Executive Member Profiles

NZBI Executive Members

 

 

Name: Craig Davey

Organisation: Horizons Regional Council

Job Title: Environmental Programme Coordinator

Time in the job: 8 years

What motivates you to be involved in biosecurity?

I get out of bed in the morning because I know what I do makes a difference. Working in Biosecurity is one of the best ways I can spend each day actively protecting the places that make New Zealand special. And there's also the benefit of having a great work environment resourced to allow me to achieve.

What has been your career path to your current position?

I began my career in Biosecurity as an Environmental Management Officer –plants, for Horizons. My job was to outwork the Regional Pest Plant Strategy (RPPMS) to manage pest plant threats to native and productive environments. I also worked with landowners to protect significant habitats such as wetlands and bush blocks. I currently oversee the team of staff delivering the RPPMS to the Horizons region, so my role also now includes people management.

Prior to my biosecurity roles I was building houses for 4 years, which was a departure from the horticulture career I began at Landcare Research. I worked with the poplar and willow breeding unit, and followed that job with an interesting stint in the vegetable and flower seed breeding and multiplication industry.

So my career has gone from growing and multiplying plants to now focussing on controlling plants.

What makes up a normal day for you?

Normal days are the average of extreme events! My role deals with managing plants – which strangely means managing people. I can be meeting with a partner organisation one day to bashing about in a back country forest the next looking for old mans beard. The next week it may be nursery inspections or alerting a farmer to the presence of gorse on his boundary. Occasionally I am trapped in the office wrestling with words or manipulating figures to squeeze dollars out of my budgets.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

The varied nature of what I do. I get to work alongside infectiously enthusiastic people who are passionate about protecting their patch. And I get to spend time in our awesome countryside either on foot, motorbike, jetboat or helicopter! I also really appreciate how the New Zealand community of biosecurity practitioners share information and best practice to enable others to achieve, so you never feel like you are working alone.

 

 

Name: Rebecca Kemp

Organisation: Auckland Council

Job Title: Biosecurity Pest Plant Specialist

Time in the job: seven plus years

What motivates you to be involved in biosecurity?

There are three main factors for my choice to be involved in Biosecurity.   The first is the passionate people that I work with in the community really make the job. There are so many community groups in New Zealand working to make a real difference to their environment and there are some fantastic successes that keep me motivated to ensure that I assist them to achieve even more. The second is the professional's that I get to work with, colleagues with passion and drive who live to ensure our natural environment is protected and enhanced. The third is the motivation and high that the small successes and achievements that we make each day and week towards protection of our environment. This is what makes me stay involved and care so much about my job.

What has been your career path to your current position?

I have a degree in Applied Science Agriculture, my initial career path was not toward Biosecurity. It was water quality and pollution prevention. I spent sometime in the private sector with waste management companies and moved to a Rural Pollution role, I processed resource consents for dairy discharges, piggeries and poultry farm as well as carrying out an enforcement role for discharges for 6 years. Biosecurity became an option seven years ago following funding work in our region which combined both roles. My Biosecurity position also provided me with a chance to do less policing work and become more involved in engaging the community.

What makes up a normal day for you?

Every day is different. Some are spent with paper work, while others can involve urgent call outs. Some weeks even involve roughing it on an island somewhere in the Hauraki Gulf. Great Barrier is my favourite place to rough it! Other days may see me bush bashing through the Puhoi area looking for old man's beard.   Once I even had to assist in the removal of a stoat from an office in the middle of Orewa. There is one guarantee with the job though, that no day will ever be the same.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

The varied nature of the job, there isn't an excuse to be bored.

 

 

Name: Sara Moylan

Organisation: Greater Wellington Regional Council

Job Title: Biodiversity Monitoring Advisor

Time in job: 7 years.

What motivates you to be involved in biosecurity?

Protecting New Zealand's biosecurity ensures that our wonderful biodiversity, and our environmental life support system, is protected now and for future generations.

What has been your career path to your current position?

I have always been fascinated with the natural environment and spent many hours watching my hero, David Attenborough, as a child. Biology was my favourite subject all through high school. I studied for my BSc at Massey University, moving there from Auckland and graduating with a double major in zoology and ecology. I then undertook my Masters and conducted my thesis at Zealandia (Karori Wildlife Sanctuary) studying the release of six captive-reared kaka. It was an amazing experience to follow these birds as they found their feet and started to breed; they are incredibly intelligent and I got to know each one individually. I was then lucky enough to get a job at Greater Wellington, first in the monitoring team for Biosecurity and now as a Biodiversity Monitoring Advisor.

What makes up a normal day for you?

