Community Services and Facilities Forum

Andrew has a long history in community recreation, events and advocacy.

He was previously involved in promoting everything New Zealand has to offer as i-SITE Manager for Tourism New Zealand, and prior to that held roles with Hutt City Council and Manukau City Council.

In his spare time he enjoys mountain biking, mountain running, and getting into the outdoors with his wife and three daughters.

About Recreation Aotearoa

We are the voice of Recreation in Aotearoa, representing all professionals in the industry. We empower our members to deliver the quality Recreation experiences, places and facilities, that fuel a more active, healthy and connected NZ. Find out more at nzrecreation.org.nz

Connor is the Graphic Designer for the Invercargill City Libraries and Archives. He is a part of the Library’s award winning social media team that has seen international recognition for their viral videos and Facebook posts. His experience has extended from the Library to the Invercargill City Council as a whole, contributing to the online marketing of the Council’s long term plan in 2018. He enjoys long walks on the beach and cheesy cliches.

Raymond heads the AM Intelligence unit in Auckland Council responsible for providing quality advice for managing over $11bn of open space and built assets. He is also involved in several pro-bono activities including Chairs of the NZ Chapter of the Asset Management Council and National FM Best Practice Group, AM advisor for PacificTA (Samoa) and NZ National Asset Metadata Project steering/working group. Raymond holds a Henley MBA, BA(Hons) in Strategic Management, several postgraduate qualifications in asset management, banking, governance, hotel management and administrative management. He is a certified Senior Asset Management practitioner, Chartered Secretary and an ISO 55000 assessor.

Brendon has over 25 years experience in sport, major events, infrastructure and facilities including as Director, Strategy New Zealand Rugby Union, CEO North Harbour Stadium, Head of Sponsorship at Vodafone New Zealand and from 2010-2016, Director and Senior Consultant O’Connor Sinclair. He joined PwC in 2016. Brendon provides policy, strategy, business planning and performance, economic, commercial, operational model and business case advisory services to a range of clients including central and local government, national and regional sports organisations. He has in depth expertise in high performance sport, pathways and community sport, infrastructure and major events

Ben Wilde is a Co-Founder of the Miramar Track Project, a community-led trails and conservation project that was launched in 2008 in partnership with the Wellington City Council. He is also currently a trail leader for the Wellington Mountain Bike Club. Ben has been involved in community trail building in Wellington for the last 15 years including as a past member and chair of the Makara Peak Supporters committee. Ben was also the founding chairperson of Trail Fund NZ, a national charity supporting volunteer-led trail building and has previously been on the executive of Mountain Bike New Zealand (MTBNZ). Outside of mountain biking Ben works in the venture capital industry and lives in Miramar with his wife and three boys.

Alan is presently Chair of Waikato Regional Council after 24 years in local government, including 12 years as Mayor of Waipa District.

Other roles include being on the board of Sport Waikato, a government appointee on the Waikato River Authority and previously on the board of Magic Netball. Alan is passionate about making a real difference to a community’s infrastructure, environment and culture where people want to come to live, work and play.

Gareth Moore-Jones has been involved in the recreation and open-space sector for 30-years and has been at various times CEO of NZ Recreation Assn, National Sport & Recreation Manager for NZ YMCA, interim CEO of Outdoors NZ, and was a founding Director of the Global Leisure Group (GLG), a trans-Tasman consultancy in recreation, open space and facilities. In 2012 Gareth founded Ideaus Ltd, a community futures consultancy that looks at probable, possible and preferred community futures specifically within the local government sector. Three years as public health planner in the health sector has provided Gareth with evidence and passion for recreation as a core plank of community wellbeing. Gareth is fully immersed in his role as Community Futures Consultant with Geoff Canham Consulting.

Gareth has spoken nationally and internationally. His abiding philosophy was summed by the foreword to Al Gore’s latest book: ‘My parents – they gave me a future, an abiding curiosity about what it holds and a sense of our common human obligation to help shape it’

Before starting with Wellington City Council David worked in the private sector of landscaping and horticulture. This was primarily designing and building residential garden landscapes but included a time establishing a plant nursery in the wilds of Borneo.

With over 10 years’ experience working as a project manager in the Parks and Recreation Industry. David is delivery focused, building contemporary outdoor recreation assets in the open space environment. He works with the community, planners, designers, engineers and contractors to create sustainable park spaces, and takes great pride in having an integral role in enabling people to be active, healthy and creative.

With a background in aquatic facilities management Alison has taken her customer and community focussed approach to facilities programming outdoors as the Parks and Recreation Manager at the Kāpiti Coast District Council. She has guided a small but high performing team to transform the image of Parks in Kāpiti and in doing so engaged new voices in the growth and enhancement of the district’s parks network.

Jamie is a landscape architect who is committed to community problem solving and collective decision making through inclusive and design led engagement processes. Through his involvement in the Kāpiti Coast District Council’s parks projects he has translated a broad spectrum of community ambitions into well reasoned and compelling design solutions for the Council major parks developments.