Company Announcement - GIBB Engineering’s Structural Engineer, Adéle Lombard received the Investec Award for Young Professional of the Year at the first South African Professional Services Awards hosted at Emperors Palace recently. The event recognised various players excellence in a variety of industries. The inaugural awards ceremony recognised firms within the fields of legal, accounting, finance, management consulting, actuarial science, engineering and the built environment. Lombard, 27, joined GIBB five years ago as a Cum Laude student from Stellenbosch University and has since been involved in heading up various complicated and successful projects both in South Africa and the continent. “I am delighted to have won this prestigious award and have many people within GIBB, especially my mentor Pat Masterson to thank for the guidance and help provided over the past five years,” said an elated Lombard.

“Being given the opportunity to work on some interesting and exciting projects helped fulfil my ambition of becoming a leading structural engineer where my skills and knowledge can help improve the built environment for the millions of people requiring basic services of water, sanitation, transport and energy,” she added.

Her mentor, retired engineer Pat Masterson from GIBB’s Cape Town office said that as soon as Lombard joined the firm, her performance and attitude to work was recognised as exemplary. “She was assigned to testing projects not only in South Africa but further north too, in Botswana and Nigeria, fulfilling a vital role in the Port Harcourt Monorail project underway in the city. Lombard is a worthy winner of this award having been part of a team that won the SAICE Regional Excellence Award in 2012 for the EMS building at the University of the Free State and the winner of the Women in the built environment honoured during the 2nd annual Women in Construction Excellence awards in the Emerging Excellence category 2014,” he said.

He added that her training to date has been varied and comprehensive having been involved in the complicated wind load design for the Sikhuphe Control Tower and Critical Buildings in Swaziland. She was also responsible for designing considerable portions of the Teylium Hotels in Pointe Noire, Congo and Conakry, Guinea before moving onto the Monorail Project in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

“She has not limited her expertise to design only, but has accepted the full spectrum of getting a project started and completed - including the administration planning and project leadership. Lombard is an achiever who knows where she wants to go and what it takes to succeed,” concluded Masterson. KC Rottok, Project Manager of SAPSA said, “The number of engineering awards that the firm won in the recent past are a clear demonstration of technical excellence. In addition, having the division of its shareholding between a 67% Broad-Based Ownership Trust and a Staff Share Trust of 33%, which is unprecedented in the sector, and black women having 10% voting rights, is a clear indication of its commitment to transformation.”