Helping the Little Stars

Jimmy Dempsey presents a cheque to Denise Fitzgerald

On 19th December Jimmy Dempsey, Project Controls Manager for the Lansdowne Road Redevelopment Project, presented a cheque for €1,000 to Denise Fitzgerald, Children's Fund for Health, Temple Street Children's Hospital, who represented the Little Star Fund on the day. The fund raised over €250,000 for their four charities.

Well done to the staff in Lansdowne for their contribution to this worthwhile cause!

The management and staff of Kentz in Midrand, South Africa bid a sad farewell to David van der Linde as he passed away in the Millpark Intensive Care Unit on Saturday 3rd January 2009. He died after battling for 11 weeks following a motorcycle accident in Madagascar. David, who was 32 years of age, was husband to Deirdre and much loved father of son Renier (7) and daughters Rène (5) and Riandi (3). Our heartfelt condolences go out to them.

David joined Kentz in December 2006 and held the position of Materials Controller on various projects throughout South Africa. He was seconded to Madagascar during the second quarter of 2008 to work on the QMM Project in
Fort Dauphin.

David will be sadly missed by his family, many friends and colleagues.

Taleo is now fully rolled out to all Kentz offices and is being actively managed by Mike Ryan, Group Recruitment Manager, and his team in Clonmel, Ireland. All new potential employees are now registered in the system and are being actively tracked by the Corporate Recruitment Team on a monthly basis.

The following are the statistics for Taleo in 2008:
   • 1,492 people hired
   • 2,580 CVs registered per month
   • 44,000 CVs in system

Top 5 nationalities hired			Top 5 nationalities who have applied
Indian	- 39%		Indian	- 30%
Filipino	- 15%		British	- 13%
Irish	- 12%		Filipiino	-   8%
South African	- 10%		Irish	-   5%
British	-   8%		South African	-   3.5%

A major effort is getting under way in 2009 to look at spreading the nationality application base to include Eastern Europe and other applicable nationalities.

	Gavin Fee

Congratulations to Gavin Fee, Site Electrical Engineer for Thiess Kentz in Australia, who took top honours in the newly formatted Mount Isa Marathon and Triathlon Club (Isa RATS) Triathlon both on Sunday 2nd and the 16th November 2008.

The Isa RATS Triathlon was a triple stage event consisting of three “mini triathlons”. Competitors were required to swim 150 m, cycle 5 km and run 1.5 km. To add variety, each “mini triathlon” started with a different event and there was a 3 minute break between each event.

On 2nd November Gavin was one of nine men who took part in the open category. In the first stage of the competition he narrowly beat fellow triathlete Scott Anderson by 14 seconds. In the second stage Anderson won by just 16 seconds with Gavin close on his heels. Tied, and with one stage left to go, Gavin put in a massive effort and powered away from Anderson to win the stage by 58 seconds.

Gavin was even stronger on 16th November in the gruelling Moondara Lake Triathlon when he clearly won all three events, crossing the finish line first with a winning margin of 800 metres from his closest rival.

Well done to Gavin from all in Thiess Kentz and best of luck for 2009!

The Kentz team based in Secunda, South Africa said farewell to Stuart Kent, Site Manager at the Secunda Synthol Site, on Thursday 23rd October. Stuart was part of the Secunda team for the past five years and added tremendous value and hard work to the project.

The staff marked his departure with what can only be described as a magnificent hat party, with some staff wearing a variety of hats! It was a fun albeit emotional evening for all in attendance.

From all the staff at Kentz Secunda, we wish Stuart Kent all the best in his role in Durban, and would also like to thank him for all his dedication and hard work on the Secunda site. We miss you already!

Stuart addresses the crowd		L-R: Naresh Ruthrum, Stuart Kent, Jason English, Andre Delport and Tony dos Santos

Some of the Perth staff enjoying their meal

At 3.00 pm on Tuesday 4th November Australians everywhere stopped for one of the world's most famous horse races, the Melbourne Cup, and it was no different in the Thiess Kentz office in Perth. Staff celebrated by watching the televised race at the Melbourne Hotel, followed by a scrumptious three-course meal.

It was an afternoon filled with good food, good company and racing festivities. In a nail-biting photo finish, "Viewed" won the race ahead of "Bauer" and "C'est La Guerre" came in third position.

A great day was had by all in attendance and the celebrations did not end until well into the evening.