Meet the Board
Adrian Marshall- interim Chair
Adrian (DipEng (Mech)) is a Director of family-owned JP Marshall, one of New Zealand’s most experienced steel fabricators and industrial engineering providers, based in Hamilton and Christchurch.
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“It’s important to be involved with WECA as we need to work together to promote engineering – a largely hidden industry. Our sector is vital, but we have an ageing workforce and we need young people to step up to lead us into the future.”
Michelle Roberts
Michelle is the Financial Controller at Stafford Engineering, joining the company in 2017. Michelle has worked closely with the team at WECA, where she has managed the accounts for the last 7 years.
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Her role at Stafford is varied and includes responsibility for the finances as well as health and safety, general management and involvement in strategic direction, leadership and decision making.
She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Management Studies from the University of Waikato.
As a mum of two teenagers, she is passionate about encouraging young people into engineering careers and fostering relationships between schools and employers, growing the talent pool for the future of the industry.
Pr. Mike Duke
Professor Mike Duke is the Dean and Dr John Gallagher Chair in Engineering at the University of Waikato.
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Mike is a founding member of Waikato Robotics Automation and Sensing (WaiRAS) research group. Mike is active in New Zealand’s research landscape. He a principle investigator of the MaaraTech MBIE Optimising Horticulture project, led by Professor Bruce Macdonald at Auckland University. He was on the PBRF panel, is an EIS Marsden panellist and a member of AgriTech NZ.
Dr Elizabeth Reinsfield
Liz Reinsfield joins the WECA board in 2025. Liz is the team manager at the Centre for Engineering and Industrial Design and Trades at WINTEC.
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Liz earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Waikato, where her research focused on the potential for a future-focused curriculum in New Zealand’s technology education (2014–2018). She also completed a Master’s degree in Education at the University of Waikato in 2013. Earlier in her academic journey, she obtained a Bachelor of Education (BEd Hons) in Design and Technology Education from Leeds Metropolitan University (1990–1994).
Andrew Fredrickson
Andrew joins the WECA board in 2025. Andrew (Trade Certificate, Toolmaking) works as Tooling Technician for Pact Packaging’s Te Rapa site.
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Apart from two years toolmaking in the United Kingdom, his previous roles have all been in Hamilton, and include toolmaking, CNC programming, product and tool design, supervision, and operations management. As well as participating in apprentice training in all of these roles, Andrew has taught Engineering Design at Wintec as well as teaching welding night classes.
“Although my high school mostly discouraged me from following my engineering career path, I have enjoyed it, and found it rewarding enough to want to encourage others to following in my footsteps”
Dushyant Parmar
Dushyant joins the WECA board in 2025. Dushyant is an Associate Fire Engineer at Beca.
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Dushyant earned a Master’s degree in Business Management from the University of Waikato (2015–2016). Prior to that, he completed a Master’s degree in Fire Engineering at the University of Canterbury in 2014. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waikato (2008–2012).