Nicholas Phillips 
Newcomers to asset management must assume responsibility for broadening the community’s acceptance of the discipline through active participation in MESA according to immediate past national chair and steering committee member Nicholas Phillips.
“I have seen the evolution of my own career as a maintenance engineer paralleled in the way MESA has developed. Looking forward I can see MESA having a membership of 10,000 representing individuals and corporations with a vested interest in the elevation of professionalism in asset management.
“But,” says Nicholas, “broad community acceptance will only happen if those entering the profession play an active role and take responsibility for moving the Society forward.”
Nicholas Phillips joined MESA in 1994 having had an extensive career as a maintenance engineer with the railways. Finding kinship and the valuable exchange of professional ideas that comes from association of like-minded people he took on role of chair of MESA’s Melbourne chapter between 1996 and 2003. During his tenure he chaired ICOMS 2001 which was held in Melbourne.
He has also been a member of and leader of teams which have assessed entries for the Australian Maintenance Engineering Excellence Awards (AMEEA) and has delivered technical papers at a number of ICOMS.
In 2003 he took on the role of national chairman for two years.
“As my career has moved from maintenance engineer to maintenance manager and from reliability engineering and to asset management, so have the benefits of MESA membership expanded. Over this period there has been a significant growth in both the science and the knowledge of asset management.
“Today, the networking facilitated by membership of MESA allows me to keep abreast of latest practices, to discuss professional and technical issues with peers and to locate and engage people and organizations with specific technical skills,” Nicholas Phillips says.
These benefits flow directly to his role as a principal consultant in maintenance engineering with consultancy GHD.
Nicholas says there is recognition in both the private and public sector of the contribution that MESA is making to the discipline of asset management. He sees MESA remaining as a professional society but growing tenfold over the next 5-10 years.
Nicholas does not restrict his involvement in engineering solely to the Society. In 2000 he took a position on the Board of Engineering of the Institute of Engineers, Victorian division. And, with an eye on the future of the profession, in 2001 he was chairman of judges of an annual engineering competition conducted in Victorian primary schools.