James Thompson

James is an infrastructure specialist with some big projects behind him. His forte is creating teams that work and getting results as a team.James has an extensive portfolio of landmark developments, including the building services for the Christchurch Justice and Emergency Services Precinct, which had to be autonomous – including power and water management – for 72 hours after an earthquake.He also managed the building services for the army’s SAS battle training facility in Papakura, south of Auckland, designed and managed the upgrade of Spark’s main switchboard in Auckland without interrupting the teleco’s network, and designed the services for a new residential care mental health facility for Whangarei Hospital.And James wrote the specification for Auckland Transport to control the lighting performance of its 110,000 street lights, and in Britain managed the amalgamation of water control systems for a France-based infrastructure company, and the upgrade of computer database controlling the national power grid – including the integration of the Scottish grid data.The key to success is engineering skill and the ability to work with people and get the best out of them, both of which he brings to his role leading the Babbage building services team. James gained his degree from the University of Auckland in 1992 and worked in Britain from 1995 to 2006, before returning to New Zealand. He joined Babbage in 2019.