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LEADERSHIP TEAM

Stephen Payne

Chairman

John Williams

CEO

Lou Piovesan

Director

Sam Caruso

Principal

Tim Hoare

Principal

Eros Cavallin

Associate Director

James Thomas

Associate Director

Kristjan Madissoo

Associate Director

Nofal Umarjan

Associate Director

James Nguyen

Technical Manager

Amir Bagheri

Senior Associate

Francis Ayan

Senior Associate

John Bea

Senior Associate

Harrison Chua

Associate

Joanne Le

Associate

Jana Thangarajah

Associate

Mario Caputo

Associate

Natalie O’Brien

Associate

Neal Foye

Associate

Paul Luttick

Associate

Pieter Verstraaten

Associate

Roger Sykes

Associate

Sherwin Moreno

Associate

Vivien Chen

Associate

Stephen Payne

Chairman

Stephen has extensive understanding of commercial construction techniques and is able to invest this knowledge into the design of readily buildable and economical structures that respect the particular skills of the contractor.

Stephen has demonstrated the ability to work closely with leading Architects, helping them bring to reality a broad range of developments, from hospitals and institutional infrastructure, through to icons of Melbourne’s urban environment.

Stephen enjoys the challenge of delivering innovative and practical design solutions for important institutional buildings requiring exemplary architecture.

John Williams

CEO

John is a structural and façade engineer with 28 years experience. He has undertaken many projects involving health and education facilities. He is familiar with the various delivery methods, including design and construct, Managing Contractor, Construction Managed, Early Contractor Involvement and Lump Sum Construct.

Lou Piovesan

Director

Over many years of hands-on practice, Lou has obtained an extensive understanding of construction techniques, which he incorporates into designs, to produce readily buildable and economical structures, which respect the intent of the architecture and skill of the contractor.

Lou has established good working relationships with many leading architects and has successfully assisted to deliver a broad range of developments across Melbourne and its surrounding inner suburbs.

Lou in particular enjoys the ‘front end’ of each project where collaborative workshopping with the client and architect is required to achieve a cost effective, sensible structural arrangement.

Sam Caruso

Principal

Sam has a deep appreciation for commercial construction techniques and readily applies this knowledge to his projects. This understanding provides the framework for a proactive and enthusiastic relationship with contractors and industry sub-contractors.

Sam has an enviable reputation with our leading architects and developer clients and is justifiably proud of his reputation for providing great service.
Sam enjoys the close interaction with the architect and allied design consultants and gains much satisfaction from a successful project outcome.

Tim Hoare

Principal

Utilising his past trade related experience; Tim can also provide expert guidance into the fabrication, welding procedures and production side of large steel structures. Tim also has extensive experience in the assessment of existing structures and in the provision of Technical Due Diligence (TDD) and adaptive re-use activities.

Eros Cavallin

Associate Director
 

Eros has a good appreciation of civil design techniques and project management, which can be utilised to produce a cost-effective design solution and facilitate the construction component of the project. Expertise in large car park design, on-site detention and multi-level building developments.

Eros is particularly good at managing multiple projects and is uncompromising in delivering quality documentation to the highest technical standards.

Eros particularly enjoys mentoring, the technical and managerial development of support staff, and derives satisfaction from a successful project outcome.

James Thomas

Associate Director
 

James is taking on a leadership role in terms of design and delivery of a wide range of projects in sectors including health, defense, retail, residential and aged care.

James builds strong relationships with clients through his friendly demeanour and is a top mentor for our younger engineers.

Kristjan Madissoo

Associate Director

Kristjan is a specialist consultant with over 14 years’ experience dedicated to facade design and leads our facade team nationally. He has worked for international consulting firms in Australia, Singapore and the United Kingdom on high profile projects such as the 130 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne; Paddington Station Integrated Project, London; and Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. Masdar City was originally developed as a zero-carbon, zero-waste city with world leading levels of sustainability.

Kristjan also has in-house experience at a large multinational facade contractor where he has developed an understanding of facade contractor design, procurement, fabrication & assembly, delivery and installation. His specific area of interest is facade energy and carbon efficiency including the transfer of heat through facade components and the procurement of low embodied systems. He has undertaken research at Bath University as part of his master’s degree, examining the sustainable benefits of timber framed glazing systems.

Nofal Umarjan

Facade Lead

Nofal is a self-managed and result-oriented Project Design Manager/Engineer with years of experience in Design Management, Estimating, Bid Development, Administration, Budgeting, Design Development, Training/Development, Team Supervision, Technical Support and Client Relations. Nofal is experienced in managing large scale residential and commercial high rise façade design and project teams for some of the most challenging projects in the world.

James Nguyen

Associate

James is uniquely qualified to provide the full spectrum of structural design services including structural analysis, detailed design of structural elements ranging from concrete, structural steel, high rise and complex building forms. He is also able to manage and coordinate our structural requirements with the design team, clients and contractors. He has developed specialist skills in the modelling, behaviour and detailed design of high rise structures, including optimizing the structure’s resistance to dynamic wind and earthquake loading.

James is highly recognised by his clients for delivering projects to completion on time and on budget with a strong customer focus.

James enjoys applying his specialist technical skills to the modelling of new and innovative form of structures and resolving challenging engineering problems. He also enjoys training and mentoring younger engineers particularly interested in specialist analytical techniques.

Amir Bagheri

Senior Associate

Amir is a chartered structural engineer with over 15 years’ experience covering design and project management of major building and infrastructure projects. Amir has been the structural team lead and project manager on major building projects including the Residential Fraser Park Tower in Central Park and SCEGGS Science, Technology Centre, and North West Rail Link – OTS Package.

