For Mayank Tripathi, it was the University of Canterbury’s world class earthquake engineering programme which initially led him to up sticks, moving thousands of miles away from a small town in Northern India to Christchurch to complete his PhD in Earthquake Engineering in 2016.

It was the appreciation for the Kiwi work/life balance which made Mayank stay, establishing a new life for himself and his partner in Auckland, where Mayank has worked as a Senior Engineer at Winstone Wallboards for the past year and a half.

“I really enjoy hiking and have done a lot of walks around South Island so that was another drawcard for staying in New Zealand. While I certainly enjoy the warmer climate in Auckland, pandemic and a lot of rain has meant I haven’t been able to get out as much as I’d hoped,” he says.

18 months in, what has impressed Mayank about working with Winstone Wallboards is the support offered to industry as well as the whole systems approach, integrating plasterboard with other products to offer systems that go above and beyond.

“Kiwis really love to push the boat in terms of buildings with a lot of really innovative and cutting-edge design.  I’m continually impressed by how our plasterboard products transition into a system and how that system works together which helps bring better results in terms of structural integrity and other aspects like fire resistance and noise reduction.” he says.  

At the moment, Mayank is heavily involved with supporting the organisation with the transition to its new Winstone Wallboards Tauranga facility, undertaking quality assessments of GIB® products to ensure they meet performance requirements as the plant becomes fully operational.

Mayank says that while no two days are alike, one moment he might be working with engineers to provide technical advice on projects, and the next, he heads down into the lab, one aspect he really enjoys is the research and development of new products and systems, something the organisation is big on too.

“I can’t give away all our secrets, but what I can say is there are some exciting developments on their way. I’m really looking forward to seeing them go from initial concepts through to actually being used in buildings and homes across New Zealand. It’s a hugely satisfying feeling being part of the team which makes that happen,” he says.