2022 Speakers & panellists

We welcomed a great line up of industry leaders, experts, and decision makers at Constructive 2022.

Hon Dr Megan Woods
Minister of Housing, Minister of Building and Construction

Christopher Luxon
Leader of the Opposition

Christopher Luxon is the Leader of the Opposition and the MP for Botany. He entered Parliament at the 2020 election and was elected Leader of the National Party in November 2021.

Prior to entering Parliament, Christopher was Chief Executive Officer of Air New Zealand from 2013 to 2019.

Prior to joining Air New Zealand, Christopher was President and Chief Executive Officer at Unilever Canada. This was one of several senior leadership roles he held during an 18 year career at the multinational that saw him work in roles in Europe, North America and Asia–Pacific.

Christopher served as the inaugural Chair of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Business Advisory Council and has received wide recognition for his leadership including a Blake Leader Award, Deloitte CEO of the Year, Orient Aviation Person of the Year, and Deloitte Company of the Year.

David Kelly
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, REGISTERED MASTER BUILDERS

David Kelly is the Chair of the Construction Industry Council, as well as being Chief Executive of the Registered Master Builders Association since 2014.   

Prior to talking up his current role, David was a Deputy Chief Executive for the Department of Building and Housing and subsequently Director of the Canterbury Recovery Programme for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.  In those roles, David was extensively involved in the Government’s response to the Canterbury earthquakes from day one, including establishing the technical investigation into major building collapses, which provided key technical information to the Royal Commission.  He also led the Building Act changes that were part of a package of reforms in the construction sector.  

Jehan Casinader
Facilitator

Jehan Casinader is one of New Zealand’s leading storytellers.

As an award-winning journalist and speaker, he helps to shape conversations about issues that matter.

Jehan is a familiar face to members of the building and construction sector, and is hosting Constructive for the fifth year in a row.

Using his sharp interviewing skills and pacy style, he’ll create a framework for meaningful dialogue at Constructive, and help our speakers to shine.

John Abercrombie
Northern Regional Manager, HAWKINS

John Abercrombie heads up Hawkins’ largest region as the Northern Regional Manager. With over 25 years in the construction sector, including 15 of those with Hawkins, John has a wealth of knowledge and brings strong local and international experience, spanning various projects.

As the Northern Regional Manager, John is responsible for all aspects of Hawkins’ business in the Auckland and Northland regions. His strengths lie in good team leadership and ensuring high-quality projects are delivered on time and within budget. He builds great teams, motivates through example, and excels at mentoring and training others.

Philip Aldridge
Chief Executive, Waihanga Ara Rau

Philip Aldridge is the Chief Executive of Waihanga Ara Rau. He has an extensive background in commercial enterprises, NGOs, and government organisations, Phil joined Waihanga Ara Rau after a successful tenure as the Executive Director of the Health Association of NZ.  

Having led initiatives to improve the Canterbury Rebuild’s labour supply, in conjunction with the infrastructure and construction industry, education providers and Government agencies, Phil understands the challenges and opportunities involved with transformational programmes of work involving many different Tangata Whai Mana (stakeholders).  Phil has a strong passion and vision for Waihanga Ara Rau and has rapidly recruited a motivated team to help move the organisation from an establishment start-up phase to full operation in a short space of time.  

Waihanga Ara Rau is a continuation of Phil’s history in customer-facing roles. Phil's drive is to make a difference to the lives and work of others, supporting them to fulfil their potential – this goes right to the heart of the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) which is focused on helping learners, employers and communities to thrive.  

Phil enjoys creating opportunities to collaborate and partner on important mahi. He is looking forward to getting out across the motu to raise awareness of Waihanga Ara Rau and build the important connections that will catalyse change across vocational education.  

Nate Alley
Managing Director, Sentinel Homes Waikato

Nate is a builder by trade and now steers the ship at Sentinel Homes Waikato, one of New Zealand's fastest growing group home builders.

Nate is the current Master Builders Waikato branch president and is passionate about people and culture, as well as promoting diversity within the industry.

Simon Barber
Managing Director, Jennian Homes Wellington

Simon is a Past National President of RMBA, an owner of Jennian Homes Wellington Ltd and develops residential land through Barber Commercial Ltd.

His family construction business was started by his father in 1964 and has weathered the changing market fortunes, and sought the opportunities, for 58 years.

Wellington based, Simon specialises in House and Land packages, working between six different territorial authorities. He enjoys supporting the industry through training our leaders of tomorrow and currently has five BCITO apprentices.

