At a time when chemist and physical geographer Craig Wellings was open to new opportunities, he identified an exciting challenge at Newcastle’s Engineering and Environmental consulting company, Advitech.
With a long history of environmental consulting, Advitech has been helping businesses manage their environmental impacts, while balancing their business goals and achieving regulatory compliance.
In managing Advitech’s environment team, Craig aims to expand and reinvigorate Advitech’s offering to businesses. In particular, he’s looking forward to utilising his expertise in the assessment and remediation of contaminated land.
“I’m excited to have the opportunity to build the Advitech environmental capability so we can provide something really unique here in the Hunter. I am looking forward to building on our existing strengths, as well as leading the business into new areas of opportunity,” said Craig.
Craig comes to us with a rich work history, coming initially from a trade background before moving into the very different role of geotechnical technician with Douglas Partners in Newcastle.
Over his eight years with the company, Craig worked his way up to Newcastle Earthworks Manager before he accepted a role at Robert Carr & Associates (now RCA Australia) managing the Geotechnical testing laboratory.
After several years Craig was seeking to progress his career further, and so undertook study for a science degree after shifting from RCA’s geotechnical division to the environment team. Graduating earned Craig the title of Senior Scientist at RCA, eventually leading to a series of leadership and management roles at global consulting companies ERM and later URS.
Craig managed some nationally significant projects during this time, notably the pre-dredging assessment for Gladstone Harbour in Queensland and a national program of fuel depot decommissioning for ExxonMobil.
Seeking further challenges, Craig went on to work for Environmental Strategies (ES) after URS was acquired and then Arcadis when they subsequently acquired ES. He then formed his own consultancy, ‘EnviroFocus’, which was growing successfully until his major client announced a spending freeze. A resulting move was made to Sydney firm EHO to establish their environmental business, later moving to EDP after being targeted as Principal Environmental Scientist.
“I guess you could say I have an amorphous comfort zone,” said Craig.
“I’m always looking for new challenges, both technically and personally and I believe that these can be realised at Advitech,” he said.
Growing up in Lake Macquarie, working and studying in Newcastle and now residing on the Central Coast, Craig knows this area very well and believes his local knowledge will be an asset to Advitech and industries in the Hunter and beyond.
Advitech welcomes Craig to the Emergent Group family.