Francis Ayan

Senior Associate

Francis is a Chartered Professional Engineer with over 14 years’ experience in civil and structural engineering works spread across Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Philippines.

His experience ranges from the design of tall buildings, seismic structural assessment of buildings, probabilistic seismic hazard assessment, base isolation design, design and assessment of industrial tanks, and linear and non-linear analysis of building structures. His roles include job management, coaching graduates and other colleagues on computer modelling of structures including non-linear analysis and the use of analytical software such as SAP2000, ETABS, and the like.

He has special competence in tall building design, computer modelling of structures performing linear and non-linear analysis such as pushover and time-history analysis, sequential or staged-construction analysis, and performance-based design.

 

John Bea

Senior Assoicate

John has joined Bonacci from Freyssinet where he managed their Sydney Buildings Team for a number of years. He has worked on the design and documentation of Post Tensioned Concrete for all of his career and brings a wealth of experience to Bonacci in PT Design and Detailing.

John is a Chartered Professional Engineer with over 14 years’ experience in structural engineering. He is experienced in providing engineering design/drafting services with particular expertise in team leadership, technical advice, resource, and cost management. He is also experienced in Business Development where he has achieved a myriad of successful outcomes with tier one developers.

Key Achievements

•  Leader of a specialist team in the design and detailing of Post Tensioned Concrete for a number of buildings.

•  Management of the design delivery of 40 projects in the past 12 months.

• Management of the NSW design office comprising of 1 x Principal Structural Engineer; 2 x Senior Structural Engineers; 4 x Structural Engineers; 7 x Drafts people; and 2 x Estimators.

• Timely and cost-effective preparation of post-tensioned and reinforced concrete floor designs, construction details, workshop drawings for tender, and ‘design & construct’ projects.

• Conceptual and detail design of residential, commercial and industrial developments which comprises of reinforced concrete, post-tensioned floors, and steel structures.


Joanne Le

Associate
 

Responsible for the facade design, management, delivery and implementation of complex multi-disciplinary projects. Primary focus being the delivery of projects that are economical and present the best design solution for the client and other stakeholders.

With almost a decade of experience in the façade industry, Joanne has successfully delivered various projects from early conceptual designs through to construction. She also has experience in remedial and rectification works.

Jana Thangarajah

Associate 

Jana is a Chartered Professional Engineer with over 10 years’ experience in the structural sector.

He has experienced in the design of high rise towers from conceptual scheme designs to detail designs including construction assistance. He is also experienced in complex building design and detailing of all major elements to satisfy the strength, serviceability and stability criteria.

He has special expertise in tall building design, concrete, post-tension and masonry design, along with sound experience in advanced software packages: ETABS, SPACEGASS, RAPT, RAM Concept, Microstran, SAFE, Slab, RC modules and other related packages.


Mario Caputo

Associate
 

Mario is Bonacci Groups Senior BIM Modeller, and is responsible for managing and advancing BIM (Revit) development.

Mario has worked closly with many of Melbourne’s leading architects to successfully deliver complex projects using Autodesk’s Revit Software.

Mario has an easy going attitude and enjoys close association with allied BIM Modellers. Mario derives satisfaction from managing design drafting staff and developing our Revit Software capabilities.

Natalie O'Brien

Associate

Associate Structural Engineer with over 10 years’ experience in the design of steel, concrete and timber buildings, ranging from multi-level commercial structures to single-level residential dwellings. Specific interest in lateral stability of multi-level buildings and finite element analysis.

Neal Foye

Associate
 

Neal has over 20 years experience in Structural design and management. He has experience of working on large, prominent, public buildings and has also led teams delivering multi-story residential developments of up to 40 levels. Neal’s manner leads to a collaborative approach with the design team as well as providing practical and economical solutions to builders.

Paul Luttick

Associate
 

Paul is highly experienced in all forms of commercial construction and readily applies this knowledge to his projects.

Structural design, co-ordination and construction phase services to major government, infrastructure projects, commercial hotel and office developments and residential projects.

Paul has the ability to calmly coordinate, design and deliver complex building structures in a team environment. He enjoys the detailing aspect of the documentation phase and has developed strong detailing skills for all material forms of structure.

Pieter Verstraaten

Associate
 

Pieter is our Senior and most experienced CAD design draftsperson.

Pieter is responsible for managing all aspects of the structural documentation, and is supported by the collaborative resources of our Melbourne office.

Pieter’s experience across all building forms allows him to deliver detailed documentation with minimal input from design engineers.

Pieter enjoys training younger design drafters and is constantly engaged in discussion to optimize the clarity and efficiency of the design documentation.

Roger Sykes

Associate
 

Roger understands the detail and sequencing of all forms of construction. This allows him to contribute to detail designs to complex and difficult buildings site and designs. This understanding provides the framework for a proactive and enthusiastic relationship with contractors and industry sub-contractors.

Roger also has extensive experience in the demolition and recycling of old and heritage listed buildings. He has a good appreciation of all forms of nineteenth centurty construction, which allows him to readily design/modify these buildings for adaptive re-use.

Roger in particular enjoys the construction phase and working collaboratively with the contractor to resolve site issues. He has developed a strong and respected reputation with Melbourne leading builders and structural subcontractors.

Vivien Chen

Associate

Design and verification of residential, commercial, and retail developments.

Vivien has been involved in the design of low-rise and high-rise developments, including structures ranging from workshops high-rise buildings, to hospitals and schools. She is experienced in all aspects of design, from concept to construction, using materials including concrete, steel, masonry, and timber.

She is also familiar with many structural analysis and design software programs such as Rapt, Microstran, Spacegass, Ram Concept/Structural System and RC Buildings/Columns.