Nigel Benton,
Owner, Nigel M & Jacquelyn N Benton Limited

Nigel has over 40 years' experience in the building industry, including being a multiple winner nationally in the House of the Year competition and a judge for the Apprentice of the Year competition. 

Nigel has served on the Auckland Master Builders Executive and is the current Auckland Vice President.

He is also a member of the Customer Advisory Board at Auckland Council pushing for changes to the consenting & inspection systems. 

Nigel is passionate about solving the amount of construction waste that we put into the ground each day. Working with Mark Roberts, senior waste planning advisor for Auckland, and Dr Terri-Ann Berry at Unitec, the team have undertaken a study to reduce the construction waste sent to landfill, by recycling over 90% of the waste from current development projects.

Dr Terri-Ann Berry
Director of the Environmental Solutions Research Centre and Associate Professor in the School of Construction and Engineering, Unitec Institute of Technology Auckland

Dr Terri-Ann Berry (MSc, PhD, CChem, CEnv, FRSC) is Director of the Environmental Solutions Research Centre and Associate Professor in the School of Construction and Engineering at Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. 

She is an environmental engineer with significant expertise in environmental chemistry and the management of sensitive environments. Her key research interests include effective waste management for the Construction and Demolition sector and managing and mitigating risks associated with asbestiform minerals, such as asbestos.

Richard Carver,
Managing Director & Co-Owner, Jennian Homes

Richard is the Managing Director and Co-Owner of Jennian Homes and Milestone Homes nationwide group home builders. He is a Chartered Member of the  NZ Institute of Directors, and also a Director of Construction Marketing Services Ltd (CMS) and ProductSpec Ltd.

 
Formerly Richard was a RMBA Board Director for 10 years, from 2005 to 2015 and currently sits on the MBS Board. He was also the Chairman of Right House Ltd, Chief Executive of Carter Holt Harvey Wood Products and Chair of the Building Industry Federation. He was also CEO of Richmond Ltd and CE of Carters Building Supplies, a Division of Carter Holt Harvey, he was also Service and Finance Director of Masterfoods Australia.

Ross Copland
Chief Executive, Te Waihanga / NZ Infrastructure Commission

Ross Copland is the Chief Executive of Te Waihanga. He has experience in the design, procurement, financing, and delivery of infrastructure having worked in commercial construction and property on both sides of the Tasman.

Ross holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with First Class Honours, a Bachelor of Commerce and an MBA.  

Andrew Crisp
Chief Executive, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development

Andrew joined Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) when it was first established in October 2018.

As the lead Government agency for housing and urban development, HUD works across the system and with others to prevent and reduce homelessness, increase public and private housing supply, modernise rental laws and standards, increase access to affordable housing for people to rent and buy, and to support quality urban development and thriving communities. 

Prior to HUD, Andrew held a number of public sector leadership roles, including at Land Information New Zealand, The Treasury, the Department of Labour, the Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Kelvin Davidson
Chief Property Economist, CoreLogic

Kelvin joined CoreLogic in March 2018 as Senior Research Analyst, before moving into his current role of Chief Economist. He brings with him a wealth of experience, having spent 15 years working largely in private sector economic consultancies in both New Zealand and the UK.

Kelvin is well practiced in applying macroeconomic trends and data to the property market, both residential and commercial.

In his role with CoreLogic Kelvin’s focus is on keeping up to date with what’s going on in the property market and continually finding different ways for viewing and interpreting it. Kelvin’s economics background means that he knows his way around a spreadsheet, but more importantly he always puts more emphasis on providing the key insights and telling a story, whether his audience be clients or the media.

Patrick Dougherty
General Manager Construction and Innovation, Kāinga Ora 

Patrick Dougherty leads the Kāinga Ora Construction and Innovation Group, which is charged with delivering the Crown Entity’s new public housing across New Zealand and now delivers more than 2,400 new homes per annum and rising. It also reconfigures and renews part of the existing Kāinga Ora housing portfolio of more than 63,500 homes. 
  
The group Patrick leads, of more than 250 property professionals, is also actively pursuing innovations, such as the use of offsite manufacturing, as well as undertaking research and development to enable Kāinga Ora to build better homes through the use of technology, undertake faster, safer and more predictable procurement, and save on the time and cost of delivering new homes. 

