OUR COMMITTEE

Joy Chen (Chair)

Joy immigrated to New Zealand in 2000 as a water engineer with a hydrology degree and got her master’s degree in geography information system (GIS) at University of Auckland 2004. Currently, Joy is a digital solution lead in a large international engineering consulting firm-GHD and leads a location intelligence team in NZ to deliver digital solutions on various engineering projects. Joy has been with SIGIE since 2015, she is also volunteering for New Zealand Asia Association and NZ Esri User Group currently. Joy is very passionate about helping immigrant engineers to settle in NZ through shared experiences on culture challenges with the SIGIE family together.

Steven Wang (Vice Chair)

Steven is a Engineering NZ chartered member in design, design management and construction monitoring of building services. He has a double degree in Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering (First Class Honours) and Bachelor of Business majoring in Marketing. Having immigrated to NZ at a young age, Steven would love to share his experience, insight and local knowledge to help new immigrant engineers gain employment. When not at work, Steven is a keen traveller having been to over 40 countries.

Ellie Huang (Secretary)

Ellie is a project manager and engineer with 4 years working experience in both public and private sectors in New Zealand civil construction industry. Prior to work, she graduated from the University of Auckland with a degree in Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (First Class Honours). Ellie immigrated to New Zealand at a young age back in 2010 and joined SIGIE in 2021. By sharing her local knowledge and experience, she would love to pass on the support and kindness she received to other immigrant engineers and help them settle in New Zealand.

Vincent Selvakumar (Treasurer)

Vincent is a Mechanical engineer with 8 years of overall experience in India And New Zealand. He is currently working as a Passive Fire Engineer in a Fire engineering consultancy based in Auckland. When not working, he is actively involved in sports & volunteering. He has been a part of the SIGIE committee since 2019, he is passionate about helping SIGIE members gain employment and widen their professional network.

Jeremy Wang (Secretary Assistant)

Jeremy came to New Zealand in late 2019 and finished his master’s degree in medical devices and technologies at the University of Auckland. Currently, he works at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare as an operation Engineer. On top of that, Jeremy also has research experience for various biomaterials at Northern Arizona University in his senior year of his bachelor's study. As a young immigrant, Jeremy left home when he was 18, and after all these years, he feels the same struggling just as other immigrant engineers who have felt the same way. Joining SIGIE is a commitment Jeremy has made, to offer a bit of himself to this community, and support more young engineers.

Remi Cruz

Remi is the Construction Delivery Manager at Auckland Transport, where he leads several teams delivering transportation infrastructure projects in the Auckland region. He has over 40 years’ professional experience gained while working in the Philippines, Brunei, New Zealand, and Australia. In addition to his multiple engineering degrees from universities in Manila and Auckland, Remi is registered as Chartered Member, Chartered Professional Engineer, International Professional Engineer and APEC Engineer. Since migrating to New Zealand in 2003, he has volunteered for Migrant Action Trust, Manukau Institute of Technology, and Engineering NZ and is passionate about developing and mentoring young professionals in the industry.

Zaid Essa

Professional Project/Programme Manager and Engineer and people leader, with more than 24 years of experience in investigation, designing, consenting, land acquisition and construction, and in working with various major capital and infrastructure projects. I’ve been volunteering with SIGIE and supporting international Engineers in New Zealand since 2009 for which I became one of the first two Lifetime members with the group. Currently I am the Principal Project Manager and Team Leader for Auckland’s Project Delivery (Transportations-Major Projects) team for WSP

Yana Averianova

Yana is a qualified mechanical and civil engineer. Yana immigrated to New Zealand in 2010 and has been with SIGIE since 2017. She is very passionate about helping others to settle in NZ via sharing her experience and local knowledge.

Ken Hu

Ken is an Associate Structural Director and Team lead with Beca, with 16 years of experience in Structural Engineering, Project Management, R&D, as well as Client Relationship Management. Ken has led a few landmark building projects across New Zealand and overseas before and after he came to Aotearoa.
As an immigrant engineer, Ken fully understood the challenges and opportunities of doing professional work in a new country. This is one of the main reasons he volunteered for SIGIE and would love to give back the support he received to the growing group of immigrant talents in New Zealand.

Nitin Sahare

A professional engineer with more than 15 years of experience, including more than ten years in large and complex civil infrastructure projects in New Zealand and worked on some of the most significant and most complex projects in the country over the past ten years. After pursuing his master’s in construction management from AUT university in 2010, Nitin started working as a contract engineer for a roading project. He later continued working with the construction companies in New Zealand in various roles and is currently working as a senior project manager with Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency. He loves practising yoga and has been practising since 1994.