Background and Journey to COVA
Caleb’s career at COVA began straight out of university, where had lead a fast-paced motorsport design team. He found that consulting offered a similar pace and intensity which resonated immediately with him.
From day one, Caleb treated the business as if it were his own, driven by a strong desire to constantly improve himself, his team, and the systems around him. His enthusiasm for collaboration and team culture helped pave the way from leading the Hobart office to his current role as Vietnam Country Lead.
Early Motivation and Career Milestones
His connection to COVA began during a university placement. While the fast-moving, varied nature of the work was appealing, it was ultimately the people who made the biggest impression. Now with six years in the industry, Caleb marks his promotion to Team Leader in Hobart as a key milestone. It shifted his mindset and expanded his leadership responsibilities.
Current Role at COVA
As Vietnam Country Lead, Caleb manages the MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Hydraulics) team across Cambodia and Vietnam. He leads the Vietnam office, secures new work locally and facilitates coordination between Asian and Australian teams. He thrives in the challenges of building a team and business from the ground up, embracing the responsibility and excitement of establishing a strong local presence.
Q&A with Caleb How does your role contribute to the growth and success at COVA?
“My role is to establish a sizable and successful Vietnam tea. Vietnam presents exciting opportunities, both with its resurging market and the capability of its engineers. Our growing MEP team will provide valuable support to our Australian counterparts while also expanding our capabilities in Asia, adding strong MEP to our PM and QA service offerings. The goal is to make our Vietnam office strong enough that most of our projects are local to Ho Chi Minh City.”
What do you believe sets COVA apart in delivering value to clients?
“We’re proactive in educating and guiding our clients to their ideal outcome. We are approachable, ‘user-friendly’, and we treat every client’s budget as if it were our own.”
Can you share a project you’re particularly proud of?
Definitely, the University of Tasmania, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (UTAS IMAS) aquaculture research facility will remain a memorable project for a long time. From an Engineering perspective, I expect it will remain the most service-dense and engineering-intensive project I will ever do. For the design phase, it had our team firing on all cylinders, flexing our engineering, project coordination, 3D coordination capability and delivering full Tender documents.
If you could describe COVA in three words, what would they be?
Authenticity. Collaboration. Pub Lunch.
Looking ahead Caleb is most excited about the autonomy his role provides, the chance to carefully build a team, confidently promote their capabilities, and deliver meaningful projects across Vietnam. He sees his work as more than just engineering; it’s about building a sustainable business that reflects COVA’s values in a new market.
Life outside of work
Away from the office, Caleb enjoys short hikes, reading, going to the gym, and playing board games with friends. A tech enthusiast at heart, he loves spending time tinkering with computers, sound systems, games and cinema setups.
We’re growing our Asian footprint. Learn more about our work in Vietnam.
