Tania Wolfenden, health & safety manager

Tania Wolfenden may have followed her father into the construction industry 15 years ago, but today everyone who knows her is well aware she is her own woman.

Wolfenden, straight-shooter and excellent organiser, has a reputation as someone who gets things done – a successful multi-tasker.

When Gary Harris gave up being a trainer of thoroughbred racehorses and set up Jesmond Construction in Drury a decade and a half ago, his daughter decided to continue to look after his books.  Today the 40-year-old mother of two teenagers is the company’s office and health and safety manager, runs her own trucking company, sits on the executive of the Auckland branch of the Contractors’ Federation, was a recent trialist for the New Zealand polocrosse team (a sport at which her father represented New Zealand and which her partner, son and daughter also play), and helps coach the Counties polocrosse club.

It’s not only at polocrosse that Wolfenden’s a straight-shooter. She’s not afraid to admit she bought a third truck and trailer a year ago to cart aggregate under contract and that a downturn in availability of work since September means her five-year-old business is “struggling”.

Wolfenden, who has won Jesmond a tertiary level for ACC workplace management for six consecutive years, says she likes the excitement of the construction industry,  Jesmond starting a new project, and winning tenders.  She puts together the attributes for the company’s tenders and one of her dislikes, apart from not winning a job, is the inconsistency she has perceived in the assessment of attributes.

“I get frustrated when you don’t win a tender and they send your attributes back and you’ve been marked down lower than for a similar project you won for a higher price. It’s not acceptable, it’s up to someone’s discretion…very subjective…not always a level playing field.”

Wolfenden believes that when Auckland’s single “super city” replaces the existing eight local authorities next year, tendering will become more consistent. She also hopes the day will come when contractors are screened and categorised on their abilities and audited on their attributes and track record annually, meaning they will have to submit attributes only once a year. 

“It would mean a huge saving for contractors, who currently spend 5 to 10 percent of management costs on tendering.”

Wolfenden says she’s passionate about the construction industry, about the people in it and what they do, about health and safety and the environment, and about making sure everyone understands how things work. 

“That’s why I ended up on the Auckland executive of the Contractors’ Federation two years ago – because I wanted to do something about what I believe in.

“That’s another story too. There are things I can do on the executive, but I’m the only female and one of only a couple or people from the smaller companies, and you get a bit overwhelmed with the technical jargon that some of the guys from the corporate companies are on about.”

Stay cool, fellas. Wolfenden also believes she could not have been listened to better if she had been a man. “They’re a fantastic bunch of guys. They’re all trying to make a difference and make the industry a better place. I think it’s probably because I am a woman that I’ve been listened to sometimes.” 

Though heavily preoccupied right now in getting her trucking business back on track, Wolfenden would like in time to be involved not only in improving the “bureaucratic” tendering system but in a programme to sell the construction industry as a career to “the kids who are working out what they want to do” – secondary school fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds.

“It’s a great industry for young men and women. It’s just a matter of making them aware of the opportunities available to them,” she says.