Rising Stars are the future of the HVACR industry which is why this is a double award – the Male Rising Star Award and Female Rising Star Award.
Sponsored by ABB, there are three Finalists for each award.
Rising Star Award (Female)
Heatcraft acting branch leader, Jamie Le Grange, is a highly motivated self starter. She began her HVACR career in a temporary role at the Heatcraft sales counter before working her way up to branch leader. Now she is growing the business, managing staff and making solid commercial decisions on a daily basis. Her vision is to see more women in the industry, breaking down barriers and thriving in a wide range of roles across the wholesale sector. For example, Le Grange wanted to see more opportunities for training, so what did she do? She arranged a training session for women in business. Not surprisingly, she now has her eye on management.
It's hard to believe Airmaster Australia learning & development manager, Carly Stats, began her HVACR career as a receptionist. “I was able to gain a great understanding of the business as a whole, it was a fantastic learning base for me.” With her solid work ethic and leadership qualities, Stats was soon working in the service centre with customers and was quickly promoted to service centre supervisor where she completed her diploma in business management. Today she is Airmaster's very first national learning and development manager. In this role she is both managing and supporting staff right across the business. As a believer in continous professional development, Stats has embraced her new role where she gets to actually develop training programs.
BUENO general manager, Line Le, is an accredited NABERS CBD Assessor, who has completed a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) finishing in the top 5% of course graduates. She first joined BUENO as a systems engineer and was promoted to the role of general manager in February this year. At the tender age of 29, Le is in charge of 60 staff with 1,300 deployments in seven countries. Clearly ambitious, her colleagues describe her as a strategic thinker, tireless manager, and the embodiment of the type of leader the HVAC industry will see in the future.
Male Rising Star Award Finalists are:
Conserveit product support manager, Pravesh Badjoonauth, graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) from RMIT University. He joined Conserveit in 2012 and has been promoted a number of times over the years before taking on his current role in July this year. Conserveit provides a wide range of products and services including monitoring, reporting and controlling air conditioning and boiler plants to minimise energy consumption. Today the company has diversified into complete HVACR plant management. Since joining Conserveit Badjoonauth has continued to hone and refine his skills at a rapid pace and today is a certified global product trainer, system design advisor, commissioning specialist and technical team leader.
Heatcraft branch manager, Luke Kasapolli, is renowned for his dedication and eagerness to lead his team with a degree of positivity that is infectious. He was appointed to his current role at the Gnangara branch in Western Australia in recognition if his exceptional attitude. Kasapolli has set a new standard for his branch which reflects his high level of participation in the HVACR industry. He is always running trade events, participating in road shows and ensuring every interaction with customers reflects his readiness to deliver, which is exactly what he does – deliver.
Engie Services technician Mitchell Beattie has a passion for HVACR which explains why he has such exceptional skills. His colleagues describe him as an outstanding service technician who excels at chiller fault finding and fine-tuning for maximum efficiency. His idea of a big weekend is being called to Singapore Friday night to commission new Quantum water cooled chillers and by Sunday he is in Singapore at a new site leak testing a damaged chiller. This is in addition to providing customers with value add-ons and energy saving tips which might explain all the praise he gets from happy clients.