Speakers

Hilary Barry returns as our outstanding event Master of Ceremonies.

One of the most recognisable and popular faces on New Zealand television, Hilary currently hosts the prime time TVNZ show, Seven Sharp.

Miriama will be joining us as Master of Ceremonies for the Hirepool Construction Excellence Awards.

Miriama (Ngāi Tahu/Ngāti Mutunga) is an award winning broadcaster, writer, speaker, and environmental advocate and is the host of TV1’s flagship current affairs programme Sunday, and of Māori current affairs programme Marae.

Tenby founded Kiwi K.A.R.E (Kiwi Aid & Refugee Evacuation) in June 2022 to support those Ukrainian’s in most need. Today, after delivering many hundreds of tonnes of humanitarian and medical aid forward, and conducting numerous evacuations, Kiwi K.A.R.E. is a highly respected organisation in that they operate almost exclusively in the Red Zones (the newly liberated areas and those towns and villages behind the Zero Line), delivering directly to front line hospitals and medical centres.

Brad Olsen is Chief Executive and Principal Economist at Infometrics. He is a leading economic commentator across New Zealand who focuses on getting useful information to businesses, decision makers, and the public.

Since joining Infometrics in July 2015 as a part time data analyst while studying at Victoria University of Wellington, Brad has risen to be one of New Zealand’s more prominent (and youngest) economic commentators, regularly featuring across TV, radio, print, and online.

National Spokesperson for Housing, Urban Development and Infrastructure.

Chris is in his third term as a Member of Parliament and is National’s Spokesperson for Housing, Urban Development, and Infrastructure, ranked third in the National line-up. He is also National’s Chair for the 2023 Election Campaign. From 2017-2020 he was the MP for Hutt South (the first time National had ever held the seat) and is now a National List MP based in Hutt South. He is National’s candidate for Hutt South in the 2023 Election.

Central Regional Manager, Civil Contractors New Zealand

Maintenance & Operations Manager, TREC Alliance

Dave has recently taken up a position on the Alliance Leadership Team of the newly formed Transport Rebuild East Coast (TREC) Alliance as Maintenance & Operations Manager. Dave’s previous role was Head of Maintenance at Higgins Contractors whereby his Team supported the Higgins maintenance contracts across New Zealand.

Hawke's Bay East Coast Branch Chairman

Managing Director Proarbore ltd

Cyclone relief efforts on vegetation management opening roads and public spaces post cyclone. The challenges with zero communication with staff, clients and communities.

Rachel Bowen is WorkSafe’s Engagement Lead for the Construction Sector. She joined WorkSafe New Zealand in 2021, attracted by the opportunity to engage with people to achieve change. With a background in Learning and Development, she has worked across the commercial and voluntary sectors, as well as having held various Policy and Management positions in the UK Civil Service at HM Revenue and Customs. Rachel is active in her community as a City Councillor and member of various voluntary Boards. She lives on a lifestyle block in Palmerston North with her family and a selection of spoilt animals.

Dr Kerry Griffiths is the IS Technical Director at the Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC), a member-based, purpose-led peak body working to enable sustainability outcomes in infrastructure – through the IS Rating Scheme, capacity building, thought leadership and advocacy. Kerry leads the direction and delivery of the ISC’s technical workplan and continuous improvement programme.  

Kerry is well versed in infrastructure sustainability and has many years of experience in this field, having worked as a Technical Director Sustainability at AECOM and URS. She has extensive experience in sustainability assessment and performance management, and has been instrumental in delivery of positive sustainability outcomes on several iconic infrastructure projects in Aotearoa New Zealand. In 2019, Kerry completed her PhD on how to enhance sustainability outcomes using sustainability rating tools in infrastructure

Orla is currently the National Environmental & Sustainability Manager for Higgins, and has worked for infrastructure companies in Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Orla’s role with Higgins encompasses all environmental compliance and sustainability across New Zealand and Fiji, as well as leading sustainability across the Fletcher Construction group. Orla is a qualified environmental engineer and environmental scientist and leads a diverse team of people across New Zealand and Fiji.

Sean Bearsley is the National Bitumen Operations Manager for Higgins Contractors Ltd. His role involves management oversight of Higgins’ bitumen importation, production and distribution business. He has gathered extensive knowledge throughout his 26 year career, about the design and construction of asphalt and bituminous surfacings. Sean has a professional interest in the performance of pavements: this interest extends to the sustainability, and health and safety performance of asphalt and bituminous materials.

