| News Release William Pickering Award for Engineering Leadership 2006 The William Pickering Award for Engineering Leadership is the most prestigious of the Individual Awards, recognising an engineer who has acted as a role model and exceptional leader. The 2006 recipient is Laurence Zwimpfer, an inspiring educationalist and asset to the engineering profession. Laurence’s primary passion is education, where he believes communication technologies have a vital role. An engineering career beginning in the New Zealand Post Office and a cadetship in Coventry, in the United Kingdom sowed the seeds of a global view of the development of telecommunications. As a young engineer he joined the Secretariat of the Communications Commission, developing an understanding of the links between technology and government which he supplemented by studying at Victoria University for a Masters in Public Policy. Awarded a two-year Harkness Fellowship, he completed a Masters in Technology and Policy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. Laurence led the marketing team that split telecommunications (Telecom) away from New Zealand Post. He helped set up the Tele-learning Network, which evolved into a 150-school video-conferencing network; SeniorNet, which has over 100 groups around the country; and New Zealand Online which became New Zealand’s largest internet service provider, Xtra. Laurence is now a consultant specialising in education technologies and learning networks. His skills in e-learning are recognised globally through his work with the National Commission for UNESCO. He was a board member of Wellington Girls’ College for 12 years. Sponsored by the IPENZ Foundation
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