After years of delivering ultra-fast building projects across the world's war zones, Josua Pienaar is looking forward to visiting construction sites in regional Queensland without having to wear a flak jacket or chemical suit.

Josua, the new Associate Professor in Construction Management at CQUniversity, says the CQ region offers the rewards and challenges of remote construction with a different perspective to the trouble spots he has previously worked in.

Josua Pienaar looks forward to a fresh environment for construction challenges

"Remote delivery is the common factor but obviously here the time-frames are longer and there's more emphasis on safety and environmental sustainability," he said.

"We have a particular challenge in this region sourcing skilled resources within stringent budgets, whereas the projects in war zones tend to be well-resourced and fast-tracked.

"In my previous role, part of the planning and logistics to every operation was the pre-emptive identification of collateral damage to existing infrastructure and the consequential  fast-track reconstruction and refurbishment to ensure minimal community disruption.

"We would rarely have similar war-zone needs in the CQ region unless a hospital burns down or a school is flooded or an emergency infrastructure solution is required at short notice."

Josua said he had researched the CQ region and recognised its great potential for major construction projects, irrespective of slow-downs caused by the Global Financial Crisis.

Josua visits a local construction site He said there would be plenty of reward for specialists in construction processes, logistics, planning, design, execution, costing and stakeholder liaison.

Josua has been involved in Project Management and Corporate Strategy since 1995.  He has also been involved in lecturing at the University of Pretoria (post-1998) in project management, entrepreneurship and business strategy.

The newcomer holds a BSc (Construction Management) from the University of Pretoria and a MBA (Strategy) from Bond University in Australia.

Josua is also a certified Enterprise Financial Management Consultant (registered with SAP AG) who has worked and lived in a total of 27 countries, executing ultra-fast-track projects worth a total of US $460 million. 

He has held directorships for 2 international companies operating in the Middle East and has served as director for various construction and development firms. 

Josua is extensively involved in the development of training and contracting programs utilising the New Engineering Contract and Project Management in the Information Technology, petrochemical and construction industries.

He is a keen helicopter pilot and keeps up this skill for recreation and personal development.