Engineer
William joined the ZIP team as an Engineer in 2020. He studied for a Bachelors of Engineering at Canterbury University, specialising in electronics and embedded systems.
William was very young when he began building simple electrical circuits and writing programs as a hobby. William is the son of John Wilks and grew up exposed to thinking about how engineering can provide tools to enable conservation. Many of William’s early projects had an environmental focus such as software to support kiwi transmitter manufacturing and a self-reporting mousetrap network. William gradually moved on to more complex designs, including a kea nest monitor for the Department of Conservation and the Kea Conservation Trust. He won an outstanding scholarship for this design while still at school. During his degree William became increasingly involved in designing and building electronics and software projects for Wildtech NZ Ltd and ZIP. William works alongside John and is also based in Christchurch.
William enjoys cycling and skiing. At weekends he can usually be found with his head under the bonnet of a car as he finds an excuse to take it apart for “improvements.”