INDUSTRY
STALWART
HONOURED FOR
LIFELONG WORK
When David Platts of Hamilton
was awarded the top honour
in chemical engineering for his
lifelong work with food technology
recently, it was a far cry from his
South Yorkshire-born beginnings as
a 15-year-old school leaver thrown
headfirst into the food science
industry. Platts - winner of the
prestigious Chemeca Medal at the
2018 Chemical Engineering Awards
in Queenstown – established
global food process technologies
and systems design expert PDV
Consultants 28 years ago, and used
the conference to announce his
retirement from the company late
this month. “The Chemeca Medal
is an award for the business, and
for my wife Anne and everyone
who has contributed over the
years,” he says. “It comes at a
really special time for us, as it is 28
years ago this week that Anne and I
started our business. At the end of
November, we’ll be retiring and this
is a wonderful note to finish on.”
The Chemeca Medal is awarded
to a prominent New Zealand or
Australian chemical engineer
who has made an outstanding
contribution, through achievement
or service, to the practice of
chemical engineering – and Platts
received his accolade in front of
industrial chemists, chemical and
process engineers and academic
professionals. “I’m really chuffed,”
he says. The company was founded
in October 1990 and, over the past
three decades, has grown from two
people to 25, with 21 staff based at
its Hamilton headquarters and four
in Ireland. “We started working out
of our home office, just the two
22 NOVEMBER 2018
of us, and it’s grown exponentially
over the years,” Platts says of
his company that’s considered a
Waikato success story operating
largely under the radar. “Our team
of chemical and process engineers
have delivered projects for many of
the world’s leading food companies
including Fonterra, Tatua, the Dairy
Goat Cooperative, Danone, Glanbia
(Ireland and USA), Dairconcepts
(USA), First Milk (UK), South West
Cheese and others. We turn over
up to $5 million a year and we are
a New Zealand-owned business
that is highly technically competent
and draws in quality people and
revenue to the Waikato region and
New Zealand. I’m really proud of
that, because our business benefits
the local economy.” In 1972, at the
age of 22, Platts emigrated to New
Zealand and, within a week, had
two job offers and started working
at the New Zealand Cooperative
Dairy Company (NZCDC), the
precursor to Fonterra. His position
was to set up a quality control
system for the company’s Avalon
Drive milk powder canning factory,
and he also worked on drying
evaporation end engineering
products for the company’s
engineering departments. He met
Anne, a fellow expat from Ireland,
at a social club in Hamilton a few
years later. They married and had
three children: Nuala, Gemma and
Jonathan. His expertise in chemical
and process engineering for the
food processing industry took Platts
and his family to the Netherlands
in the early 1980s to work for Stork
Friesland, now known as Tetra
Pak, doing design engineering.
He was transferred back to New
Zealand, where he was involved
in developing the first nutritional
infant formula manufacturing
plants in New Zealand at Waitoa
for NZCDC (Fonterra). When the
New Zealand office closed in 1990,
Platts was made redundant, but it
was the push he needed to start
his engineering consulting business
and Platts Drievap Engineering
– as it was then known – was
launched in 1990. It’s the personal
attention to detail, and the focus on
building strong relationships that
has helped in PDV’s success. “A
lot of business, especially in the
early years, was driven by wordof
mouth,” Platts says. “People
would call up and ask if we could
come and look at something or
help them solve a problem, and it
grew from there.” Anne Platts,
PDV’s business and financial
manager, has been a big part of
the company’s success over the
past three decades. “She’s been
the glue that held everything
together and her business, IT,
financial and administrative skills
have been a key reason for our
success,” her husband says. Platts
has been a strong supporter of
Chemeca events over the past
three decades, and was involved in
the organisation of the 2012 event
in Wellington. He has served on
the committee of ICHemE in New
Zealand, including two years as
chair, and has actively promoted
New Zealand food and dairy
industry competencies overseas,
championing the engineering
design, energy efficiency and
food safety capabilities of New
Zealand’s processing industries.
“New Zealand engineers are
world-leaders in innovation and
invention – at looking at problems
and generating solutions,” Platts
says. “It’s important to keep our
number-eight-wire approach to
problem solving alive.” Over his
career, Platts has given back to
his industry by mentoring, and
providing job opportunities and
internships for the next generation
of chemical engineers. He has
served as a chair on the industry
advisory board for the University of
Waikato School of Engineering, and
has also provided input into Massey
University’s programmes. He is a
fellow of the Institute of Chemical
Engineers (IChemE), a global
professional engineering institution
with more than 40,000 members
in more than 120 countries
worldwide, and is a fellow of the
New Zealand Institute of Food
Science and Technology (NZIFST),
the country’s leading professional
association representing those
working in the food industry, food
research and education or those
who apply science and technology
to the processing, manufacture
and distribution of foods. The Platts
will retire from PDV Consultants
on November 30, with PDV’s
engineering manager for Asia-
Pacific and chartered engineer
Gerard O’Connor named as the
firm’s new managing director; and
Lynn Waters - former financial
controller at Livingstone Building
- named PDV’s new business
manager.
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