Introducing our newest young engineer and future leader in the making, Don Wu. A civil engineer by trade, Don graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Engineering with honours.

His role at McKenzie & Co. amongst other minor tasks like engineering design on land development projects, will be to press the midfield for the company football team.

You could forgive us for thinking he’d answer the question “What attracted you to the McKenzie & Co. team” with responses like “high calibre of ground-breaking projects, or quality colleagues to learn and grow from”. Instead we got “Chris Mellican’s man bun.” (Don’t get us wrong, it’s a great looking man bun.)

Having previously interned at Harrison Grierson before moving into the role of full-time engineer working on commercial and residential subdivisions, he was an obvious hire.

Young leader in the making

Alongside his professional skills and his great sense of humour, it’s Don’s passion for guiding and promoting the younger generation of engineers that sets him apart.

“I want to connect with the younger generation of engineers and provide them with guidance and advice,” says Don.

“I want to ensure newly graduated engineers heading into the workforce for the first time have a good experience integrating into the paid employment.” The match that lit the flame for Don was his time spent as a member of the Young Professionals Committee with his former employers and the Auckland University Engineering Society, where they paid in beer and sausages.  

Don gives this advice to young engineers at the beginning of their careers, “It was pretty scary when I first started liaising directly with clients. I found the best approach was to be honest and not pretend to know things that were out of my depth.”