We are bringing together a range of speakers from the engineering community, international guests, Young Professionals, keynotes, ministers, and more. This year, we are offering concurrent sessions to address the specific needs of our various member markets and invite you to explore our speakers who have confirmed their place below.
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Jamie Fitzgerald - Keynote
Jamie Fitzgerald is one of New Zealand’s most sought after management consultants and he’s helped thousands of people around the world bridge the gap between strategy, leadership, and high-performance culture. In 2007, Jamie became the first ever Kiwi to reach the South Pole unsupported on foot with fellow adventurer Kevin Biggar. This 52-day expedition created media attention worldwide as they implemented a ‘business-like’ approach to reaching success.
As an adventurist, he currently holds the World Record for crossing the 5000km Atlantic Ocean in a tiny row-boat; world record for rowing across the Atlantic Ocean (5000km) in a tiny row-boat; wins against both Cambridge and Oxford rowing crews during his management and marketing degrees; elite representation with New Zealand Rowing and double New Zealand representation in rowing and surf lifesaving. Jamie worked with Rugby New Zealand 2011 and its Tournament workforce, ‘Team 2011’.
Jamie’s professional career has included marketing, financial, agricultural and education sectors. Whether using examples from growing his farm fencing business, or improving bottom-line performance during his various bank manager roles, Jamie’s rich supply of theory and real-life examples proves his ability to translate theory into action steps is very hard to beat. Jamie has in-depth experience working with businesses on strategy implementation and organisation effectiveness – leadership development, management training, and executive coaching. Instructional design, facilitation and adult learning methodologies. Programme development and large-group event design.
Rob Edwards - Keynote
Rob’s purpose is to provide a meaningful and memorable experience that leaves people focused on looking after their most important asset…THEMSELVES.
Rob has been a business leader for 20 years in the well-being industry designing and his staff delivering programs for hundreds organizations. Prior to that he worked for five years in a cardiac rehabilitation program where he developed programs to motivate people who had heart attacks, bypasses, diabetes and the like to get back on their feet and get the most out of their lives. There he wrote the internationally distributed book “Better Blood Pressure”. He took a year out with a group of 20 others to develop and implement a wilderness based rehabilitation program for young offenders.
Rob also founded and manages Its Time Foundation that replaces diesel power with solar in remote island schools. Also, established a Women’s Resilience program in Fiji and soon to be launched For Plastic Free Oceans project.
Hon Phil Twyford - MP Address
Hon Phil Twyford was born and raised in Auckland. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Te Atatu, where he lives. Phil’s vision is for New Zealand to deliver hope and opportunity to all people. He is committed to fixing the housing and transport problems that affect our biggest city, as well as much of the rest of the country.
After studying politics at Auckland University, Phil worked as a journalist and union organiser before becoming the founding Executive Director of Oxfam New Zealand. Phil’s strong belief in justice led to him becoming Oxfam’s Global Advocacy Director, based in Washington DC.
Upon returning to New Zealand, Phil was elected to Parliament for the Labour Party in 2008. In Opposition, he held the portfolios of Housing, Transport, Auckland Issues, and Disarmament and Arms Control.
As Minister for Housing and Urban Development and Transport, Phil is leading the Government’s comprehensive plan to build New Zealand out of the housing crisis and is working with communities to create a safer and sustainable transport network.
Hon Jenny Salesa - MP Address
Jenny Latu Salesa was sworn in as the new Member of Parliament for the Manukau East electorate in New Zealand’s 51st Parliament on 20 October 2014.
Three years later, she was re-elected as the MP for Manukau East and under the new Coalition government was made Minister for Building and Construction, Minister for Ethnic Communities, and Associate Minister of Education, Health, and Housing and Urban Development.
Jenny has a strong interest in ensuring positive health and educational outcomes and ensuring equal opportunities and better outcomes for all.
Housing is a central issue to the people of Manukau East and this has been her immediate focus at a local level. In addition she spent her first term as an MP concentrating on the issues of employment, education and skills
Greg Ward - MC
Greg Ward is the most prominent business MC in the New Zealand conference and events market and is fast gaining recognition within Australia. Greg's approach is professional, well-prepared and engaging, commanding audience attention with sincerity and humour as appropriate to the occasion.
