Former Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa) CEO Graham Pirie grew up with Johannesburg, which he describes as a living organism, during his 23 years at the city’s municipal council, where he started in 1972 as a bursar.

“Civil engineering was at a peak,” says the 65-year-old, who has lived his life according to his father-in-law’s philosophy – “Bite off more than you can chew and chew it” – and has always challenged the system.

During his time at the council, Pirie found that he wasn’t a designer, but more of a people and management person.

“I became city engineer: roads and was in charge of anything in the road reserve. We had our own resurfacing teams – but still contracted the private sector – an asphalt plant, a soils laboratory, an asphalt laboratory and a training school. Sadly, a lot of that has disappeared and, as a result, corporate memory along with it,” notes Pirie, who adds that he also has solid waste and transportation planning experience.

When he left the council in 1995, the council was transitioning into a democratic institution and Pirie occupied three positions simultaneously, namely executive director: planning, acting town clerk of Johannesburg and acting CEO of the North-Eastern Metropolitan Substructure.

The mechanism of this transformation was the Metropolitan Chamber, which was chaired by now deceased politician Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert, and involved all the political parties, including current ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.

Pirie explains that there were three groups; the social-development working group, physical-development working group and economic-development working group, involved in developing a postapartheid vision for Johannesburg; stitching the city together again.

He chaired the physical-development working group for the metropolitan area and says: “This was one of the most stimulating times of my career. I loved the political interface. I am proud of what we achieved during my time at the council, but the problem was that, before the end of apartheid, only one sector of society was served and, therefore, it was an unjust system.”

Pirie recalls that the subject spoken most about with his school friends was apartheid. “I was against the system and a defining moment for me was voting for the first time with the entire country.”

Pirie attended King Edward VII preparatory and high school, in Houghton, Johannesburg, up until 1965, a time he likens to the 2010 South African film Spud, directed by Donovan Marsh, based on John van de Ruit’s novel of the same name.

In 1966, Pirie had to complete a mandatory year in the South African Army, which he describes as a challenging situation, in the administrative services core, based at the Voortrekkerhoogte military base, renamed Thaba Tshwane in 1998, and in Lyttleton, in Verwoerdburg (now Centurion).

“This time taught me that I don’t like regimentation. I prefer a democratic environment, although it gave me time to think about my career. It wasn’t a bad experience but I didn’t empathise with the cause,” says Pirie.

He started his tertiary education in 1967 at the University of the Witwatersrand, in northern central Johannesburg, where he studied mechanical engineering in his first year, but quickly switched to civil engineering, which he studied for five years.

“This was the best decision I ever made. I slotted into a career that has been a perfect fit. Civil engineering enables you to make a visible difference to people’s lives. Dealing directly with quality of life,” notes Pirie, who had a hand in realising projects such as the construction of the M1 and M2, and the develop- ment of Newtown while working for the Johannesburg city council.

His time at the council prepared him well for his role at Cesa – which represents 500 companies that comprise 80% to 90% of the market and employ about 23 000 staff – as he was familiar with the client’s point of view, having contracted companies to work for the city.

“I like change and I embrace change,” notes Pirie, who retired from Cesa in June, taking on a consulting position at the industry body after 17 years as CEO.

“Retirement is a ridiculous concept. Every-one needs a purpose in life. I want to slow down and do some introspection, but will still endeavour to consult in the industry,” says the Sagittarian; born on December 3, 1947, at the Queen Victoria Hospital, in Hillbrow, an inner-city neighbourhood in Johannesburg.

Under his management, Cesa went from a R3-million to R26-million budget, a staff of five in a house in Randburg to 17 employees, occupying offices at Hampton Park North, in Bryanston.

“The organisation also went from being lily white to much more representative of the country’s demographic profile,” notes the grandfather of four who met his wife, a neighbour, at 12.

Cesa, he says, is one of the few nonprofit organisations that has ISO 9001:2008 certi- fication as a result of the Quality Manage- ment initiative, which culminated in firms requiring a quality management system as a prerequisite for Cesa membership.

Pirie has overseen many initiatives such as the transformation strategy for the consul- ting engineering and construction sector, culminating in the establishment of the Con-struction Industry Transformation Charter in 2009, which took seven years to come to fruition. He was also involved in developing the best Practice Guideline for Procurement of Consulting Engineering Services in the Public Sector and the Cesa Business Integrity Management System to which adherence is another requirement for membership.

“Adherence to sustainability principles is salso to become a requirement for membership as from November 11,” notes Pirie, emphasising that sustainable design, construction and development has to figure in the broad concepts of people, profit and planet.