Ben Drake
Board Member, OffsiteNZ

Ben is a recently appointed Board Member of OffsiteNZ and has over 13 years of experience working around the world in the built environment and construction industry. This includes 5+ years as a structural engineer based in London designing award-winning multi-storey modular/offsite buildings in the UK, Canada and USA. 

Now back in his native NZ, Ben is very passionate about increasing local uptake of Offsite technology, whether it be through government and industry lobbying, or input to wider governance strategies in his dual roles on the Board of OffsiteNZ and as a practising Project/Development Manager for RCP. 

Ben’s extensive 'hands-on' technical, commercial and regulatory experience, combined with his passion and skills as an effective communicator, puts him in an ideal position to drive Offsite uptake in NZ. 

Matthew Duder
Managing Director, EBOSS

As Managing Director of EBOSS Matthew is close to trends and developments that reveal insight into the future of the NZ building industry.

Jeff Fahrensohn
Manager Inspections, Auckland Council

Jeff manages a team of 240 inspectors, CCC assessors, and BWOF officers as part of the Building Consents department in Auckland Council. Like everyone, his team have been very busy over the last year where they have carried out over 200,000 building inspections, issued 16,000 CCCs and processed 16,500 BWOFs. 

One of Jeff’s key focus areas is in collaborating with industry partners to help achieve high quality construction by providing learnings and feedback from what his team sees every day on building sites across Auckland. 

He is currently on the board of Building Officials Institute of NZ (BOINZ) and the Building Research Advisory Council which enables him further opportunity to contribute at a national level.  

Leonie Freeman
Chief Executive, Property Council New Zealand

A well-respected industry leader, Leonie has extensive experience in the New Zealand property industry, having held top positions in both the public and private sector. From creating the concept of what is now realestate.co.nz, to buying and transforming her own residential property management business, helping establish the new Auckland Council, and managing asset development for Housing New Zealand, there’s not many areas of property that Leonie has not touched. 

In 2011, Leonie was appointed to the board of NZX listed company Goodman Property Trust, and up until her 2018 appointment as Property Council’s Chief Executive, she dedicated her time to leading an independent philanthropic initiative to solve Auckland’s housing crisis. 

Leonie holds a Master of Commerce, majoring in valuation and property management and is a life member of the Property Institute of New Zealand, a chartered member of the Institute of Directors, and a member of Global Women. In 2017 she was awarded the Property Institute’s Supreme Property Award, the Property Council Auckland Property People Judges Choice Award, and was a finalist in the Westpac Women of Influence Awards.

Sam Gordon
Project Manager, Hawkins

With a strong track record of successfully managing building projects, Sam is well known for aligning with the needs of the client, consultants, community, and the culture required to ensure a best for project outcome.
 
Sam continually brings innovation and smarts to his delivery approach, which has successfully seen him involved with many significant projects across Aotearoa, as well as various other contracts for major brands.

Most recently Sam was the project lead on the award-winning Food Stuffs North Island Head Office building for Auckland Airport, a state-of-the-art facility which received a 6 Green Star - Office Built v3 Certified Rating from New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC), placing it in the ‘world leadership’ category. Following the success of this project, Sam is now leading the current $200 million B201 Redevelopment project for The University of Auckland, another project targeting a 6 Green Star rating by NZGBC. 

Antonia Horrocks
General Manager, Competition, New Zealand Commerce Commission

Antonia manages the Competition Branch which is responsible for delivering the Commission’s market studies, merger control, cartels and competition investigations work. Antonia joined the Commission in August 2016 from the UK Competition & Markets Authority. Prior to joining the UK regulator, she worked on as an antitrust lawyer in London from 2003.  She started her career at a law firm in New Zealand.

Amos Kamo (Ngai Tahu, Ngati Mutunga )
Director Policy and Performance - Kāinga Ora Homes and Communities  

Amos is originally from Christchurch and qualified as an environmental planner (Lincoln University).  

His background is in senior leadership roles in both the public service and private sector.  Amos has worked on a number of significant infrastructure projects across New Zealand including the Roads of National Significance Programme (RoN’s), and the Auckland Housing/Urban Regeneration Programme.

Amos believes collaboration between government and industry is fundamental to delivering effective outcomes in project design and delivery.  

Guy Marriage
Architect at First Light Studio, Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Construction at Victoria University of Wellington

Guy is an Architect based in Wellington, teaching Construction at Victoria University of Wellington. Having spent 11 years living and working in London for architects including Foster and Partners, he returned to New Zealand in 2000 and has been working with some on Aotearoa's brightest young minds on creating innovative and award-winning housing. He is also a fervent proponent for the need to build more densely and avoid continuing sprawl, and he is the author of three books around construction - TALL (on high-rise construction), M.A.D. (Modern Apartment Design), and the most recent: Medium (on Medium Density Housing).

