"I have made some great friends and had some fabulous experiences with Beca."
James' fascination for the construction process has been developing since he watched excavators digging up his street as a child. This interest blossomed when he graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Building degree and took on his first job as a site coordinator on a multi-storey office block.
Later, he had the opportunity to work in Europe for eight years as a journalist, exchanging his ability to create physical structures for constructing stories instead.
James returned to the southern hemisphere in 2000 where he took on a role as an assistant project manager for Beca on the Britomart Transport Interchange in Auckland. "It may seem a big step from journalism but as a project manager being able to communicate clearly, listen carefully and distil facts are hugely important," he says.
After the Britomart project, James progressed to managing multi-storey apartments before he was offered the chance to set up a project management business back in his home town in Melbourne. Two years later he took another step, this time into the role of General Manager, Management Services for Beca in Australia.
While this has taken him further from the building sites that caught his attention as a youngster, James says the rewards are still great. Walking into the completed Britomart underground station may give James a buzz, but the challenge of building businesses that can meet or exceed his clients' expectations he finds equally satisfying.