Calven Bland: thinking big

Growing up, Calven Bland had little interest in the classroom and was convinced his future lay in the army. Today, he is a Singapore-based engineer who has worked on some of Asia’s most ambitious marine construction projects.“I struggled at school,” recalls Calven. “I was an outdoors guy; I liked playing sports and hated exams, hated learning.”

For years, becoming a soldier felt like the obvious path. But in his late teens, after narrowly missing out on officer selection, things began to shift. Encouraged by his parents to pursue a professional qualification, he started looking in a different direction. Although he had joined the New Zealand Army Territorial Force while studying at Carrington Polytechnic (now Unitec), he went on to enrol in engineering at the University of Auckland.

“There was never an intention to go to university, but once I got there, I actually quite enjoyed it,” he says. “It opened up a whole lot of things, both from a learning perspective and in terms of social connection. It developed my inquisitive nature and also made me a little more analytical.”

Alongside his studies, he continued serving in the Territorials as an aerial dispatcher and movement operator – a role that took him to Antarctica during several of his summer breaks, a place he would “go back to in a heartbeat”.

Calven, who is proudly half Fijian, also connected with his Pacific heritage at the University, as a founding member and future president of the South Pacific Indigenous Engineering Students group (SPIES).

“I was always aware of the cultural aspect surrounding me, and I kind of embraced it,” he says.

There weren’t many Pacific people in engineering when he was a student, he says, “so I gravitated towards that community, and I think it might have centred me a little more”.

That sense of connection extended beyond culture into leadership. Alongside his involvement in SPIES, Calven served as president of the Auckland University Engineering Society. Looking back, he says this early experience of working closely with others, along with his time in the military, helped shape his future leadership style.

“It made me more tolerant and understand it’s not just ‘the world according to Calven’. It also prepared me for the teamwork side of engineering.”

Even then, his ambitions were already stretching well beyond New Zealand. During his studies, he wrote down a list of goals – a list he still has to this day – and at the very top were ‘live overseas’ and ‘build big things’.

Both would soon become reality.

After graduating in 1999 with a Bachelor of Engineering, majoring in civil engineering, Calven joined the firm McConnell Dowell and spent six years working across the Pacific, including in Western Sāmoa, American Sāmoa, Pitcairn Island and Fiji.

“That made me realise I didn’t want to work away from the sea, so I specialised as a marine construction engineer.”

A chance opportunity then set the course for the next chapter of his life. While visiting Singapore for his sister’s wedding, he connected with the local McConnell Dowell office and was offered a 12-month secondment opportunity.
More than two decades later, he’s still there.

“I went up with a backpack, a computer and a one-year project. And 21 years later, I’m married to a Singaporean, my children are Singaporean, I serve in the Singapore Army – I’m as Singaporean as you can get without being Singaporean.”

His professional achievements in that time include leading the construction of major projects such as the Marina Bay Sands promenade, including its Events Plaza and iconic Crystal Pavilions – a complex, three-year around-the-clock build he delivered on time and under budget. He has also worked on major marine infrastructure projects in Hong Kong, Indonesia and other parts of the region.

Calven says being based in Asia has meant he has been able to work on projects he could only have dreamed about back in New Zealand.

“From an engineering perspective, it’s all or nothing here,” he says. “You can’t be half in, half out.”

But the pace of that work has not come without its challenges. In 2011, feeling “a little bit burnt out”, Calven took a sabbatical year and briefly moved into recruitment, before transitioning into business development – a role he still holds today. He also advocates for women in the engineering industry, encouraging greater diversity and inclusion across the sector. 

Outside of work, his drive to build and connect communities has taken on a different form.

A long-time rugby enthusiast, Calven has been deeply involved in Singapore’s rugby scene, helping to grow the game at a grassroots level. Over the years he has worked on various committees at the Singapore Rugby Union and served as president of the Wanderers Rugby Club.

“I’m quite possibly the worst rugby player in the world, but what I am really good at is administration – so I’m a really good rugby administrator.”

In 2013, spotting a gap in youth rugby in the country, he co-founded the Titans RFC. Starting with just four children and a couple of mates, the club has since grown to around 350 players and 50 coaches, providing opportunities for boys and girls aged three to 17.

At the core of the club’s mission is to create social connectivity.

“I love rugby for the fact that it brings people together from various socioeconomic classes. People don’t care if you’re the banker’s son or the butcher’s son; they care about whether you turn up to training and if you’re a good team member. It’s a great leveller.”

He also runs the Wanderers and Titans Foundation, which supports financially constrained and at-risk youth. The foundation helps youth transition to men’s rugby and offers internships for employment.

Alongside all this, Calven has maintained his lifelong connection to the military. In 2015, he was the first Westerner to join a newly formed unit in the Singapore armed forces for new citizens and permanent residents.

At 54 years old, he says he is now the “old man of the unit” and will have to retire when he turns 55 later this year. Never one to sit still, though, Calven has already signed up for Singapore’s volunteer police force.

And despite building a full life overseas, New Zealand remains close to his heart.
“You name it, I miss it,” he says, listing family, friends and meat pies as the first things that come to mind.

He is also eyeing a return to New Zealand in the next few years, primarily to be closer to his parents and so that his two children – aged 11 and nine – can experience life in Aotearoa.

“I want my kids to grow up as little Kiwis.”