David Bradshaw - Vocational

David Bradshaw shared his life story in a wide-ranging vocational address, tracing his path from a Wellington childhood to a distinguished international engineering career.

Born in Wellington on Christmas Day, David was the eldest of four children raised in Karori. He attended Wellesley College at Days Bay (commuting daily by two buses) before boarding at Wanganui Collegiate, following family tradition. Childhood adventures included exploring the WWII gun emplacements at Wright's Hill and a memorable family road trip towing a boat from Wellington to the South Island and back. Following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps, David studied engineering — an intermediate year at Victoria University, then a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil, specialising in structural and seismic engineering) at Canterbury, where skiing and car-club adventures featured prominently.

After graduating, David worked briefly in Wellington, where he met his wife Rosie. Following a phone-proposal while Rosie was in North America, they married on her family's farm and set off on an extended overseas experience (OE), including a year in Vancouver skiing at Whistler, a tour across Canada, and ultimately settling in London. There, David — despite lacking direct oil-industry experience — talked his way into a role with Brown and Root, working on North Sea platform design (the Frigg Field), gaining rapid expertise in wave-loading and offshore structural engineering.

With Rosie expecting their first child, the couple returned to Wellington, where David rejoined his original engineering firm. The couple raised three children — Harry, Anna and John — while David's career flourished through a series of mergers that grew the firm from around 15 staff to a global company of roughly 6,000 employees (via Kingston Morrison and later SKM). Notable projects included the Mount Smart Stadium stand, and — leveraging that stadium expertise — the Athens Olympic Stadium, Wembley Stadium, and Portugal's Estádio da Luz (Benfica's ground).

David also recounted secondments abroad: a post-earthquake engineering mission to Turkey in 1999 (observing that professionally engineered government buildings survived largely intact while informally constructed buildings collapsed), five months in Florida on the Motunui "Think Big" project, and a stint in Japan explaining New Zealand's seismic design philosophy — highlighting the contrast between NZ/Californian "life-safety" design (buildings may need demolition after a major quake) and Japan's far more robust design standards suited to their higher earthquake frequency.

A career highlight — and disappointment — was leading a 90-strong global engineering team designing a new stadium for Liverpool FC from Manchester. The design was almost fully complete, with materials manufactured, when the club's new American owners rejected it in favour of a competing design; a subsequent "bake-off" was inconclusive, and the Global Financial Crisis ultimately saw the entire project abandoned.

David joined Rotary Newmarket in the 1990s, introduced by Barney Felton, a friend of his father's. He served as a director on various club projects and was Club President in 2018–2019. A particular highlight was participating in an eye-surgery mission to Fiji with Rosie and fellow Rotarians, restoring sight to cataract patients — an experience he described as showing the real difference Rotary can make.

David closed with reflections on family life — three children, growing grandchildren (including keen mountain bikers) — and a shared passion with Rosie for skiing and cycling, with trips across Europe (including Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and France), North America, Japan, Greece, Fiordland, and South America (Iguazu Falls).

He thanked the club for the opportunity to share his story, closing his talk on a relaxed and reflective note.

Newmarket Rotary Charitable Foundation

John Meadowcroft one of the Trustees of the  Newmarket Rotary Charitable Foundation (NRCF) I gave a short report on the NRCFs last meeting.

• He advised that;
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• The fund has grown to just over $2.5m invested under management with Craigs Investment Partners
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• The target income for the foundation is 5 – 6% after fees.
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• Last year we comfortably exceeded this target with returns of just over 12%
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• The trustees have set a target of up to 5% as being available to RCON for distribution. This will be subject to quarterly review as recent world events have dramatically affected returns.
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• The trustees have indicated an amount of $120k and this has been incorporated into the RCON budget for 2026/27
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• The trustees have reviewed the current annual commitments of the Foundation
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• Sometime ago the Foundation agreed to make all distributions via RCON to ensure maximum exposure for the club and its work in the community.

In summary Funds have been allocated to the following:

Environment Award                             $9000

J & A Burton Heart Award                $14000

R Craig Oncology Award                      $9000

H Titter MAPAS Award                         $3000

A Craig Medal                                        $2500

Macfarlane Medal                                $2500

REP                                                          $4000

MOEC                                                     $2500

EGGS Ann Giving (New award)          $5000

Total                                                     $51500

With this in mind the Trustees have clarified the application procedures.

All new applications will be made via the RCON board who will in turn apply to the NRCF for funding.

The trustees will review all applications from the board and ensure they meet the intentions of the foundation;

Projects that are NZ based, apply to Health, Youth and/or education will be considered.

From time to time the NRCF may in fact make a recommendation as to a worthy recipient however this will need to be approved by RCON before confirmation.

The next NRCF trustee meeting is scheduled for early October.

Rotary Newmarket needs you to help out with carparking at Mount Smart stadium.

Each game, this activity raises up to $2,000 for the club, or around $60,000 a year. This forms a major part of the funds for the club's youth programmes including RAP and RYPEN. Recently, Go Media Stadium has started blocking the road around the stadium when large crowds are expected meaning we need more volunteers, and the number of volunteers is beginning to fall below a sustainable level.
 Each game requires 8 volunteers, 3 at 23 Maurice Road and 5 at 5 Maurice Road. We don't expect you to show up every week, that would be silly. However, the more people who volunteer, the less of a commitment it is for each person and the more funds we can raise for the youth programs.
 You would be expected to arrive 2.5hours before the game starts and help with taking money via cash and EFTPOS and guiding drivers. Usually both parking lots are filled within two hours and after that almost everyone can go home. One or two volunteers would need to stay at 5 Maurice Road until an hour after the game to lock the gate. We'll provide safety vests and EFTPOS machines. We recommend bringing a water bottle. 
 This crucial fundraiser can't continue to exist without your help, so please contact Shaun Peacock (email: shaun_peacock@windowslive.com Phone: 027 631 0065) to sign up.