Geoff Hunt knew from a very early age that electrical engineering made him tick. So when he finished school, there was no deliberation about what to study – he went straight to the University of Canterbury and completed both an undergraduate and masters degree in the field.

After then receiving a Confederation of British Industry scholarship and working for a British company that manufactured automation systems for power stations, he knew something else: programming was not a field he would pursue. Yet, ironically, IT has been a constant theme in his career, which has gone from success to success ever since.

Back in New Zealand in 1978, he moved to the Waikato and joined the Huntly Power Station construction team, where he stayed for seven years. “I started in the design team, responsible for the development of the computer equipment. At that time, it was probably the most advanced industrial computer system in New Zealand. But about every two years my bosses resigned so eventually I achieved the title ‘Construction Engineer (electrical and mechanical)’ with very significant responsibilities.”

Hunt says he relished the excitement of this role, working on site, and couldn’t imagine a life in a design office.

In 1985, he joined McConnell Dowell as operations manager in the newly acquired electrical contracting company, Electrix.  Five years later he became the general manager, leading the business through a huge change and growth phase. When he took on this role, the industrial electrical contractor was running at a loss. During his time at the helm, Hunt returned the business to profitability and shifted it into new areas, diversifying from industrial electrical contracting to high voltage transmission network and power station maintenance and construction.

“After five years managing Electrix I was offered the job of managing the largest heavy electrical contracting firm in the country, ALSTOM,” he says. During his 10-year tenure in this role, Hunt diversified the business, including managing its expansion into the Australian market, and increasing its revenue from approximately $70 million per annum in 1995 to more than $350 million per annum in 2004.

Prior to joining Hawkins Group as CEO in June last year, Hunt held the reins of telecommunications engineering solutions and network-owning business Kordia, significantly growing the company over seven years.

Now, one year into his tenure at Hawkins Group, Hunt has his teeth well and truly into the role. “My whole career has been about building and maintaining infrastructure. Each of the businesses I have taken on, I have grown quite significantly. Hawkins has a strong presence in New Zealand in the building sector, and now also has a well-established infrastructure arm.”

Hunt has a clear vision for the Hawkins Group, which includes Hawkins Construction, Hawkins Infrastructure, and Harker Underground Construction, a tunneling business. At the moment he is travelling the country delivering the group’s strategic plan - an ambition for going forward, from which the group’s vision will be developed.

Concurrently over the last year, he has been establishing the Hawkins Business School, which includes an initiative run in conjunction with the University of Auckland, and central to his management philosophy. “I don’t think this industry puts enough back in to developing its people, and this is where the real value lies.”

Hunt believes businesses that are too centralised can’t flourish; Hawkins Group is reasonably decentralised, he says, and he is working towards improving the skills of its managers in order to improve the group’s overall capabilities. “People want to do their best when they turn up to work so you have to provide an environment where people who are willing to grow, can do this. You can’t enable that from a top-down control philosophy.”

Another feature of Hunt’s management approach is to use technology as an enabler. “The building and construction sector in New Zealand has been very slow to adopt technology so one of the things I am doing at Hawkins is increasing the use of mobile devices, smart phones and tablets,” he says. “BIM also has to become a central capability of Hawkins.”

And while he instigates these, among many other new initiatives, under Hunt’s leadership the group is heading towards new heights in offshore markets. “New Zealand isn’t the rock star economy many are making out to be. Although the economy is operating at an improved level, it is still relatively flat, despite growth in Auckland and Christchurch.”

While he acknowledges the risks are higher offshore, there are also bigger margins, he says. As such, the group is currently constructing a $70 million infrastructure project in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea – a section of four-lane highway, including a flyover, from the airport into the city. Work has also been tendered in Fiji, the Philippines, Indonesia and Kenya.

And for Hunt, whose age may be one of the best-kept secrets in the industry, his personal philosophy is to always “keep learning and renewing”. When considering the significant successes of Hunt’s nearly 40-year career, these words might just be worth a thought for aspiring leaders.