Isileli Aholelei's skill on the rugby field led him into a different kind of field – the water industry.

The project manager has an impressive rugby career – he played 1st XV for St Peter's College, played for Tonga in the Rugby World Cup Sevens, and plays club rugby for Auckland University Rugby Football Club, which led him to Watercare.

Former company secretary Rob Fisher was the club's president when Isileli was studying mechanical engineering.

"He sent out a message asking if any of us were studying engineering and if we were interested in applying for an internship."

Isileli decided to take the plunge and did our summer internship programme with southern operations two years in a row before joining our three-year graduate programme, which includes rotations with a consultant and a contractor.

His first programme rotation was with us, where he spent six months in the operations team and six months in the infrastructure team.

He says design and construction manager Johan Gerritsen mentored him while he was in infrastructure.

"I really enjoyed working in the project management team."

He finished the programme at the end of 2024 and joined the capital delivery team as a project manager, working for Johan again.

"The people are what brought me back. I've been lucky to have really good managers and deliver rewarding work here."

Johan is delighted to have him back on a permanent basis.

"Isi was a fantastic team member during his time in the graduate programme, and I'm really pleased to have him back on the team.

"He brings great energy, a strong work ethic, and valuable experience, and I'm looking forward to seeing the impact he'll make in his new role."

Photo: Isileli completed our graduate programme

Being a project manager means looking at things in a holistic way, which Isileli enjoys.

His job involves looking after the design and delivery phases of projects – refining the design to the point where the project can go into construction and managing the building phase until the project can be handed back to its owner, usually the operations team.

"It's a bit of contract management – fine tuning the details of the contract to make sure everything necessary is included. There's a lot of stakeholder management, both internal and external. It's my job to make sure everything runs smoothly."

He's managing four projects at the moment, most of them smaller projects with a two-to-three-month execution phase.

Isileli enjoys the time management pressure and the range of challenges that arise from the different phases of a project.

He also enjoys working with contractors and using his interpersonal skills.

"Building rapport with people is quite an important part of successfully managing a project – making sure everyone is working together and on the same path. Relationship skills are key."

In the future he'd like to work on a wastewater pump station project, as they combine mechanical, civil and electrical engineering.

"They're a nice merge of all three disciplines."

In addition to his role with us, Isileli is the vice president of South Pacific Professional Engineering Excellence, which he joined in 2022.

SPPEEx is an organisation that supports and develops Māori and Pasifika engineers across Aotearoa. A passion of Isileli's is to encourage more Māori and Pasifika to pursue engineering as a career path.

Photo: Playing for the Auckland University Rugby Football Club

As a graduate engineer, he helped to organise our annual sports tournament for staff in 2022 after COVID put it on hiatus for a few years. He didn't compete that year but has participated in the following years.

He's also a big music fan – of listening and playing.

"I grew up playing piano and then took part in concert band and orchestra whilst at high school. I no longer play in a band, but I do love jumping on the piano at home and playing some old songs."

And of course, rugby plays a big role in his life.

He calls varsity rugby his "home away from home", and the game was a big part of his high school experience too.

He went to St Peter's College where he played 1st XV.

"My whole family went there so it was only right I went there too. I grew up playing a mix of league and union but focused on union in my final years to make the 1st XV. It was nice for my dad to watch me play in a team he used to be in."

He also played for Tonga in the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2022 which was held in South Africa.

"It was a proud moment for me, to represent my culture and play rugby at an international level."