David Smirk

David is a dairy industry specialist who manages the whole lifecycle of the project from concept and design to completion and hand-over. His skill is getting the best out of people to get the best outcome for the client – a project that meets their requirements on time and under budget.

David’s leadership style combines technical and commercial aspects of engineering projects. For him, project management is about relationships and he believes that successfully dealing with difficulties along the way determines the outcome. He wants high satisfaction at the end of the job for the client, the contractors and for Babbage – he says the aim is to deliver long-term relationships as well as a good result.

David completed his degree at the University of Auckland in 1992 and his Post Graduate Diploma in Dairy Science and Technology at Massey University four years later. He worked in Ireland and Britain between 1998 and 2007. His work has included the detailed design for a geothermal steam field at Olkaria in Kenya, using a design team based in four countries, putting a premium on good communication. More recent years he has delivered a series of projects for Synlait Milk Products continuing a long-standing relationship formed from the start of Synlait’s formation.