Pam McGarry,
General Manager – People & Culture, Naylor Love

Pam has over 25 years of experience across all aspects of HR functions within the health and construction sectors, and specialises in developing and implementing strategies to attract, develop, engage, and retain a diverse workforce to facilitate the organisation's growth in a high-performance culture.

Pam’s passion is to create a value based inclusive environment that respects, supports, empowers and enables people to be the best version of themselves. As General Manager of People and Culture for a large national commercial construction company employing over 840 people, Pam strives to lead our people practices that encompasses a framework of best practice principles that foster engagement and creating a diverse and inclusive environment where the wellbeing of our people is paramount.  

Pam was awarded Highly Commended for the Helen Tippett Award at the 2022 NAWIC Excellence Awards

Dan McGuinness
Director, LT McGuinness

Dan McGuinness is a Director of LT McGuinness. He has a Bachelor of Construction from Massey University and is an NZIQS fellow. Dan is a member of the MBIE Wellington Regional Skills Leadership Group.
LTM is a third-generation family construction company with a 70-year tradition of quality, on-time and cost-effective performance across many landmark and major commercial construction projects. It employs more than 300 permanent staff and has its own internal training school with over 20 current apprentices.
 
LTM is committed to social procurement and has built extensive community partnerships with groups including the Home of Compassion, clubs and schools, and with local iwi throughout the North Island.
 
LTM is on track to become one of New Zealand’s first zero-carbon certified building contractors. It is currently constructing one of NZs most sustainable building projects, Victoria University’s Living Pā, which is part of the International Living Building Challenge.

Mark Roberts
Senior Waste Planning Advisor, Waste Solutions, Auckland Council

Mark is a Senior Waste Planning Advisor at Auckland Council. He has been working in the field of resource efficiency and waste minimisation for 18 years. His role encompasses working closely with industry to design out waste and brokering the diversion of waste to create new businesses, social enterprises, and to benefit our communities. 

Mark has led innovative projects on deconstruction methods, initiated new research on construction waste and consulted across the building industry on waste minimisation. Mark was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship in 2019 to study community-based construction waste initiatives in the United States.

Brett Russell
Managing Director, Russell Group of Companies  

Starting on the tools as an apprentice bricklayer 40 years ago, Brett has been committed to the growth of the industry and today is an astute business owner, with practical experience as a subcontractor, contractor, developer, property & hotel owner. Brett’s experience is wide ranging and includes company & project management, all elements of construction including design and build, contract negotiations, project development, feasibility and funding and company acquisitions.

He is a people person who uses his broad experience to provide a solution-based approach in a partnership environment, whether with clients & consultants he has worked with for more than 20 years, or his employees & business partners that have been together for over 30 years. Together with his family, who form the backbone of the businesses, these partnerships have assisted in the continued long term growth and success of the group.

John Sneyd
General Manager, Building System Performance, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

John leads the Ministry of Building, Innovation and Employment's (MBIE) Building System Performance branch, which is the government’s lead advisor on the building regulatory system, including the New Zealand building code.

He comes from a government legal and regulatory background, and spent five years as the chief legal advisor at the former Department of Building and Housing before moving to a senior management position in another government agency. 

Paul Southey (Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa te Iwi)
Director, A1 Homes Wairarapa

Paul Southey was born and raised in the Wairarapa, where his journey took him from a young truck driver to an award winning builder and investor.

His career has seen him build over 700 Homes, invest in rental properties in multiple countries, perform renovations, build spec homes, numerous subdivisions as well as occupy leading roles in business, sports, Master Builder associations and guiding Iwi organisations.

A champion of Woman, Māori and Pacifica in construction, Paul’s passion and commitment to building connections and supporting diversity is influential. Involved with the Māori Advisory Group, Māori in Business Wairarapa Chair, Māori lands and Urupa trustee, RSLG Chair.

Judith Taylor
President, Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects  

Judith grew up in Wellington. She has been a registered architect since 1986. In 1990 she established Taylor Architects, where much of her work was in the parliamentary precinct. In 2014, Judith became General Manager of Precinct Services at Parliament, including the complete makeover of the interior of Bowen House, home to Members of Parliament and their staff. Since 2015 she has been Associate of Professional Development at Context Architects.

