Management Committee

Technical Principal – Structural and Earthquake Engineering
WSP
Elected to Management Committee 2024

Julian Benito is the President of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) and a Technical Principal – Structural & Earthquake Engineering with WSP New Zealand. He has over 18 years of professional consulting experience spanning earthquake engineering, structural engineering, infrastructure, and the assessment and strengthening of existing buildings and lifeline assets.

Throughout his career, Julian has worked on a diverse range of projects across New Zealand and internationally, including commercial buildings, industrial facilities, transport structures, utility infrastructure, dams and engineering assessments. He is particularly passionate about improving the understanding and communication of seismic risk, helping bridge the gap between research, engineering practice, regulation, and public policy.

As NZSEE President, Julian is committed to strengthening collaboration across the earthquake resilience sector, including sister organisations, engineers, geoscientists, researchers, asset owners, regulators, emergency managers, and policymakers. He is a strong advocate for translating technical knowledge into practical outcomes that improve the resilience and safety of New Zealand communities.

Julian has been actively involved in technical committees, industry working groups, professional development initiatives, and mentoring programs. He is particularly interested in the application of emerging technologies, data, and artificial intelligence to improve engineering practice, risk assessment, and preparedness.

Julian aims to support the Society's role as a trusted technical voice while fostering a diverse, inclusive, and forward-looking earthquake engineering community that is prepared to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

Contact
president@nzsee.org.nz

National Technical Director
WSP, Wellington
Elected to Management Committee 2019

Brabha is currently Immediate Past-President, having completed a 2-year term as President in May 2026. He has been a member of the Society’s management committee in 2003 - 2013 and since 2019, was a past member of the Editorial Board of the Society’s Bulletin and has been a member of the Society for over 30 years. Taking part in Society’s field reconnaissance after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (China) and the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake (Japan), he brought back, disseminated, and embedded valuable lessons for New Zealand, through research, standards and practice.
Brabhaharan is a National Technical Director at WSP, with a focus on earthquake and geotechnical engineering, and resilience of the built environment. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer with over 40 years’ experience in New Zealand and overseas in a wide range of infrastructure, buildings, research, natural hazards and resilience projects.
Brabha has a passion to enhance our resilience to earthquakes, climatic and other hazards, and improve sustainability. He shares his knowledge widely and is keen to broaden engagement with a wide range of professionals, so that we can collectively enhance our resilience.

Senior Lecturer
University of Auckland
Elected to the Committee 2026

Alex is currently a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland. Alex graduated with a BE(hons) and PhD both from the University of Auckland. Alex also undertook a Research Fellow and Assistant Professor posts at top ranking universities in Japan. Alex’s research interests lie primarily in the performance of reinforced concrete buildings in earthquakes, with specific topics of repaired RC buildings, base-isolated buildings and recently non-structural components. Through this work Alex has engaged with international researchers, manufacturers, design consultancy firms, and government entities. This aligns with NZSEE's objectives of promoting international collaboration across the field and advancing the field's science and practice.
As a long-standing member in NZSEE, presenting at conferences and earning accolades such as the Best Paper Awards and the Otto Glogau Award, Alex has demonstrated strong support for the Society's mission. By representing the academic community and giving back to the earthquake engineering field, Alex seeks to enhance NZSEE's role in promoting innovation, safety, and resilience in earthquake engineering.

Research Fellow
Joint Centre for Disaster Research at Massey University
Elected to Management Committee 2024

Catalina Miranda is a lecturer at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research at Massey University. Originally a structural engineer from Chile, Catalina moved to Aotearoa, New Zealand, after working for four years in the industry as a project engineer. Catalina obtained her PhD in civil engineering from the University of Auckland. Catalina is interested in timber-framed structures' performance during earthquakes and factors influencing structural preparedness. With a strong technical foundation in timber engineering, Catalina is fascinated by understanding community perceptions of risk and actions to mitigate it. Her research work contributes to enhancing resilience through understanding the intersection between social science and engineering. Her recent research publications cover a range of topics, including seismic risk communication and seismic performance of timber-framed houses. Catalina brings an emerging multidisciplinary research and practice perspective to NZSEE, and with her current relationships, she would work with a variety of people and agencies to advance NZSEE's aims.

Beca
Technical Director – Structural Engineering
Elected to Management Committee 2023

Dion currently sits on the NZSEE Management Committee.
Dion is a Technical Director & Principal with Beca Ltd. Prior to returning to New Zealand and joining Beca, Dion worked as a Senior Structural Engineer & Technical Director in California from 2016-2022, where his project experience included assessment and retrofit of existing buildings (his passion), and new construction, covering the commercial, residential, and historic preservation sectors. During his time in California, Dion was active within the engineering profession - he is a current Associate Voting member of ASCE7-28, ASCE41-23, and contributes to several Task Groups within those organizations.
Dion is motivated to support industry working groups - particularly in areas that disseminate knowledge and support to practicing engineers, and to help make every day better.
Dion is currnetly supporting a Task Group that is working towards finalising the NZSEE (Draft) Seismic Isolation Design Guide.

