Celebrating 25 years of Mike Boardman

MIKE BOARDMAN PROFILE | LUMEN 

One of New Zealand's foremost leaders in corrosion engineering, Lumen Director Mike Boardman is retiring

Mike joined Lumen in 2000 to lead our Asset Protection team. Known for his expertise in corrosion-resistant paint coatings, he has a long history of partnering with Transpower to maintain its network of transmission towers. 

Mike’s story begins in Liverpool in 1954. After studying marine engineering, he spent a few years at sea maintaining ships’ engines. In 1975, he moved to Oman to maintain their Marine Police Division’s fleet of patrol craft. Then, in 1981, Mike immigrated to New Zealand, where his career in corrosion engineering began.

Becoming an expert in corrosion engineering

Arriving in Aotearoa, Mike’s first job was as sales manager for an international paint company. Mike says: “I had no qualifications in the coatings and corrosion field. So, I joined the Australasian Corrosion Association, picked up a certification as a corrosion technologist and sat the exam to become a coatings inspector.” Mike continued to support the Association through his career, becoming president for New Zealand, then internationally. 

In his next job for a contracting company specialising in protective coatings, Mike project-managed removing the coatings off the box-girder extensions – the clip-ons – on the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Then, in 1993, Mike was approached by a consultancy called Surface Technologies to help them work out a way to paint transmission towers. 

Maintaining Transpower’s transmission tower network

In August 2000, following a tip-off from Transpower, Lumen came knocking on Mike’s door to ask him to lead our asset protection team and develop a transmission tower maintenance programme for Transpower. Mike says: “Transpower had 26,500 pylons across New Zealand and they were starting to get a bit old. We were able to come up with ways to arrest the deterioration and protect the galvanised steel.”

Painting transmission towers was a new approach to maintenance. Before paint was used for protection, the galvanised coating on the steel would rust away unchecked. Eventually, the towers had to be replaced. New Zealand has such high corrosion rates, a tower near the sea might only last 30 years. It's far more economical to paint the towers than to replace them. 

Mike’s corrosion team developed the whole process of tower painting for Transpower, setting up standard operating procedures and specifications, and training contractors for the work. Mike managed our corrosion team for 20+ years, a rugged bunch of line mechanics and industrial painters, out there in all weather, climbing transmission towers.

Developing our bridge maintenance skills

Mike has exceptional business skills and is very commercially savvy. He's always looking for opportunities for Lumen to grow and expand our services. When he stepped out of the transmission tower side of the business five years ago, he started developing the corrosion and protection side of the consultancy to focus more on bridges. Since then, we’ve partnered with BECA to maintain about a dozen bridges, including seven road bridges on State Highway 25A between Paeroa and Whitianga. 

Mike’s favourite bridge project was the High Level Bridge near his home in Cambridge. He explains: “The bridge was imported from the States in about 1906, and it needed painting, so we surveyed it and wrote the specifications for the project. The project was due to take 18 months. But because the coating system we selected can be applied in cold, damp conditions, we saved the team about seven months on site. Instead of being an 18-month job, it only took 11 months, which saved on the cost of scaffolding and contractors. It was a real feather in Lumen’s cap and the bridge looks beautiful now.”

The Cambridge High Level Bridge

Seeing Lumen evolve and grow 

One attraction for Mike when he joined Lumen was that the team were engineers first, managers second. He says: “As engineers you look to solve problems and I found that combination of corporate and engineering mindset to be a pretty good mix. We weren’t as competitive as the corporate world, more about working together to find solutions.” 

Mike has seen the company evolve a lot in 25 years. One big change has been a better culture of communication. He says: “When I joined Lumen, pretty much the only communication was at the end of the month when the team leaders would ask how many hours we’d billed. Now we’ve all sorts of excellent systems in place to help us see what's going on and very good regular newsletters so we all know about new people and new projects. It’s a lot more friendly now than it was back in the early days.” 

Mike identifies our Managing Director, Dan, coming on board as a key turning point for the company. He says, “Lumen didn't always embrace new ideas and technology. If you wanted to do anything out of the norm, it could be a challenge. For example, back in 2012, I had this vision that instead of climbing towers to determine their condition, we could do it with drones. That was well before drones became de rigueur in the industry. But I couldn’t persuade Lumen to invest in drones. It wasn’t until Dan turned up that we got to experiment more. Now there are all sorts of interesting innovations and smart, new people coming on board.”

Understanding what really matters in life

Mike and his wife Carolyn, often welcomed people from the Lumen team into their house, including Dan, when he was making the move from Australia in 2016. Dan says: “The hospitality and kindness Mike and Carolyn showed me made it so much easier for me to find my place at Lumen. Mike is one of the most generous, kind-hearted people. He and Carolyn are amazing hosts who’ve often taken staff having a tough time under their wing.”

Mike learned what matters in life the hard way when he worked for the Marine Police in Oman. He recalls: “The first few months I was in Oman, there was a war in the southern part of the country. Seeing bodies in boxes was a regular occurrence. I handled six helicopter crashes whilst I was there, four caused fatalities, and I had the unenviable job of pulling my dead friends out of the sea. After that, anything seems relatively trivial.”

As a result of his life experience, Mike’s advice to his Lumen colleagues is rooted in what matters. He says: “Don't take anything too seriously and try to ensure your work-life balance is sorted. I’ve seen people burn out more than once, and nothing's worth that.”

Mike’s next chapter

Mike is looking forward to spending more time at his property near Cambridge with Carolyn and his family. He has new adventures planned with two other loves, his Italian motorbike and his Italian shotgun. Mike says: “I do a fair bit of clay bird shooting. I don't think I'm getting any better, but I'm not getting any worse.” He’s off to Argentina in November to shoot there and explore a part of South America he didn’t visit when he was a marine engineer travelling around the ports of the world. 

As part of Transpower’s tower painting programme, Mike lectured regularly at their training school, teaching painters how to maintain the towers. Now he’s putting his mentoring hat back on. Mike explains: “I’ve been doing a bit of mentoring with a paint sales rep who’s keen to get ahead, pointing her in the right direction and keeping an eye on her progress.” It’s quintessential Mike that even in retirement, he’s still supporting people in his industry. He genuinely cares, and when push comes to shove, he'll be down in the trenches with you.

We wish Mike much happiness in his next chapter, and we’re grateful to have had the benefit of his keen intelligence, deep expertise, and generosity for 25 years of his career.

Thank you Mike.