Switched on woman becomes Clipsal’s first female engineering chief in 90 years
Clipsal Australia has broken with 90 years of tradition and appointed its first female engineering chief. Ivanka Chamings is Clipsal’s recently appointed Research and Development Manager for the Pacific Zone. Ivanka took up the position in January, 2010 from her predecessor Chris Quinn.
She takes the reigns from a long and distinguished line of engineering chiefs that include one of the original founders and company directors, Ken Gerard as well as company legend, Norm Zerner who held the position in the post- war period, Bill Halliday and Ian Hunter.
Ivanka heads up a design team consisting of 50 engineers encompassing mechanical, electronic, firmware, hardware and software. It is the largest engineering group in the Australian electrical industry and one of the biggest R&D teams in Australia.
Prior to taking on the role in January 2010, Ivanka had roles of Project Manager, Portfolio Manager and Program Leader with the Project Management Office over five years. Her project credits include guiding the Blue Link Project that introduced a range of Cat 6 and Cat 6a data connectors into the Clipsal and Schneider Electric range for the Pacific and Asian markets, project managing socket developments for Moduline brand, establishing the new product test lab at the Gepps Cross site amongst other research, development and manufacture transfer projects.
“The last 12 months have been a big transition for the company including great structural change. There have been many new processes to learn. I’ve received nothing but great support from the team and management during this transition. The team has been fantastic and very accepting of me as their new manager. There haven’t been any issues.”
Ivanka sees herself as very much a contemporary boss.
“I rely on the people around me so I like to be approachable. I take on board everyone’s view and then make an informed decision. I trust and respect their expert opinions. With such a big team, we have structured the department with five team leaders who report to me and we communicate frequently.”
Ivanka is also a wife and mum and she is doing well to manage the demands of work and home life. “I have two families. One at home and one at work and I need to be there for both. If a project or issue requires a 10 to 12 hour a day commitment or travel to get it done then so be it, but otherwise the evenings and weekends belong to my family. Work life balance is very important and it’s something I try to encourage in my staff. It is all about balance.”
Media contact: Alex Beltrame, Media Manager, Clipsal Australia Ph: 08 8161 0822
For general media enquiries about Clipsal please contact:
- Alex Beltrame,
Media Manager,
Ph: +61 8 8161 0822