Workforce Development Manager, Civil Contractors New Zealand

Through my work as an educator in secondary schools, I have developed a keen interest in how to highlight the opportunities available within the construction and infrastructure sectors.  A particular focus is gender diversity in the construction trades, as I witnessed several young women who were originally interested reject construction trades as a career. 

My focus on gender diversity has provided me with the opportunity of working on research projects within Aotearoa New Zealand focused on women in non-traditional trades. I have also completed a Doctor of Education through the University of Auckland investigating the advice provided to young women interested in the construction trades. 

My research experiences led me to the Construction and Infrastructure Centre of Vocational Excellence (ConCOVE), where I am the Special Projects lead. Alongside my mahi I co-founded Women in Trades NZ and am currently the Co-Chair.

Sue was appointed as Relationship Manager – Civil for Waihanga Ara Rau in October 2021, after spending six years with Connexis as a training advisor in their national field team.  You'll see Sue on Teams calls and, on the road, engaging with industry, so she can understand and advocate for the Civil sector. Her role is to gather intelligence and insights to support the work of the qualification, assessment moderation and research teams at Waihanga Ara Rau as the organisation continues to progress some of the biggest changes to vocational education in a generation. 

Sue trained initially as a primary school teacher and then went on to spend 17 years as Head of Adult and Continuing Education at Otumoetai College in Tauranga.  During this time, she completed a Bachelor of Education with a focus on adult education issues and needs.  She has also worked as a programme manager for a large workplace literacy PTE and as a contract behavioural safety resource writer and trainer.

Paul is a partner in the major projects and construction team at Dentons Kensington Swan. He has over 25 years specialist experience as a construction lawyer, having advised on some of the major projects that have built New Zealand. He is the legal advisor to the Executive Council. Prior to this role Paul was a National Executive Councillor for 5 years and an Auckland Executive Councillor for 10 years.

Paul is one of the CCNZ representatives on the review of NZS 3910, a contract he advises on daily. Paul is ranked as a leading contractor in international directories and is recognised as a leading construction lawyer in NZ.

Stuart Robertson is a Partner and business unit leader in Dentons Kensington Swan’s Major Projects and Construction team Dentons have been CCNZ Associate (and Core Associate) members for over 25 years. Stuart has been a member of the Auckland Branch Executive for some 10 years.

Stuart’s astute understanding of New Zealand law means he guides his clients through processes that support successful project outcomes. Where disputes are unavoidable, Stuart provides strategic advice to best resolve those issues and where possible maintain critical relationships. Stuart expertly guides both national and international clients through dispute avoidance and resolution via negotiation, mediation, expert determination, adjudication, arbitration and court proceedings.

Steve Jones, CEng, BEng (Honours) – University of Brighton. Steve leads Harrison Grierson’s Infrastructure teams across NZ. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer with over 35 years’ experience in the Water industry. 

He has worked in NZ since 2005 on significant development and three waters and roading infrastructure projects for both the public and private sectors.  Previously Steve was lucky enough to have worked through the UK’s Water privatisation programme and worked internationally on several occasions, including a period helping Suez Lyonnaise with a network reticulation research programme in both the UK & France.

Emily Botje is the Asset Management Lead within the Water Services Reform National Transition Unit.

Her team is responsible for maintaining infrastructure investment through transition and developing a National Code of Practice for reticulation design and construction and a National Growth and Land Development Framework.

Emily has been working in the asset management space for 25 years with local and international experience and brings with her a wealth of knowledge in the infrastructure management space.

Hamish Race is the Nelson Marlborough Manager for Schick Civil Construction and a self-proclaimed people enthusiast. 

"After 12 years in the industry, it has become apparent that our people of the biggest asset to any business but most importantly, our industry. A lot of the time we find that the industry picks our people rather than the people picking our industry. That is slowly starting to change but a big part of my why is how do we unlock our people to perform at a high performance level that of course benefits businesses but also so that it is giving the person satisfaction to keep reaching for that next level.”

Alistair Doyle is UDC Finance’s Regional Manager – Commercial for the Auckland and Northern region.

Alistair joined UDC Finance in 2019, bringing more than 30 years of banking and finance experience to the team.  Prior to his leadership roles, Alistair worked in excess of 10 years in various relationship management roles across SME markets in Auckland at both the National Bank and ASB. In these roles, his prime focus was to work with business owners providing a wide range of tailored financial solutions.

