Australia & New Zealand

Ms Virginia Anderson is SJ Group’s Regional Head, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). Leading a diverse, talented team of over 2,600 specialists delivering professional services throughout the project lifecycle. Her focus is on client experience, technical excellence and employee engagement to drive growth across the region.

Virginia has over 25 years’ experience in infrastructure advisory; predominantly in the investment, planning and development of major infrastructure projects for both public and private sector clients. Enjoying a diverse career, Virginia has played a key role in shaping major projects across the transport, urban development, education, social infrastructure and health sectors. Commencing her professional life as a Transport Planner, Virginia is most engaged by supporting the functional, economic and social productivity of cities.

Prior to joining SMEC in 2022, where she has held several leadership roles, Virginia worked in engineering professional services, State Government in Victoria and founded her own infrastructure advisory firm.

A strong advocate for equality, diversity, and inclusion, Virginia has championed the value of curiosity, diversity of thought and lived experience and has worked to break down barriers for women and girls in gender-segregated industries, throughout her career. She is committed to fostering environments where people feel valued, empowered, and able to contribute their best to solving complex challenges and creating positive impact for our clients and communities.

Virginia is a Fellow of Engineers Australia and holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons) from RMIT University. She has also completed graduate studies in Psychology at the University of Melbourne.

Diane Riley is Regional Lead, Infrastructure + Energy, Australia & New Zealand (ANZ). She leads strategic growth initiatives across the region, working collaboratively across business lines, sectors and geographies to strengthen client relationships and shape major pursuits.

A highly experienced Chartered Engineer and senior management professional, Diane has built her career in infrastructure across Australia and the United Kingdom, with particular expertise in the rail sector. Combining deep technical knowledge with commercial acumen and strategic insight, she has successfully led complex project delivery, major bid pursuits, and business development initiatives throughout her career.

Diane is committed to building trusted relationships and developing a deep understanding of client priorities. By bringing together expertise from across disciplines and sectors, she helps teams create innovative solutions that address complex infrastructure and energy challenges.

Ben Ringrose is Director, Clients & Markets and Major Projects at Robert Bird Group, an SJ Group Company. He is a highly respected industry leader with a career spanning Australia, the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Asia.

Specialising in structural design and construction engineering, Ben is known for bringing a ‘best-for-project’ collaborative approach, with extensive experience delivering large-scale, complex and high-profile projects across the globe.

George Andrianakos is Executive Director of Civil, Structural + Construction Engineering and Executive Director of Mixed-Use + Commercial for Robert Bird Group in Australia and New Zealand. Since joining the practice in 2005, he has worked across the firm's Sydney, Canberra and London offices, leading the delivery of complex projects through every stage of design and construction.

Over the course of his career, George has helped deliver some of Australia's most significant developments, including One Sydney Harbour, Sydney International Convention Centre, 8 Phillip Street Parramatta, CIT Woden and London's 1 Leadenhall. His experience spans residential, commercial, health, defence, public infrastructure and urban regeneration projects, where he is known for combining technical excellence with a strong focus on delivery, buildability and project outcomes.

Having spent the early part of his career embedded within project teams and on major construction sites, George brings a practical perspective that helps clients navigate complexity, manage risk and make better decisions from the earliest stages of project development. He works closely with clients, architects, contractors and delivery partners to ensure engineering solutions are informed by both design ambition and construction reality.

Today, George leads Robert Bird Group's Australia and New Zealand business as part of SJ Group, helping shape the next generation of projects and communities through engineering innovation, collaboration and delivery-focused leadership.

As Managing Director of Atelier Ten's Australian offices and a global leader of the firm's Benchmarking practice, Paul is internationally recognised for environmental planning and design work on ambitious buildings, communities, campuses and urban precincts. He provides sustainability planning and design consulting for environmentally ambitious projects, with expertise spanning high-performance façades, advanced HVAC systems, sustainable master planning and resilient design.

In Australia, his projects include the Sydney Modern Project at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, delivered by SANAA and Architectus and awarded a 6 Star Green Star Design rating; Barangaroo South, where he contributed to the strategy for the 6 Star Green Star Communities-certified, zero-carbon precinct; the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, where he led high-performance façade design; the adaptive reuse of the Main Assembly Building at Tonsley Park, South Australia, providing daylighting, thermal comfort and energy-efficiency consulting; and the original environmental concepts for Federation Square in Melbourne.

Paul is a trusted voice on environmental design and sustainability, speaking regularly at universities, industry conferences and professional forums worldwide. He serves as a member of the NSW State Design Review Panel.

His leadership in environmental design was recognised by the US Green Building Council, which named him a LEED Fellow in 2013. He holds a Master of Architecture from Yale University and both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in Architectural History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.