Holmes NZ
Technical Director
Elected to Management Committee 2025

Didier is a Technical Director in the Structures team at Holmes NZ, based in Christchurch. His role with Holmes includes project delivery, technical advancement and overseeing development and maintenance of internal design guidance. He also holds a position as Adjunct Professor of Practice at the University of Canterbury, teaching fourth-year undergraduate structural concept design along with structural aspects of the Masters of Architectural Engineering programme.
Didier has a keen interest in new earthquake engineering research and how practicing engineers can both adopt and contribute-to this in New Zealand. He has been a regular participant and contributor at NZSEE conferences, along with co-authoring a number of papers and providing peer reviews for the NZSEE Bulletin.
The close connections between research and practice in New Zealand and the role that NZSEE plays in promoting this is an exciting part of Earthquake Engineering in this country. As part of the Management Committee Didier is looking to help facilitate and strengthen the connections between research and application in the industry, and to champion the opportunity that membership provides for students and young engineers who are taking the first steps in their careers.
Didier's 14 years of project experience in New Zealand ranges across new design and assessment/retrofit, along with low-damage seismic design using base isolation and supplemental damping. He also spent four years working on the West Coast of North America with a number of high-rise projects based on early performance-based design procedures. More recently, Didier is a member of the working group for NZSEE Guideline for the Design of Seismic Isolation Systems, and has been a co-lead of the Structural Factors team as part of the Seismic Risk Working Group.

Studio Principal
Warren and Mahoney
Co-opted 2026

Ilona Haghshenas is an architect and Studio Principal of the Auckland studio at Warren and Mahoney. Originally from Iran, she began her architectural career there before working across New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom for more than 25 years.
Ilona's experience spans major civic, commercial, cultural and community projects, with a particular focus on complex developments that contribute to the resilience and long-term performance of cities and communities. Her work has involved leading multidisciplinary teams through the design and delivery of significant projects, including the New Zealand International Convention Centre and other large-scale public and private sector developments.
She is passionate about the role of design in creating places that support social connection, wellbeing and resilience. Her expertise includes strategic leadership, stakeholder engagement, urban development and the delivery of complex projects involving diverse client, consultant and community interests. As Studio Principal, Ilona leads teams working across a range of sectors throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. She also serves on the Board of Committee for Auckland, where she works alongside leaders from business, government and the community sector to support the region's long-term prosperity, sustainability and resilience.

Senior Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Canterbury
Elected to Management Committee 2026

Dr. Ke Jiang is a Senior Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Canterbury, specialising in high-performance steel and composite structures. Her research integrates experimental testing, numerical modelling, and developing practical design approaches, with a strong focus on structural performance and resilience. Ke completed PhD in Structural Engineering at Nanyang Technological University Singapore in 2022, and received the 2023 Women in Engineering, Science and Technology Award in recognition of her outstanding research achievements and innovative discoveries. Since joining the University of Canterbury in 2023, she has actively contributed to national and international structural engineering community. She serves as an Associate Investigator of QuakeCoRE, Associate Editor of Structures (Tier 1 journal) and Editorial Board Member of Engineering Structures (Tier 1 journal), demonstrating leadership, research excellence, and a strong commitment to knowledge dissemination.

New Zealand Structural Lead
NDY
Elected to Management Committee 2026

Nikoo is a New Zealand Structural Lead at NDY in Auckland. She holds a PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of Canterbury, with a focus on low-damage design, and has been involved in structural and earthquake engineering since 2008.
She has delivered commercial, healthcare, heritage, residential, and industrial projects across New Zealand and internationally. Her expertise includes low-damage seismic systems, nonlinear dynamic analysis, seismic assessment and strengthening, and earthquake-resilient design. She has successfully designed a wide range of complex structures, including base-isolated buildings, buildings incorporating viscous dampers, reinforced concrete shear wall systems with coupling beams, steel moment-resisting frames with Reduced Beam Sections (RBS), and eccentrically braced frame (EBF) systems, in accordance with New Zealand and US standards.
Nikoo's contributions to earthquake engineering have been recognised through several awards, including the 2022 NZSEE/QuakeCoRE Women Leaders in Earthquake Engineering Award. Her involvement with NZSEE began in 2022 when she joined the Conference Organising Committee, and she has remained actively involved with the Society since then, including as Co-Convenor of the 2026 NZSEE Conference.

Professor
University of Canterbury, Christchurch
Elected to Management Committee 2010

Professor Rajesh Dhakal is the Head of the Civil Engineering Department at University of Canterbury. Rajesh is also a Chartered Professional Engineer in NZ, and a fellow of NZSEE and Engineering NZ. Rajesh has been a member of the NZSEE management committee since 2010 and has been serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the Society’s quarterly Bulletin since 2015.

Contact:
editor@nzsee.org.nz

Senior Scientist
GNS
Elected to Management Committee 2025

Sanjay Bora is an engineering seismologist and Senior Scientist at Earth Sciences New Zealand (formerly GNS Science). He earned his PhD in Geophysics from the University of Potsdam, Germany, followed by postdoctoral research at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam and at the Swiss Seismological Service, ETH Zurich. Before moving to New Zealand, he was an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar.
Sanjay played a key role in the 2022 revision of the New Zealand National Seismic Hazard Model, the most substantial update to the country's seismic hazard estimates in over a decade. He serves on the editorial board of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America as an Associate Editor since April 2021. His research centres on ground-motion modelling and seismic hazard analysis, with a particular focus on the quantification and propagation of uncertainty. Sanjay is a strong advocate for multidisciplinary and cross-agency collaboration to improve understanding of earthquake hazard and its consequences, both in New Zealand and internationally.

Technical Director
Aurecon
Elected 2026

Tony is a Technical Director with Aurecon in Wellington, with more than 20 years of experience in structural engineering design and analysis. His experience spans commercial, institutional and industrial projects across New Zealand, the USA, and France. He has particular expertise in low damage design, including base isolation, PRESSS and viscously damped systems. He has presented at various NZSEE and SESOC conferences and events and is active in other professional body’s including as a member of various SESOC and Engineering NZ working groups.
Tony is passionate about advancing the research and practice of creating truly seismically resilient communities, and about promoting active collaboration between professions, practitioners and researchers.