Celebrating Women in Cranes - Meet Ness

Happy International women’s day! We’re excited to be celebrating all of the talented women not only in our company but in the wider construction and crane industry.

Meet Ness Jellyman, Ness joined the Smith Crane team back in November 2021 as a Hiab Operator. She has worked her way up to being a crane operator in just over a year. Ness found her passion for cranes after being on-site and working with the crane crew in Christchurch who encouraged her to give it a go and since then she hasn’t looked back.

Ness highlighted the challenges of working as a female in a male-dominated industry but wants more women to get involved and not let this hold them back. Ness shared that she has been well-supported by our Crane Manager Chris Burrowes to challenge herself, grow her career in Cranes and has been provided opportunities to upskill and lots of on the job learning. She is an outstanding team member and we are extremely proud to have her on the SCC team and look forward to seeing what she continues to achieve!

A quick word from the boss (Tim Smith) on Ness “It’s a pleasure having Ness in our team and great to see her progress from the Hiab truck & into bigger cranes (Ness will be mainly operating Liebherr LTM 1040 & LTM 1060 all terrain cranes). Seen here she is operating our 300 ton grove GMK6300 All Terrain Crane. With Ness moving into Cranes a position has become available for class 5 driver on UD 5 axel truck fitted with Hiab 544 crane.

If you’re keen to progress your career opportunities such as those provided to Ness could arise. We are New Zealand’s largest & best-equipped crane Company by a significant margin with over 170 Mobile crawler & tower cranes up to 1200 tons capacity the sky is the limit!”

If you are looking for a position where opportunities to give your career a lift & get into bigger crane is attractive give us a call 0800 622 545

A big thank you to all our awesome women across our business from the Transport team to the Crane team and the Office team – we appreciate all that you do for us!