Shining a spotlight on those making a difference at Wood is an important part of our inspired culture. We are all about motivating our teams to be the best they can be, recognising the expertise, capabilities, and positive energy they bring to work every single day.
Born in New Zealand, Ken Ede’s career highlights include launching a rocket from a semi-submersible platform into space, engineering the world’s longest horizontal gas well, and the design and engineering of the world’s largest open water float over platform.
I have always been passionate about engineering and feel genuinely blessed to have enjoyed a rewarding career and I can honestly say I have enjoyed every day – and no two days have been the same!
I have been extremely fortunate that my career has allowed me to work on some truly incredible projects around the world, in Australia, Southeast Asia, America, Russia, Middle East and Europe. I appreciate that not every engineer has launched rockets into space or worked on world leading projects – so I love to share my experience and stories with the next generation to inspire and encourage them to believe that nothing is impossible, as they will be the great minds that will unlock the solutions to create a sustainable future.
Throughout my working life I have always had an incredible sense of fairness, and this has stood me in good stead. Joining Wood in Melbourne in 2010, I was part of the Papua New Guinea tender team which led me to be appointed as the Contract Manager for our successful bid. During my three-year tenure we built a 1,000 strong team in the highlands and lowlands of the country. It was an incredible experience, there were many cultural differences to overcome, traditionally survival for folks in Papua New Guinea comes from land ownership, and at that time oil companies were coming in and taking over land which created a lot of unrest. I am proud that Wood led the way, demonstrating the right behaviours as it set up in country, others have now followed, and we continue to deliver successful contracts in the country today.
I am now in Dubai leading decarbonisation in the Middle East, which is hugely exciting, there is so much potential to make giant strides towards net zero in the region especially as we bring through the next generation. It is clear that decarbonisation is rightfully a motivator, and I am passionate about changing the existing narrative around the energy sector, making it an attractive career option – a key to this is demonstrating that decarbonisation is a fundamental driver of every project we deliver at Wood.
Throughout my long career I have been committed to sharing my insights and knowledge and take great pride in inspiring others. I remain an advocate for promoting STEM, gender equality, fostering nationalisation efforts, and cultivating diversity and inclusion in all aspects of what we do at Wood. I have seen first-hand the positive impact the graduate programmes create, developing the next set of bright engineers that will design the future for Wood and the world.
The world has changed a lot since I started my career, we have made some great progress in balancing out the inequalities that existed, and don’t get me wrong there is a lot of work still to be done, but I am positive that we are on the right path.
Find out more about our decarbonisation expertise.