Adam Kramer, Director and Project Manager at Kramer Ausenco, discusses the organisation’s journey after more than four decades of success.
COMMITTED TO ASIA-PACIFIC
Considering the right career to pursue can be a task that takes many years. But for Adam Kramer, Director and Project Manager at Kramer Ausenco, his mind was made up from an early age.
“For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be in the engineering and construction industry,” recalls Kramer.
Engineering and construction runs in his blood and Kramer believes he was always destined to end up in the industry and follow in his family’s footsteps.
“I am the third generation that is in the engineering and construction industry, primarily out of the Pacific and Oceania region.”
Indeed, the story of how his company Kramer Ausenco was born is an interesting one.
Kramer’s grandfather, Henry Kramer (Senior), was a shipbuilder for his entire life on Catholic Mission in Madang Province in Papua New Guinea, and Adam’s father, Frank Kramer, was the first Papua New Guinean Civil Engineer with international qualifications, after graduating from a scholarship to Guelph University in Canada.
“My dad returned home to Papua New Guinea not long after attaining his qualifications and started working in civil engineering and road construction,” he explains. “He later started his own company which became the foundation of what Kramer Ausenco is today. I am now fortunate enough to manage our business with my twin brother – we are both civil engineers of course.”
Having graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Engineering in 2008, Kramer has over 10 years of experience in engineering consulting for commercial and civil infrastructure projects, as well as planning and execution for mining projects in PNG. Using his combination of engineering, finance and business management capabilities, Kramer plays an influential role in planning and execution of business strategy and operations.
Today, Kramer believes that what sets his organisation apart is its ability to connect to the communities that Kramer Ausenco has a presence in.
“Over 90 percent of our employees are from or have direct connections to the Pacific region, and with all the adversity created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the silver lining has been an opportunity for all our local teams to strengthen our client relationships as some of our competitors left,” he affirms.
Operating with a people-centric culture, Kramer acknowledges how critical retaining and recruiting the right staff is and stresses how vital employees are to the success of Kramer Ausenco.
“Talent management is critical because people are our strength,” he explains. “We have to ensure we nurture and retain talent throughout our organisation to obtain sustained success.”
Building on over three decades of consulting experience in PNG and the South Pacific, Kramer Ausenco provides full lifecycle, engineering design, project management and asset support solutions to the mining, oil, gas, LNG and Power Generation industries in PNG and across the South Pacific region. Kramer Ausenco is the only indigenous engineering firm developing sustainable delivery for Papua New Guinea, developing qualified registered national engineers, assured by its strategic selection of internationally proven consulting and mega-project delivery partners.
The organisation has completed many significant projects over the years since its inception.
However, there is one in particular that stands out.
“We are the financer’s engineer on the nine mile Laloki Road Project in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea,” explains Kramer. “We are proud of our strong recurring revenue line from owner or financer engineer roles as we strongly believe we can manage their risk when it comes to infrastructure projects.”
Kramer Ausenco’s other major projects include the Project Management of the Baime 4 hydropower project in Papua New Guinea, the soon to begin construction of the University of the South Pacific, Honiara Campus in Solomon Island as well as being the Slaughterhouse Engineering and Managing Consultant for a Meat Processing Facility in Samoa. However, Kramer is adamant his company doesn’t rest on its laurels.
“We now want to invest in greater technology to allow us to do amazing new things in incredible timeframes,” he explains. “We want to expand our footprint and produce a culture of continuous improvement.”
Kramer Ausenco is also engaged to provide architectural, engineering and project management support services for the rehabilitation and upgrading of three Area Health Centres (AHC) in Guadalcanal Province, Solomon Islands for the Ministry of Health and Medical Services. These AHCs reside in very remote locations and will be receiving much-needed improvements.
And Kramer Ausenco is also being acknowledged for its achievements. The firm received the Innovation and Technology Award at the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Business Excellence Awards in 2017. This award was based on the design capabilities of the company for projects such as the Ministry of Environment’s four-storey, eco-friendly building, the Solomon Telekom Office in Auki, Malaita Province, the University of South Pacific’s Solomon Islands Campus as well as the Solomon Islands Electricity Authority Solar Farm project. These all showcased Kramer Ausenco’s technological software knowledge and innovative design capabilities.
However, adamant to focus on the future and not yesterday, Kramer is focused and upbeat about the next couple of years, believing that he should ‘make time to work on the business and not in the business.’
“We must prioritise, maintain and grow client relationships in our markets through client-focused results and exceptional service delivery.”
