Downer Group – GC Powerlist
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Australia and New Zealand Teams 2017

Downer Group

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Australia and New Zealand Teams 2017

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Downer Group

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Providing engineering and infrastructure management services to a range of public and private sector companies, Downer Group is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and an operating income figure of over $6.5bn AUD in 2016. Heading the legal team – which is composed of 20 lawyers and two support staff – is group general counsel and company secretary Peter Tompkins. He is supported by a plethora of experienced in-house lawyers boasting expert legal skills at a time of the Group undergoing what Tompkins calls ‘unprecedented change’, shifting away from a profile as a purely “contractor” service provider and towards being a leading full scale service provider to customers in many different markets in multiple jurisdictions. Simultaneously adapting to this change in strategy is the Downer legal department, which has made efforts to restructure in order to ‘embed’ lawyers within Downer businesses ‘while maintaining the structural integrity of an independent, centralised function’. Speaking to the results of this new approach, Tompkins claims Downer’s lawyers have increased ‘knowledge sharing and development, professional and personal support, system integration and consistency’ in addition to being able to ‘become a central part of a business and understand what drives the imperatives for that business, gaining broader experience and advancing professional development as part of divisional executive leadership teams and heighten levels of engagement’. Also implementing innovative tools in conjunction with Downer’s project management office, the team assisted in the rollout of “Knowledge Hub” – an interactive online portal containing educational and reference material and a bespoke set of precedent agreements and other documents. Undertaking a comprehensive remit, the team involved in ‘all major bids and negotiations’ including ‘extensive experience in PPPs’ and is currently involved in the design, manufacture and maintenance (over a 30 year period) 78 Passenger Trains to the New South Wales government, 70 Passenger Trains to the Victorian government and the operation and maintenance of the Gold Coast Light Rail network (over a 15 year period) for the Queensland government. In addition to Tompkins, Aileen Tidon, legal group coordinator and administrative assistant is singled out for her ‘very quick development of extensive network of relationships and for being an extraordinary asset to the team’. Kristen Potts is highlighted for ‘dedication to her professional and personal development’ as is senior legal counsel Robert St Clair, who has ‘shown a tremendous commitment to his own professional development to achieve this transition’.

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