Dr Nates started his career in the mining sector in South Africa, before being seconded to the Energy Research Institute at the University of Cape Town. He later emigrated to New Zealand, where he worked at Auckland University of Technology in various roles, including as the Head of Department for Mechanical Engineering. Dr Nates has served on an Engineering New Zealand advisory group visiting Fiji National University to review their engineering qualifications. He has also served as an academic auditor for the Academic Quality Agency (NZ). Dr Nates also brings a distinguished acer in research, in areas such as renewable energy, medical devices and sport science and has supervised over a dozen PhD candidates to completion.