Robert Hindle, B.Sc. (Hons), P.Eng., FEC

For two decades, Bob Hindle has devoted time, energy and passion to improving one of the core facets of PEO’s regulatory mandate, through a PEO committee whose workload is one of the heaviest.

Despite the responsibilities and time commitments that come with being a senior executive of a major, global engineering firm, Bob has been a leading influence as a member of the Complaints Committee (or COC) since 1993. The COC investigates and considers complaints about the actions and conduct of PEO licence and Certificate of Authorization holders, to ensure the public interest is served and protected.

Respected for his careful, reasonable and sensible judgment, Bob served as lead reviewer on some of the more difficult complaint files, and led the committee through some challenging transitions in the way it conducts its business.

Throughout his time on the COC, Bob has been committed to continually examining and improving its processes to make them as efficient and thorough as possible. Under his leadership as chair from 2009 to 2012, the handling and consideration of complaints was significantly improved, which has reduced the time taken to review cases, present the lead reviewer’s assessment, and reach decisions.

“The committee takes [its] work very, very seriously,” he told Engineering Dimensions magazine in 2010. “We fully understand that we are dealing with people’s livelihoods, careers and reputations and so I would say we bend over backwards to make sure we’ve got all the information that’s relevant before we make a decision.”

“As a self regulating profession, it is vital that members of the profession step up and contribute to the organization. Without volunteers, we risk losing our ability to self-regulate. My career has been interesting, exciting and rewarding, and I believe strongly in giving back to the profession that has given so much to me,” Bob says of his reasons for being a PEO volunteer.