Neville Sawyer

Neville Sawyer joined the National Industry Skills Committee at its inception in May 2006.

A graduate of Newcastle Technical College in electrical trade, electronics and electrical engineering, management, human resources, economics and statistics, Neville worked for major companies BHP, Noyes Bros, and Siemens before establishing his own electrical engineering sales and distribution business, with a partner, in Newcastle in 1968.  Over the following nearly 40 years the company grew to encompass electrical and electronic engineering design and manufacturing plus service, repair and overhaul of own design products and equipment for the mining, minerals processing/refining, manufacturing, power generation/distribution, heavy industries as well as oil, gas and petrochemical sectors.  Neville also completed additional education over this time at the University of New England and Ballarat University.

At his retirement in December 2005, Ampcontrol Pty Ltd had offices/workshops across Australia in Newcastle/Hunter Valley, Sydney, Illawarra, Lithgow-NSW, Mackay, Mooranbah-Qld, Melbourne-Vic and Perth-WA and was employing 480+ staff with a high proportion of apprentices, trainees and graduates to support the business and its growth locally and overseas.  Exporting of “in house design products, systems and services” commenced in 1976 to NZ, Fiji and PNG and expanded to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, South Africa, Hong Kong, China and USA over following years to over 13% of annual turnover.

Neville has also acquired several business awards for his work in small business, including the Newcastle Regional Business of the Year in 1993; Regional Engineering Excellence Awards in 1995,1996, 2001 and 2003; the National Engineering Excellence Award in 1998; the Hunter Region Export Awards in 2003 and 2004; and finally the NSW Government-State Export Award for sales to China in 2005.

In addition to his membership of the National Industry Skills Committee, Neville is also a Director on the Boards of SME companies and Industry related bodies, plus Hunter Region community/business/education/training initiatives.