
Russell Brown has been in the structural design and detailing industry for well over 50 years. He has recently been accepted as a Fellow to the Institution of Engineers, and accepted an appointment as a Special Referee in a building dispute matter for the Supreme Court. To add to that he is currently Chairman of the Australian Steel Industries Committee on structural matters in Victoria and has just received a grant from the Victorian State government to do research with Swinburne University into methods of testing soils reactivity.
As Russell transfers the responsibility of running the business day-to-day, he’s looking forward to the future and to the changes made to various codes that are utilised in housing, while hoping for an ongoing involvement in the industry. In fact, if one looks carefully at the figures, the economic loss to Australia is far greater in reactive soils and their effect on housing and the supply of infrastructure than drought, flood, fire and in fact the aggregated effect of all natural disasters.
For this edition we had the opportunity to speak with Russell and get his thoughts on operating a successful organisation for 50 years.
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