John La Roche - BE

John La Roche has had a successful career as a professional engineer with broad experience as a consultant both in New Zealand and overseas, but it is for the unusual and outstanding nature of his community service that he is being awarded.

John's concerns for matters of wider community and professional interest such as engineering ethics, environmental issues, overseas aid and disaster relief have been actively expressed through participation in such groups as Engineers for Social Responsibility, Water for Survival and Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief. His expertise has taken him to many third world countries to inspect, consult and manage rural water projects in some of the remotest regions of the world.

John has also teamed with his wife Sue to provide thousands of hours of voluntary time in administration and fund-raising, spending less than 2% of funds raised on overheads. His leadership in the New Zealand Aid community extends to actively campaigning for New Zealand's 8,000 disadvantaged immigrant professional engineers, many of whom remain unemployed in their profession.

John received a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1999.