Infrastructure advisory MBB adds further firepower to its senior ranks

Infrastructure project management and advisory firm MBB Group continues to build up its senior leadership ranks across Australia, with an ongoing stream of upper-level promotions and recruits.

Among the most recent, Ron Hastings has joined MBB Group in its projects & risk controls team as an executive director in Perth, while the consultancy’s Brisbane office has welcomed Anthony Ellis as a director and Marija Rakocevic as senior people & culture partner.

The latest joinees follow a recent round of senior promotions across the firm’s offices in Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia – including Chris Gouletsas’ step up to director in Adelaide along with an earlier series of senior-level recruits.

The flurry of recruits and promotions in turn follow a rejig of the decade-old firm’s operating structure carried out earlier in the year to support further growth and enhance client-focused agility, with its previous growth spurt in part driven by MBB’s acquisition of iPLAN Consulting in the back half of last year, taking its headcount at the time to around 200 professionals.

Ron Hastings
A specialist in strategic project controls, feasibility studies, cost analysis, and capital project advisory, Hastings joins MBB after operating his own consultancy, bringing over three decades of professional experience, including delivering projects in the mining, infrastructure and construction industries and time spent with the likes of Fortescue, KBR, INPEX and Rio Tinto.

Anthony Ellis
With a focus on finance and strategy, Ellis comes to MBB as a director in Brisbane after three years working on a NEOM real estate and tourism project in Saudi Arabia, with his 25-year professional career in infrastructure and mixed-use precinct development also taking in large-scale projects across commercial, residential, retail, sports, transport, and hospitality.

Chris Gouletsas
One of more than two dozen mid-year promotions, Chirs Gouletsas has meanwhile been elevated to director in Adelaide after joining MBB in 2022 following more than a decade at SA Water, latterly as an operations control manager, before which he spent time at Deloitte. His areas of expertise include operations, contract management, financial analysis, policy, and procurement.

2025 promotions

In addition to Gouletsas, MBB also made five associate director promotions: Brendan Crisp (planning) in Brisbane, Harrison Atwell (commercial) in Adelaide, and Matthew Van Niftrik (project analytics) and Bipin Keshri in Perth, with Keshri and Crisp coming to the firm via iPLAN and Atwell and Van Niftrik respectively joining early in 2023 and last year.

“The development of our people is a key part of our succession planning and I’m delighted to see almost 20 percent of the business taking the next big step in their career this year,” said MBB managing director Peter Jones. “We take great pride in the accomplishments of our people and recognising their good work and achievements over the last twelve months.”