireland and Australia, Ciaran is a very well-rounded and highly qualified quantity surveyor. Specialising in contract, claims and project management (including cost planning and risk management), Ciaran is an enthusiastic and driven Senior Consultant. He is extensively experienced in: procurement and pre-contracts management; contracts administration; project delivery; assessing and managing progress claims, variations and extension of time claims; cost planning; estimating; and he is able to produce precise cost management and financial reports.

Ciaran consults to a diverse range of private and public clients in industries ranging from civil engineering to commercial, fit-out, residential and retail. His experience has seen him further gain a significant appreciation of accurate programming, properly implemented safety management systems and value engineering.

Harley Miller

Senior Consultant

A tertiary qualified mechanical engineer (with Honours) and a highly skilled senior project engineer, Harley has worked for over ten years on behalf of leading mining and resource companies based in WA & the NT, specialising in construction, maintenance and industrial solutions. Performing (site and offsite) roles, Harley has overseen the implementation of civil, SMP and E&I construction packages, engineering & shop detailing packages, fabrication packages, and major equipment procurement packages. His experience is teamed with a diverse technical understanding and commercial awareness, being particularly experienced in: preparing scopes of work, vendor equipment procurement, cost control, contractor management (SMP and electrical), project scheduling, as well overseeing quality control/assurance and project commissioning.

Harley has a keen eye for detail. As part of ensuring efficient project design, commissioning and delivery, he regularly utilises computer aided design (through the use of AutoCAD & Autodesk Inventor), and project scheduling and resourcing software such as MS Project.

Aldi Prinsloo

Senior Consultant

With more than 15 years of experience specialising in commercial management, contract administration, cost reporting and quantum claims, Aldi is a highly experienced quantity surveyor, contracts specialist and claims manager. A Chartered member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Aldi initially qualified with a Bachelor of Science in Quantity Surveying (Hons) in South Africa. Her cumulative South African and Australian experience has included time spent supporting clients such as tier 1 construction companies, mining producers, property developers and large industrial clients.

Aldi’s quantum dispute resolution and cost management work has given her the opportunity to advise on projects and associated claims of varying size and complexity in respect of WA based projects in construction (roads, rail and airports), mining & resources. Her diligent approach to her work is bolstered by her in-depth contractual understanding.

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With a number of further highly qualified full-time and casual consultants comprising commercial managers, engineers, lawyers, and quantity surveyors, we have the capacity to meet your organisational needs.

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