BrazilPwC strengthens infrastructure advisory with experts in Southeast Asia
PwC in Singapore has strengthened its infrastructure advisory line with the addition of tech and engineering experts Euan Low and Helen Steward – the pair having been lured across from successful long-term careers at Mott MacDonald.
Following more than two decades in total spent each at engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald, most recently as senior leaders for the Asia Pacific, engineering and technical experts Euan Low and Helen Steward have crossed to PwC’s Southeast Asia Capital Projects and Infrastructure advisory team – in what the firm says is a response to continued growth and market demand.
“Southeast Asia’s rapid growth has outpaced its infrastructure development, resulting in a widening infrastructure gap which is stifling the region’s economic growth,” explains PwC partner and Asia Pacific Capital Projects and Infrastructure Leader Mark Rathbone. “Not only does this limit the path to growth and prosperity, it also increases the vulnerability of cities to climate and demographic change along with other risk exposures.”
Rathbone furthers that these factors call for a massive push to invest, build and upgrade local regional infrastructure, with the Big Four professional services firm bringing in Low and Steward to boost its local capacities in the domain. “I am confident that the expertise and experience that Euan and Helen not only allow us to better support our clients, but also to the development of much-needed infrastructure in the region and its wider economy.”
Helen Steward
Listed on Linkedin as ‘Co-lead Southeast Asia Capital Projects Services’ for PwC, Steward initially joined Mott MacDonald in 1991 for six years as a senior consultant in the UK, before spending nearly four years from 1997 to 2001 as a technical cooperation officer in Zimbabwe for the UK government’s Department of International Development. In 2004, Steward rejoined Mott MacDonald, for ten years as Projects Director in London.
Since then, Steward has been with the firm in Singapore as its Asia Pacific Infrastructure Finance Practice lead, responsible for development and risk management, while also serving as Resource Manager for Southeast Asia and Global Account lead for the Asia Development Bank – for which the firm has provided services to on projects such as the ‘Tolo 1’ wind-farm project in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi.
Euan Low
Prior to commencing his new advisory role with PwC based in Singapore, Low, who holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering with the University of Cambridge, spent the past 20 years straight with Mott MacDonald as the firm’s Country Manager for Japan, together with acting as its Asia Pacific Infrastructure Advisory Services Director for the past six and a half years – supporting projects in the renewables, water supply and sanitation, ports, freight and transportation, and oil & gas segments among others.
According to the firm, the addition of the former Mott MacDonald leaders will expand its infrastructure team’s capabilities to include technical and commercial advisory services – creating ‘viable projects through definition, development & procurement of social and economic infrastructure’ – in turn enhancing PwC’s Southeast Asia Infrastructure Initiative, which seeks to harness outbound investments from China, Japan, South Korea and Australia in support of local projects.
