Steve Rouse

Steve is a dairy processing specialist. He’s built extensive experience in dairy plant engineering in Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and South-east Asia, working in operational management on production and engineering, then moving into capital works management. Steve has headed Babbage Australia since the consultancy opened its Melbourne office in 2016 to meet the growing needs of the Australian dairy industry.

Steve grew up on an east-Waikato dairy farm and after eight years as an officer in the Royal New Zealand Army Engineers, worked with the NZ Dairy Co-op (subsequently Fonterra), before joining a dairy project services company in 1989, establishing his own consultancy in 1998, and joining Babbage in 2001.

Steve gained his engineering degree from the University of Auckland in 1973, and his Post Graduate Diploma in Dairy Science and Technology in 1982. From early 1995 to 2000, he worked on a range of dairy industry projects in the Australian dairy sector. Back in New Zealand from 2001, he was senior project manager on seven major dryer construction projects and supporting infrastructure with a total investment of more than $NZ1 billion.