She has been a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Architects for over 15 years and has held numerous appointed leadership roles over the years, including as chair of the Institute’s Wellington Branch an Assessor for the NZ Registered Architects Board, sitting on the Architects Education and Registration Board from 1994 to 2002. In addition to helping set up the training programme for NZRAB assessors, she’s acted as New Zealand coordinator for the accreditation of NZ architecture degree programmes.

Nathan Te Miha (Te Tairawhiti & Ngati Porou, AOTEAROA)
Construction Director, Iconiq Group

Nathan was born and raised in Gisborne, New Zealand and attended Gisborne Boys High School from 1997 – 2001. He started his apprenticeship straight out of school in 2002 and was a Qualified Builder by 2006, a Project Manager from 2008 – 2012, and has been a Business Owner from 2013 to today.

Nathan develops robust construction project management processes and most importantly implements these across every project he is involved with.

He is a true believer that great planning and processes will inevitably lead to projects running effectively and successfully. He ensures construction runs to program and maintains solid communication throughout, which is a massive asset to ensure the success of the project. Other than dedicating his time to construction, Nathan takes pride in supporting his 2 children through their schooling and sports.

Darrell Trigg
Managing Director, Trigg Construction

Darrell has been involved in the building industry for over 26 years and is Managing Director of Trigg Construction based at Marsden Point in Northland. He is a current board member for RMBA and Chairman of the MBS board.

A member of the Master Builders Association for over 20 years, Darrell was the Chairman of the Auckland Registered Master Builders from 2000 to 2013. Previously he was a Director of Construction Information Ltd, and is a current member of the RBMA Commercial Working Group.

Darrell is a trade qualified Carpenter and Licensed Building Practitioner; he has extensive involvement in all aspects of construction business and brings skills in developing future strategic direction and planning, with a clear understanding of grass roots issues facing the industry. 

Darrell enjoys fishing, diving and travelling with Marlene and family, he is a very active Chief Fire Officer at the Ruakaka Volunteer Fire Brigade where he has served for over 34 years and is an Associate Member (by Examination) of the NZ Fire Brigade Institute, member of the NZ Institute of Building and the NZ Institute of Directors.

Rudy Van Baarle
Owner, Director and Head Gopher of Molesworth Homes, Liberty Developments & Van Baarle Construction

Rudy started his apprenticeship in the early seventies and became self-employed in 1977. Apart from working in England for 3 years he has spent all his building career in the Wellington region . 

Rudy initially focused on high quality residential homes, wining many local and national House of the Year Awards. He has served on the Wellington executive for over 25 years including as President and has been awarded a Life Membership. He has served on various boards at a national level including BCITO and National Asset Trust.

Initially starting with one and two site developments in addition to contracting, then evolving and growing into larger scale developments and subdivisions. At one stage after the 2008 crash deciding to focus solely on land development but then returning to building with high density housing to meet the latest demand. 

He has also completed several projects for Kainga Ora and its predecessor. 

He has a passion for quality building and helping others succeed and keeping things simple. Rudy is looking forward to celebrating 50yrs in the industry next year.

Gloria Vetekina
Capability Services Manager, MATES in Construction New Zealand

Gloria Vetekina has whakapapa to Ngāpuhi, Te Whakatōhea, Ngāti Whakaue and Ngāi Tahu.

Gloria has worked for MATES in Construction since 2016 based originally in Queensland, Australia before returning home to Aotearoa to support the team establish MATES in Construction across Aotearoa since November 2019.

Gloria has held three positions within MATES in Construction as program manager, operations manager and recently accepted the role of Kaihautū - capability services manager. 

Gloria states the role of Kaihautū involves bringing together communities, iwi, non govt and govt organisations. As a country and community, we can best serve and support all whānau through collaboration and working together. It is key to creating larger scale change amongst our whānau and communities and it will take an all of community approach to really see this happen.

Alex Waldren 
National Director, Industry Policy, Master Builders Australia

She has 20 years experience in public policy development working with industry and government on housing, cities, infrastructure, regional development and aged care policy and regulatory affairs.

Prior to working for Master Builders, Alex was a senior adviser to government. She led work on planning, funding and financing city shaping infrastructure projects, including Western Sydney International Airport.

Alex also sits on the board of Livable Housing Australia which is Australia’s longstanding advocate for liveable housing design that helps deliver safer, more comfortable and easier to access homes.