Some interesting announcements in the last few days about senior positions in both the Auckland Council and the Auckland Transport CCO. Looking at the council first, the Auckland Transition Agency announced the following positions late last week:
Manager Customer Services: Nigel King, currently Group Manager Customer Services, Auckland City Council.
Manager Parks, Sports and Recreation: Ian Maxwell, currently Director Community, Manukau City Council.
Manager Libraries and Information: Allison Dobbie, currently Group Manager Libraries, Auckland City Council.
Manager Community Development, Arts and Culture: Louise Mason, currently General Manager – Programmes and Partnerships, Auckland Regional Council..
Manager Environmental Strategy and Policy: Ludo Campbell-Reid, currently Group Manager Urban Design, Auckland City Council.
Treasurer: Mark Butcher, formerly General Manager, AllianceBernstein NZ Limited, Wellington.
Manager Democracy Services: Darryl Griffin, currently Group Manager Democracy and Support Services, Waitakere City Council.
Manager Information Systems: Mike Foley, currently Chief Information Officer, Watercare Services Limited.
Manager Property: Ian Wheeler, currently Property Group Manager, Auckland City Council.
Manager CCO Governance and Monitoring: Jaine Lovell-Gadd, currently Corporate and Business Services Director, Waitakere City Council.
Manager Infrastructure and Environmental Services: John Dragicevich, currently Director City Services, Waitakere City Council.
Manager Accounting Services: Delaine Wilson, currently General Manager – Shared Services, NZ Post.
Manager Finance: Kevin Ramsay, currently Director Corporate Services, Rodney District Council.
Manager Local Board Services: Karen Lyons, currently Group Manager, Strategy Office Auckland City Council.
Most of these people I have never heard of, but I have underlined the one that I find particularly interesting – and that is Ludo Campbell-Reid in a pretty important role. Ludo is the guy who brought us the shared streets concept, and seems to be really onto it when it comes to cutting edge urban design – so I think it’s an incredibly good sign that he’s got a pretty powerful role in the new Super City.
Turning to the Auckland Transport CCO, Jon C at Aucklandtrains reports that some important announcements have been made on roles there too:
Chief Operating Officer: Fergus Gammie, currently CEO of ARTA,
Manager Strategy and Planning: Peter Clark, currently General Manager Strategy and Planning, ARTA.
Chief Finance Officer: Brian Monk, currently Chief Operating Officer of the Auckland Regional Council.
Chief Infrastructure Officer: Dr Kevin Doherty, currently National Manager Professional Services at the New Zealand Transport Agency.
Manager Communications and Public Affairs: Wally Thomas, currently Director Public Affairs, Waitakere City Council.
Manager Human Resources: John Woods, currently General Manager Organisation Performance, Auckland City Council.
Manager Road Corridor Operations: Andrew Allen, currently Group Manager, Transport Safety, Assets and Operations, Auckland City Council.
Manager Road Corridor Access: Alan Wallace, currently Group Manager Transport Infrastructure, North Shore City Council.
Manager Public Transport Operations: Mark Lambert, currently General Manager, Customer Services, ARTA.
Manager Major Projects and Project Management Office: Rick Walden, currently Director Economic, Manukau City Council
Manager Finance: Stephen Smith, currently General Manager Corporate Services, ARTA.
Manager Property: Deborah Godinet, currently Group Manager CBD Projects, Auckland City Council.
Manager IT and Business Systems: Roger Jones, currently IT Manager, ARTA.
Manager Community Transport: Matthew Rednall, currently Strategic Transport Planning Manager, ARTA.
Manager Asset Management & Programming: Andrew Finch, currently Transportation Manager (Special Projects), GHD Ltd.
What is quite good to see here is the number of current senior ARTA managers who have made it into important roles in the new Agency. I have highlighted three particularly important roles that I am glad to see have gone to current ARTA senior staff. While I do spend half my time on this blog critiquing what ARTA do, they will effectively become the ‘public transport voice’ within the new agency – and it’s good to see that in important roles: including strategy and planning as well as operations, will have a strong public transport perspective.
It is still a bit of a worry how many senior management roles seem dedicated to roads, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see how that all sorts itself out. I will be interested to see who the CEO is.