Whether in his role as Master Of Ceremonies or a dynamic and informative Keynote Speaker, Greg has the skill, the experience and the client list to match. Creativity is the cornerstone of Greg's business and he presents cutting-edge thinking on how companies can harness the power of their staff's creative abilities to increase the potential for their organisation's success. Engaging and thought-provoking, Greg challenges you to find the innovative edge.
Rosina Webb - Building a brand that employees will LOVE
Rosina epitomises Energise. She’s the driving force that inspires individuals, teams and businesses to grow, compete and achieve.
Before establishing Energise, Rosina held senior marketing roles in a wide range of organisations including Sky City, Westfield, Telecom, AUT and Auckland City Council and consultancies.
Her passion for motivating individuals, teams and businesses to grow, compete and achieve has made her a formidable facilitator and effective change manager. These are the skills that enable Rosina to deliver on her promise to energise and mobilise individuals, teams and businesses.
Dr Brett Ogilvie - Managing the generation gap in a changing world
Dr Brett Ogilvie is Executive Leader of Tonkin + Taylor's Environmental Division, and served on T+T's Board of Directors from 2007-2018. He has more than 25 years’ international experience in environmental research and consulting, working with clients in numerous sectors including roads and highways, ports and harbours, minerals, industry, wastewater, water supply, power generation and oil and gas.
Brett holds undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in freshwater and marine biology as well as a degree in environmental economics. He has appeared as an expert witness before Council hearings, Environment Court, Board of Inquiry and the Auckland Unitary Plan Hearings Panel in New Zealand, as well as equivalent decision-making bodies internationally. He has worked in more than 25 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific.
Brett has been an Honorary Lecturer in Biological Sciences at Waikato University since 2007. He is a Member of the Institute of Directors (NZ), a Member of the Chartered Institute of Water & Environmental Management (UK), and a Member of the Royal Society for Biology (UK).
Paul Robinson - Developing a talent acquisition plan
Paul is the Founder and CEO of STS Group and STS Group International and has spent 20 years in the United Kingdom and New Zealand advising businesses on improving their people proposition.
Paul is passionate about seeing businesses grow through engaging and motivating their people while looking at the future state to ensure they evolve with the changing needs of differing generations.
Paul’s expertise is in the development of long-term business planning and workforce strategies to help businesses achieve their retention, engagement and growth targets by aligning the people plan with the business goals.
As a strong collaborator, Paul is currently advising many businesses on becoming stronger and more attractive employers, increasing diversity and how to get the best out of their people while working with them on a wide range of business and people strategies.
Dr Eric Crampton - "Doing things differently" Panelist
Dr Eric Crampton is the Chief Economist at The New Zealand Initiative and co-author of The Case for Economic Growth.
Dr Crampton served as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Department of Economics & Finance at the University of Canterbury from November 2003 until July 2014.
He is also the creator and author of the well-known blog “Offsetting Behaviour”.
Dr Seán Barnes - "Doing things differently" Panelist
Seán is passionate about realising the potential of business to deliver positive social and environmental impact. His recent experience includes advisory roles that support businesses (corporate and SME), social enterprise and government agencies in the areas of procurement, strategy, and sustainability.
Seán is recognised as a creative thinker and communicator who connects people, thinking and ideas to lead change. He brings a combination of technical knowledge, systems thinking, enthusiasm and trust-based relationships to his work.
Seán has significant experience in leadership and executive roles in NZ and Australia, holds a Ph.D. in Chemical and Process Engineering, and is a Chartered Member of Engineering New Zealand.
Nicola Nation - "Doing things differently" Panelist
Nicola keeps herself busy running the good ship Ākina.
She came to Ākina after being self-employed for 15 years in the area of corporate procurement, with her recent focus on managing large, complex procurement processes for public and private sector clients. Nicola is known for being pragmatic and solution focussed, and for “getting stuff done”. At Ākina Nicola manages our finance, human resources, marketing, systems, legal and administration functions.
Nicola is a barrister, and a barister. She is returning from injury with dreams of continued off-road running.
Jason Krupp - "Doing things differently" Panelist
Jason leads the advocacy, policy, communications and stakeholder functions as its Deputy Chief Executive Advocacy. He is a policy, media and advocacy professional, with two decades of experience in business and financial reporting, public policy and corporate communications. He has worked in South Africa, Hong Kong and for the last nine years New Zealand, and is an avid mountain biker.
