3 April 2008

IPENZ appoints President – Bas Walker

IPENZ, Engineers New Zealand have elected Bas Walker as their new 2008 President. He has worked the fields of  energy and chemical engineering for over 40 years.     

Throughout the 1970’s with the DSIR Bas was  part of the Government team that negotiated the Maui gas sales contract.  He became the first Technical Director of the Liquid Fuels Trust Board, this Board made major recommendations to the Government on the extension of the oil refinery, petrochemicals from gas and synthetic petrol manufacture.

In the early 1980’s he was appointed Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Energy with responsibility for energy planning and research and development.  He then became the Secretary of Energy (Chief Executive) in 1986 overseeing the separation of the SOEs Electricorp and Coalcorp from the Ministry.

In 1989 appointed the first Chief Executive of the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) and oversaw the establishment of the new research funding system and the establishment of the Ministry itself. He was then appointed the first Chief Executive of the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA). 

Since leaving ERMA he has operated own consultancy (Aspen Consulting Ltd) currently employed with the Gas Industry Company as a senior advisor.  He has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Cambridge University in the UK in 1970 and a Fellow of IPENZ.

For more information contact:
Andrew Cleland
Chief Executive, IPENZ, Engineers New Zealand.
Mobile: 021 311 879
DDI: 04 474 8935
Prepared by Julie Buchanan, Communications Manager, IPENZ, Engineers NZ, DDI: 04 473 2028