Congratulations to Octa’s Founder William Cockerill for his elected as an Honorary Fellow of Engineering New Zealand. This prestigious award recognises his huge impact on the engineering profession in New Zealand, as per the following citation: (Engineering New Zealand, 2024)
This year’s fellows. (n.d.). Engineering NZ. https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/fellows-announced/
Honorary Fellows
William Cockerill
HonFEngNZ, BSc, BEng(Hons), PGDipBusAdmin
William completed a double degree in Mathematics and a first-class honours degree in Civil Engineering ahead of founding Octa Associates Limited in 1973 while one of eight students studying a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration at the University of Canterbury under Professor Frank Lu, the pioneer of Critical Path Method (CPM) and Project Management in New Zealand. As such, Octa was New Zealand’s first independent, specialist project management company which led to this becoming a discipline in its own right as part of Engineering Management. Over the last 50 years under William’s leadership, Octa has grown to more than 100 staff with offices throughout New Zealand. Many of his former and current employees have benefited in their careers from William’s support and mentoring over that same period.