Covering the top half of the North Island, Alistair and his team at UDC are focused on lending to key industries that are asset intensive and require specialist understanding, including the civil construction industry which UDC has been working alongside for over eight decades

HSEQ Manager NZ & P

McConnell Dowell

Ryan is currently Programme Director, Road Works Safety for Waka Kotahi where he is leading a range of change activities including the risk-based approach to temporary traffic management to contribute to Road to Zero, New Zealand’s road safety strategy. Ryan’s career in the transport sector spans more than 20 years with experience in planning, design and construction. Ryan has held leadership and change management roles at regional and national levels across the transport sector. These include establishing the Christchurch Transport Operations Centre following the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes and leading the exploration of a national Autonomous Vehicle Testing facility. Ryan has a master’s degree of Engineering in Transport. 

Jeroen is currently Change Manager for the Road Works Safety Improvement programme at Waka Kotahi where he is supporting a range of change activities including Waka Kotahi’s transition to a risk-based approach in delivering temporary traffic management. Jeroen’s career in the change management spans more than 15 years with experience in Human Resources, leadership development and organisational design. Before joining the public sector in New Zealand, 

Jeroen has held various roles at commercial organisations at national and international level in the Netherlands and Spain. This includes Global Leadership Development Manager at Philips and Senior Talent Manager at Danone.  Jeroen has a master’s degree in Human Resources and Communications

Andrew Chin, B Tech (Env Eng), M Plan Prac, IPENZ Chartered Member C.WEM MCIWEM
Andrew is a chartered engineer (EC UK) and chartered environmentalist (SocEnv) with more than 20 years’ experience three waters infrastructure in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Since 2011 he has been working for Auckland Council in the Healthy Waters department that proves the stormwater services for Auckland.
Andrew has a dual role in preparation for water reform as the Head of Healthy Waters Strategy at Auckland Council and he was appointed as Executive Director Special Projects at Watercare in January 2022.
Andrew is responsible for the preparations and transition activities within Watercare and the Healthy Waters Department of Auckland Council necessary for water reform.

National Water Manager, Fulton Hogan,

Mark is responsible for the growth of Fulton Hogan’s water business including the development of systems and technical support to local teams in both operation and maintenance contracts and infrastructure construction. He leads a team of technical experts in asset management and systems development, geospatial information systems and water safety who respectively provide support to water infrastructure related contracts managed by Fulton Hogan. 

Mark also works with Fulton Hogan’s construction teams on contracting and procurement models to deliver better outcomes for our clients.Mark acted as the Mobilisation Manager for the start-up of the Wellington Water Alliance. This is the largest 3 Waters O&M Alliance in New Zealand to date at $40M pa. The role required him to develop and deliver key aspects of the implementation plan involving plant and equipment (and other logistics), people, systems/business

Dave is a professionally qualified Civil Engineer with a background in project management across a variety of infrastructure projects in New Zealand and the UK. Since joining G P Friel Ltd. as General Manager he has enjoyed the challenge of working with a team of high performing people to grow the business, deliver excellent work and maintain a successful brand.

Dave believes that our role as Engineers and Construction professionals is to build a legacy of health, safety, environmental and quality improvements that will benefit future generations.

Contract Manager - Shelley Bay Taikuru Development, Bryce O'Sullivan Contracting

Bailey Gair has worked for several family-owned and small to medium civil construction companies, including as a Managing Director. She is now General Manager at SCL Civil Works in Hawke's Bay.

Working and growing up in a family-owned civil construction business has given Bailey a good grounding and understanding of the civil construction industry, and the challenges and opportunities it faces.

Jim French is the Australasian Solution Specialist for Construction Equipment at Teletrac Navman, responsible for the delivery of internal and channel construction product training and assisting with new business development opportunities in the construction vertical. 

Jim’s experience spans over 27 years in the construction mining and survey industry, with particular focus on GPS products, Fleet and asset management systems & Machine Control and Guidance. He has worked with many brands of machine GPS systems and has extensive experience with Caterpillar fleet management systems. His experience includes working with customers to provide complete Job site solutions, job site analysis, fleet analysis and resource analysis. 

Simon was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the New Zealand Infrastructure Services business in July 2021, having spent the previous four years as the General Manager of the company’s North Island operations. 

A charted professional engineer, Simon is also one of Fulton Hogan’s most experienced and proven road maintenance managers with over 25 years of contracting experience. 

His significant governance experience includes numerous joint venture board roles. Simon also has a passion for quarrying and manufacturing and has a key role in leading sustainability across the New Zealand business.

Paul is currently Chief Executive at Whitestone Contracting Ltd, following a career that has seen him working in civil construction companies large and small for the past 25 years. Paul is passionate about giving back to the industry and making sure it remains healthy for contractors of all sizes for the present, but also for the future.