We recently caught up with Stephen to ask him some questions about the defining moments of his career, contributing to the Sydney landscape, and why he’s a Liverpool supporter.

Steve, when did you start at Roberts Pizzarotti?

I started in May of 2017, I was one of the first ten or so employees. Alison started in the office around January and I agreed to join at the end of February.

What are the memorable things about being involved in setting up a business from the get-go at that early stage?

First, to be honest, it was the excitement of the unknown. Looking back now, it was tougher than anticipated to get people to join us, you’re trying to get people to come on a wing and a prayer.

We started from scratch, and we’re now at the point where this year we’ll be turning over $400 million with a great team of people. It is something I am very proud of and I don’t think there are many companies out there that can say that they’ve managed to do that in such a short amount of time.

What are your favourite parts about working for Roberts Pizzarotti?

The people are the key factor for me. Your company is only as good as the people that you have working for it. Everyone has the same mindset in terms of what we need to deliver and how we are going to deliver it.

A lot of satisfaction stems from actually going out to sites and witnessing the sense of camaraderie and people actually enjoying what they’re doing.

What is one thing you wish you learned earlier in your career?

Nothing specific but if I had to pick something, possibly being savvier in the tender space in terms of winning work.

Is there a construction project out of your career that stands out from the others?

Yes, there are three. It’s hard for me to pick one so I look at it as jobs that stood out to me at the different stages of my career.

When I was actually on the ground doing some site and project engineering, the Australian Stock Exchange stands out for me as the most technically challenging project I have worked on. I designed a lot of the temporary works myself which required the most out-of-the-box thinking that I have had to do as an engineer, which is saying a fair bit because the job I had before that was a seven-story extension of an existing building that 1000 people were still working under.

The Village Balgowlah was probably the best job that I delivered from a Project Director perspective. I was a Construction Manager at the time and was responsible for that job whilst overseeing a couple of jobs at the airport where I had other Project Managers reporting to me from there. I based myself at Balgowlah and in 2007 which was one of the bigger jobs that was going on in Sydney. Some members of the team still say to this day that it was one of the best projects they’ve worked on, which is really rewarding.

Lastly from an operations perspective, it’s very hard for me to go past the Darling Harbour Live Precinct. I oversaw the Theatre, Convention and Exhibition Centre (the PPP project), but then was also responsible for the remainder of the development including the hotel, commercial office, and all the residential buildings. It was a $3 billion project at the time and we had over 200 staff working across the projects.

How many jobs have you completed or been a part of since you started your career?

I think there are well over 30 but it’s a bit different when you’re in an office role because then you can have three, four, even five up to ten jobs going at one time that you’re accountable for.

Do you have a funny story from site that you can share?

There’s a few but one that stands out from the guys who still works for us now.

The client came to the project manager at the airport, said to the project manager, “Look, there’s a damaged drain, can you fix it?” The PM, his first reaction is, “Oh, okay that wasn’t us.” and the client said, “Can you just double check within your team, and if it was you, can you just fix it?” The PM said, “No worries.” He went and asked everyone, they all said the same thing, “No, no, no. Not us, not us.”

So he went back to the client and said, “Look, I’ve asked everyone it’s not us.” The client was very calm and didn’t react. He just said, “Okay, no worries.”

That afternoon, he provided the PM a CD-ROM [this was back in 2008] cause back then there was no USB. He added, “You probably should just look at that and then come back to me with a response after that.”

So the PM put the CD in and he started watching the CCTV footage of the area and there’s Ross, driving over the drain in question. You can feel that he’s just gone and banged up and down on the forklift. He stopped the forklift, gotten out, looked at the drain and you can see him in the footage go, “Oh f$#k”. And then he’s gotten back into the forklift and he’s driven off.

So the PM has his head in his hands. He calls Ross in and asks Ross, “Mate, I’m just going to ask you again. Did you run over the drain, could you have forgotten?”

Ross said “No, no. It wasn’t me, it wasn’t.” The PM then put the video on and-and he’s just gone, “Uh, a-a-alright you got me, you got me.”

So we did have to replace the drain because we were responsible for the damage. He’s actually a funny character Ross,  that’s just one out of about 60 stories that we have.

Is there anything in particular that you love about Sydney?

You get to drive around and see projects you’ve worked on. Having kids now, your kids are going to ask you about the projects you’ve delivered or been involved with. The very first one I worked on was the third runway at the airport as an engineer.

How long have you lived in Sydney?

My whole life apart from three years in Perth.

Heard you are a football fan, which team do you support? Why?

I follow Liverpool in the Premier League. It’s pretty simple, growing up we were living in Casula which is part of the city of Liverpool.

My eldest daughter likes watching soccer and also follows Liverpool – which she did on her own accord. But like any good Liverpool supporter, she’s developed a huge dislike for Manchester United.