My job is incredibly varied, I may be out in the field, at my desk crunching data, designing a new project, making GIS maps or writing a report. I could be in one of many technical group meetings or in the workroom counting invertebrates. My job changes season by season and year to year, it's never the same and I am never bored.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

The variety of the work I get to do, the challenges of developing new projects and visiting many beautiful and remote parts of the region. I get to do natural science for real and what other job is there that you can get paid to go sit under a tree and watch birds all morning? The fantastic and dedicated people I work with are also an important bonus.

 

 

Name: Pedro Jensen

Organisation: Greater Wellington Regional Council

Job Description: Biosecurity Officer (Pest Plants) for Wellington City

Time in the job: 7 years

What motivates you to be involved in biosecurity?

To come home at the end of the working day knowing that I have made a positive contribution to New Zealand's natural heritage.

What has been your career path to your current position?

 Growing up across the roadand running around Otari Native Plant Museum instilled in me an early appreciation for the beauty of our native forests. Biology was my favourite subject at college which led me to study ecology at university. Upon completing my degree I volunteered at Zealandia (Karori Wildlife Sanctuary) to gain work experience whilst awaiting my graduation. In 2003, after completing two fixed-term contracts and paying my dues as a summer intern with Greater Wellington's Pest Plant team, a full-time position opened up and I have been "Doing what I love and loving what I do" ever since.

What makes up a normal day for you?

A little bit of everything from conducting house to house pest plant surveys to assisting care group restoration projects to pest plant compliance/enforcement to database development to talking to school groups to working with the NZBI Exec, every day is different.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

The people I get to meet and the places I get to go. From talking to a landowner about the specific pest plant issues in their little corner of the world to being involved in national biosecurity initiatives, I'm fortunate enough as part of my job to get to travel to places that other people visit in their weekends for pleasure.

 

 

  

Name: Louise Cook

Organisation: TB Free New Zealand (Animal Health Board)

Job Title: Operations Planner

Time in the job: 2.5 years

What motivates you to be involved in biosecurity?

Making a long lasting difference.

What has been your career path to your current position?

I completed by BSc in the UK and came to NZ for nine to 12 months initially but never left! I first got a temp job at Environment Canterbury in the Bovine TB section and then moved to the AHB when they moved vector 'in-house'.

What makes up a normal day for you?

Responding to lots of emails, GIS mapping, data management and contract management. A normal day is very varied so no two days are the same.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

The variety and the feeling that I'm making a difference.

 

 

 

Name: David Brittain

Organisation: Kiwicare Corporation Ltd

Job Title: Technical Support Manager

Time in the job: 4 Years

What motivates you to be involved in biosecurity?

As an import from overseas I have an understanding, by way of comparison, of how much of natural New Zealand remains compared to my previous home in Ireland. There is almost no part of Ireland's environment that is natural and unaffected by human influence. Although many of New Zealand's environments have been modified by humans and other imported animals and flora, there is still a sense that much of what New Zealand once was can still be protected; and is worth protecting.

Biosecurity is more than just protection of natural native habitats, flora and fauna. It also encompasses the protection of the economic wellbeing of the people of New Zealand. I left the UK and Ireland after the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001/2. It demonstrated to me the importance of prevention in reducing the risks to the primary industries that form such a large part of the New Zealand economy.

There are many non-native pest plants, animals and diseases that are or would be detrimental to New Zealand's environments and to the financial well being of the people. I would like to do what I can to reduce the risks and protect New Zealand; both people and environment.

What has been your career path to your current position?

I joined the world's largest pest control company in 1982 immediately after leaving Queens University Belfast. This gave me grounding in animal behaviour and the use of that behaviour in controlling pests.

After a period in retail management with the family business I took a position with the Veterinary Sciences Division of the Department of Agriculture in Northern Ireland, primarily carrying out research into the development of molecular strain typing of bovine tuberculosis. During this time several New Zealand experts in the field visited us and I became aware of the possum and Tb scenario here.

When I came to New Zealand my experience in pest control and bovine Tb almost inevitably led me to a position with a major Animal Health Board contractor. However, my responsibility with Target Pest Enterprises was the development of the urban pest management side of the business.

On the demise of Target in 2007, Kiwicare Corporation asked me to join their team and I have been part of the development of the company as a major supplier of products for the control of pest plants and animals to all New Zealand markets and overseas.

What makes up a normal day for you?

A normal day consists of many varied tasks:

  • Advising customers on the best control and prevention methods for pests such as rats, mice, possums, flies, ants, weeds, diseases and many more.
  • The development of new products to solve invasive and nuisance pest problems.
  • Public relations.
  • Regulatory affairs.
  • Research.
  • Website management.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

I get a kick out of helping people solve pest problems. That is often not just pointing people to the most appropriate products but to the most appropriate way to use the products and to prevent problems arising in the future.

I also enjoy helping direct the company's product development strategy to include products that benefit both natural and human environments.