Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) engineer Blaise Shann has been named the national Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) Public Works Leader of the Year 2025 at the International Public Works Conference in Sydney this week.
TRC Mayor Cr Geoff McDonald congratulated Blaise on his outstanding achievement, saying it was a thoroughly deserved individual honour, while also reflecting highly on his various teams' performance and collaboration.
TRC Construction and Maintenance (Infrastructure Services) portfolio spokesperson, Cr Carol Taylor, also praised Blaise's professionalism, noting that the national award capped his 2024 award as the IPWEA Queensland and Northern Territory Public Works Professional of the Year.
"The IPWEA national awards are the pinnacle for the industry where the leading professionals and projects are named in recognition of the benefits they deliver for communities," Cr Tayor said.
"Toowoomba Regional Council can be rightly proud of Blaise's achievements which reflect well on the organisation.
"Blaise has shown outstanding stewardship of Council's recently completed and largest project to date, the 2022 Flood Recovery Program. This was a Region-wide $300 million Flood Recovery Program, which was jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland Government Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
