1st Choice People

Projects & Experience

Project leadership and tender work across rail, roads, water and civil infrastructure.

Major project experience

Rail & civil · Melbourne

North Western Program Alliance

General Manager, People and Performance
John Holland

  • $2B+ program of level crossing removals and associated civil works
  • Led the People, ER/IR, Systems, and Industry Capability & Inclusion teams
  • HR and IR strategy, social procurement, and recruitment and redeployment across multiple projects
Rail · Regional Victoria

Murray Basin Rail Upgrade

Social Impact Lead
ACCIONA

  • Turned around performance against the project's Aboriginal employment target
  • Recruited Aboriginal staff and set up support to help them stay
  • Worked with subcontractors on social procurement and set up Power BI reporting against KRAs
Rail · Melbourne

Metro Tunnel Early Works

People & Governance Manager
John Holland

  • Led the Human Resources and Quality & Completion teams
  • HR and IR strategy, social procurement and subcontractor IR compliance
  • No time lost to industrial action
Roads · Adelaide

South Road Superway (Urban Superway)

Project Services Manager
John Holland

  • Part of the leadership team brought in to turn the $812M project around
  • $1.2m saved by renegotiating labour hire contracts; $500k recovered through a completion auction
  • No time lost to industrial action
Rail · Victoria · Tender

Regional Rail Link

Human Resources Manager, Strategic Projects
John Holland

  • Negotiated the greenfields agreement covering civil, rail and electrical works
  • Gave evidence at the Fair Work Commission supporting its approval
  • HR, IR and L&D content for government tenders over $200M
Water · Victoria

Sugarloaf Pipeline Alliance

Project HR Manager
John Holland

  • Recruited 180 blue-collar workers in three months, then managed demobilisation
  • Alliance finished five months early and won the 2010 ACE Award
  • No time lost to industrial action
Roads · Melbourne

EastLink

Project Human Resources Manager
Thiess John Holland

  • Australia's largest infrastructure project at the time
  • $900k+ repaid after finding an incorrectly applied labour hire contract
  • Managed the redeployment of 600+ staff during demobilisation
Rail · United Kingdom

Network Rail

Senior Resourcing Manager
Major Projects & Investment Division · London, UK

  • Worked within Network Rail's Major Projects & Investment Division
  • Responsible for workforce planning and resourcing across major rail infrastructure projects
  • Managed resourcing priorities across major projects during the lead-up to the London 2012 Olympics

Recent tenders

TenderContractorRole and scope
Go Places Melbourne – MR5 rail refranchisingRail franchise · MelbourneGo-Ahead Australia & NZSocial Impact Lead
Led the strategy and response for the Social Procurement Commitment Proposal
Water infrastructure tender ($1B+)Water · QueenslandACCIONAManagement Plan Writer
Finalised and integrated the Project Management Plan and management sub-plans for submission
Northern Water Desalination and PipelineWater · South AustraliaACCIONADirector People and Performance
Led the people and performance content for the bid
FCC / Gamuda joint venture tenderInfrastructure · VictoriaFCC Construction AustraliaHuman Resources Director
Strategy and content for the Social Procurement, Fair Jobs Code, IR Management, HR Management and Workforce Development schedules
MR5 Melbourne Tram FranchiseTram franchise · MelbourneKinetic (via ACCIONA)HR & Government Policies Lead
Led all Government Policies schedules, including Social Procurement, Fair Jobs Code, IR Management and Indigenous Engagement & Development plans, and set up letters of intent with key suppliers

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