Kiri Parr - "International Perspectives" Panelist
Kiri has more than 20 years corporate experience, the first half in private legal practice and the second half as in-house counsel for Arup, a large international professional consulting company.
In 2014 and 2015, Kiri was named in Australia’s most powerful part-timers Iist published by Women’s Agenda and Kiri was also recognised by her peers in 2015 and 2016 by being included in Doyle’s Leading In House Construction Lawyers in Australia.
Kiri speaks regularly at external seminars as well, often on topics relating to ethics and professional conduct, procurement and project delivery, the practice of construction law and flexible work practices.
At the heart of Kiri’s approach to business are her values and a key area of interest is how organisational structures, policies, culture and day to day behaviours can be combined to deliver value based organisations.
Patrick Hill - "International Perspectives" Panelist
As the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Jacobs’ Buildings & Infrastructure Asia Pacific & Middle East business, Patrick has lead over 6,000 employees in the delivery of critical buildings, power, transport, water and environmental projects that shape our cities and communities.
His career in professional services began over 20 years ago as a water process engineer. Since then he has undertaken several leadership positions within Jacobs across various sectors (water, power, telecommunications and infrastructure) and operations (Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, United States, Europe and South America).
Patrick states he is fortunate to have been exposed to multiple geographies, markets and disciplines during his career and it is a privilege to work with some of the top talent in our industry. It is the people who are the cornerstone of professional services industry and as such, his focus combines people leadership and delivering technical excellence to clients. It is important that the work delivered to clients is reflective of a diverse, innovative and inclusive culture internally.
Tracey Ryan - "International Perspectives" Panelist
Tracey Ryan works with high performing teams to assist clients in their business transformation towards a more sustainable path. She has over 20 years of experience serving energy, legal, financial, transport, property, manufacturing, infrastructure, and government clients. Tracey has had the opportunity to work with a number of private public and organisations from start-ups to S&P500 in an advisory capacity.
Malcolm Morrison - "All of Government Contracts (AoG Tranch 3)" Panelist
Malcolm Morrison set up his own business, Empower AS, in November 2014 to allow me to provide a range of procurement, advisory and project management services to a variety of clients.
Before starting Empower AS, he was a motivated, experienced and pragmatic commercial lawyer with a depth and range of experience focused on leading and managing the legal and commercial aspects of significant procurement programmes for large and sophisticated organisations.
Malcolm has been responsible for shaping the way NZ Government agencies purchase social services – an approximately $2 billion industry (excluding District Health Board (DHB) spend) – to focus on ensuring the significant investment Government agencies make in this area actually achieves better outcomes for the community members that use those services.
Chris May - "All of Government Contracts (AoG Tranch 3)" Panelist
Procurement Specialist at MBIE
Andrew Read - "All of Government Contracts (AoG Tranch 3)" Panelist
Andrew is a chartered professional electrical engineer with 30 years’ experience in the planning, management and administration of major electrical, data, security and associated systems infrastructure projects.
At Pedersen Read, Andrew is responsible for the financial and general management of the company, major project conceptual design through to detailed design, client liaison and advocacy, project strategic planning and risk analysis. He has particular interest and expertise in areas such as strategic infrastructure planning and security risk analysis. Andrew has dedicated his career to furthering best practice in engineering consulting.
He is a past board member and past president of the Association of Consulting Engineers New Zealand (ACENZ) and is an ACENZ “InnovateNZ” Awards judge. He is a board member and the Immediate Past President of the Engineering New Zealand (formerly IPENZ). He has been a practice area assessor for both CPEng and Engineering New Zealand applicants, and was on the Chartered Professional Engineers’ Council. He is on the Engineering Programme Advisory Committee of Ara (formerly Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology), providing industry input into the design of engineering degrees and diplomas. Andrew is chair of the Business Practice Committee of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), contributing to international professional practice guidelines.
Andrew lives in Christchurch and enjoys outdoor pursuits, travel, and family.
Alison Murray - "All of Government Contracts (AoG Tranch 3)" Panelist
Director (Acting) Commercial Procurement, Education Infrastructure Service at Ministry of Education of New Zealand