Women of Meridian - Leanne Robb

Having set her sights on an engineering career at an early age, and having grown up in Wellington appreciating that weather conditions could serve a greater purpose than folding umbrellas in half, it’s no surprise that Leanne Robb ended up in the renewable energy sector.

Leanne’s story is a classic reminder that the path of human existence – and career trajectories in particular – is seldom a straight line.

“When I was in high school Meridian was building West Wind in Wellington and getting ready to put in the access road through to Mill Creek,” says Leanne.

“The Brooklyn turbine had always existed, and I just loved the idea that you could get the electricity that we all need to do stuff every day from wind or water. I remember even back then thinking about engineering as a career and thinking ‘I love wind turbines’.”

So, naturally, as a procurement engineer in Meridian’s renewable construction team, Leanne must be up to her eyeballs sourcing wind generation components?

“Um, not yet! Once Mt Munro [a proposed 20-turbine wind farm in northern Wairarapa] is really underway I’ll get to do that. But to date, I've been learning and being right on the cutting edge for Meridian delivering the first battery and the first solar farm. The pace of learning in doing that has just been phenomenal – exhausting, but in a good way.”

Leanne is referring to the Ruakākā Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) - New Zealand’s first large-scale grid battery storage system - and neighbouring 130MW Ruakākā Solar Farm.

With the BESS completed in May 2025, focus has since turned to building the $227 million solar farm.

“I love being part of a team that delivers massive capital projects,” she says.

But it nearly didn’t happen. After completing a degree at the University of Auckland in Mechatronics Engineering – a discipline Leanne helpfully describes for the non-mechatronically-minded as “the use of electronics and control systems to control or improve mechanical systems” – the first stop on her career journey was at dairy giant Fonterra.

As part of Fonterra’s graduate programme, she completed a Masters in Dairy Science and Technology, earning a distinction. However, in 2015, just as Leanne was finding her feet, a major dairy downtown resulted in Fonterra shedding 800 jobs.

“I went down a path as a result of that that didn’t really align with me,” says Leanne.

Struggling to find her happy place, she took a contract role as a project engineer on the construction of a mozzarella cheese factory in Timaru.

“That was a Hail Mary – if it didn’t work out, I was going to leave engineering because it wasn’t for me. I was quite miserable going into it. But I absolutely loved that job. I found my niche.”

Following the completion of her contract she travelled around North America and Europe before returning to New Zealand to dip her toe into the energy sector with a role at engineering consultancy Aurecon.

“I got put into the renewable energy team reviewing contracts, as contract management was an area I had some experience in. I spent the next four and half years doing technical due diligence for renewable projects in Australia.”

While she loved her time at Aurecon, she still hadn’t found the perfect role. An opportunity back at Fonterra that seemed a perfect fit. Leanne felt like she was a strong candidate but missed out – a twist of fate she now describes as “the best bad thing that could have happened”.

And when her current role at Meridian became available, she didn’t miss out.

“Meridian feels like a natural home,” she says. “I get to do what I really care about every day and work with really intelligent, talented people.”

Having come close to throwing in the towel, only to find her feet, Leanne is passionate about encouraging young women to consider engineering as a career.

She has volunteered for the Wonder Project – an initiative that aims to inspire young people to take on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, and was a diversity and inclusion ambassador at Aurecon.

“I've always been keen to get more women in this space” she says. “It's a really fun and interesting career. But a lot of women - even going through high school - don't even know that it's there. Engineering is not even put in front of them as a possibility.

“And it can get tiring being the only woman in the room. If you can't find other women, if you're trying to progress and you're not in the right environment, it can feel like you're constantly pushing a boulder up a hill just trying to stay where you are.

“I quite like the saying you can only be what you can see - and so trying to support women is important. Not having to be a woman with all of the masculine qualities that are desired or traditionally held in these environments, to actually be able to come with your own sense of purpose, your own views. That makes every room you're in better.

“The more diverse voices you have in a room, the better the outcomes, because more diverse viewpoints have been considered.

“Meridian does a lot of work from the very beginning to try and attract diverse people to apply for roles. Right from that job description that can make a person think they might want that role or not.

“And then coming into a team where there are diverse people, everyone's view is wanted and respected. It's really good because it enables everyone to feel confident in raising a point that might be a bit divergent from the general kind of thinking about doing engineering.

“I can't speak for all parts of the business, but in our renewable construction team we've got some amazing women in the team. And we're getting more diverse as the team grows.”

Meridian is an equal opportunity employer with Advanced GenderTick accreditation. To learn more about working at Meridian, check out our careers homepage.