Firstly congratulations to these people and I really hope they can all work together to make Auckland a better place. To those that may now be out of work as a result best of luck and stay positive.
From a transport perspective it is quite positive the a number of ARTA staff have been retained. This will hopefully mean that there will be some consistency and that much of the work they have been doing won’t be thrown out of the window by the new CCO. Of course much of this will depend on what the appointed board decides to focus on but at least there is a glimmer of hope.
What I do find interesting is about both announcements is that Auckland city staff are fairly well represented followed by staff from ARTA (transport only) and then Waitakere. At the other end there is only 2 from Manukau and the ARC while only one from North Shore. Of course this are fairly high level positions and they will all have staff reporting to them.
I’ve met Ludo, his thinking is awesome…
“To those that may now be out of work as a result best of luck and stay positive.”
Actually, I don’t think many in the mid-levels and mid-upper levels will be out of a job. There has been a real flight from Councils because people hated the uncertainty, and instead went into consulting (often being hired back). So I’d assume there’s lots of posts to be filled, and not THAT many competing for them (at least not from within the existing Councils – you can assume that some of those who have jumped ship will at some point try to jump back on).
“What I do find interesting is about both announcements is that Auckland city staff are fairly well represented followed by staff from ARTA (transport only) and then Waitakere. At the other end there is only 2 from Manukau and the ARC while only one from North Shore.”
What are you implying? That an agency created by Rodney Hide would play favourites?
There are some interesting rumours around that there are plenty of roles within the new Council (not so sure about the Transport Agency) to help make more stuff happen “in house” as it’s cheaper than being outsourced to consultants at $170 an hour. Interesting to see how much truth there is in that.
Jeremy, I agree that Ludo’s thinking is great. He managed to get a C&R council to part with many tens of millions of dollars to create urban streets that are less car friendly. That’s one impressive achievement.
Interesting that Auckland Transport have appointed only one female manager or fifteen appointments so far. Auckland Council are slightly better though all of the level 1 and 2 appointments are Anglo males there as well. I’m wondering how representative of us these organisations will be- will the gender/ethnic bias affect some of the decisions made?
Topcat – I would much rather have the best people for the job than trying to find someone of a certain gender or ethnicity (which is actually a form of discrimination in its own right).
Max – I have had a suspicion for a while now that the transition agency has been told to clean house bit and remove some of the “dead wood”. This is partially fuelled by some of the top level positions having gone to people outside the current Auckland local government sphere
Admin, you’ll probably find rates for consultants start at $250 an hour!
TopCat, what is the current gender balance in transport planning/management? I don’t know but it could be like engineering and construction which is 95% male. The appointments might be representative of the industry/skill base, if not the general population.
Matt L- I disagree. Its going to be very difficult for Auckalnd Transport if the decision making process is going to be dominated by a monocultural, monogendered top-down mindset. Women make up 52% of the population and believe it or not think differently to us males. They are major users of our public realm and spend a lot of their time rushing home from work, walking the kids to school and running cultural and community organisations etc… They are major players in the local cultural and sporting community and will play a major part running the Local Boards. These are people they will need to deal with. If Auckland Transport is unable to come up with credible ways to understand the perspective of half the population- they will be in big trouble. I know most large organisations do make an effort to be being seen to look like the community they represent, though obviously AT are not going to be worried about this pretence.
The best management teams bring a range of perspectives and talents- I find it hard to believe having 95% male managers achieves this!
Nick- I think you are likely right re: the construction/engineering professions. There is an awful lot more than laying pipes, bitumen and concrete when you run a public transport entity though.
About a year after they graduate in NZ men start being paid more than woman. That gap continues to widen markedly the longer men and women continue in the workforce.
I find it hard to imagine that a year into the work force all women in NZ on average start doing a much worse job than men.
I’ve also heard of studies which show that if you send in an application for a job with a Maori or Pasifika name you are less likely to get to an interview, even if you have identical qualifications, phrasing etc to somebody with a Pakeha name. And I’m pretty sure I also read that Maori and Pasifika employees are less likely to be promoted than Pakeha employees in the same roles with the same levels of performance.
Sometimes affirmative action is about correcting the biases that already exist in our society which we don’t like to acknowledge…