As a contracted project manager, I was responsible for bringing a new product development project to completion. The project was to deliver a proof-of-concept exercise appliance with a prototype production run to support sales. This phase of the project successfully completed in March 2023.

From April 2023, I was employed as the Lead Engineer reporting directly to the CTO. In this role, I helped a cross-functional team developing a new range of brushless motors from concept to mass production for rangehoods in the China home appliances market. I was responsible for understanding customer and market requirements, evaluation and testing including specifying new standards compliant wind-tunnels for our factory in China, and all aspects of motor development and testing in New Zealand and China.

I subsequently moved back to the Lifestyle and Fitness division as the Senior Project Engineer and cross-functional tech lead to develop a new exercise machine for an external partner. I was responsible for all aspects of delivering of the technical concepts and concept evaluation to support sales. The project met the compressed timetable and was under budget. The project is currently on track to deliver a new product into the global market within 12 months. The project technical teams include motor and magnetics design, hardware, mechanical, compliance, and working closely with operations for production and logistics.

Having extensive technology development and commercialisation experience across a range of engineering specialties, I am well suited to deliver results for clients needing a safe pair of hands for their special projects. I am responsible for all aspects of the business, including meeting client needs, project planning, preparing documents, undertaking reviews, project management, managing outsourced suppliers, quality assurance, contract administration. 

Within projects, I am responsible for estimation and quoting, working to budget and reporting variance, and being the interface between technical and non-technical stakeholders. I work with clients to support project planning and management, prioritisation and delegation, and manage external teams. I undertake research and report on findings, and make recommendations.

Recent achievements have been successful completion of yacht instrumentation and switchboard upgrades, consultation on a superyacht high bandwidth, low latency communications issue, several projects with a property management firm, and development of a functional biosecurity structure where I worked with stakeholders, defined requirements, and developed concepts, with competitive quoting received ahead of fabrication. Other projects include a COVID-19 compatible bluetooth beacon for fixed locations, and air performance monitoring equipment.

AerotekFan Ltd designed and manufactured extreme efficiency fans for industrial cold storage. Coldstore and blast freezer fans in the range 7-40kW were engineered in New Zealand and have been tested through simulations and real-world installations, with performance validated against international standards in lab testing. AerotekFan fans demonstrated >35% energy use reduction with no loss of cold store throughput performance. The reduction of heat load within a cold store also has knock-on reduction in energy use for the chiller plant.

Responsible for initial business case development, seed capital raise, delivery technical progress against the plan.

Co-founder; Consultant

Responsible for client acquisition, project evaluation, specification and project management. Worked with clients to help them define what they actually wanted. Identified skill and resource requirements and worked with internal and external developers, engineers and contractors to deliver project outcomes. Assessed projects using readiness levels. Managed projects using mixed waterfall and agile methods, using a stage&gate milestone approach.

Direct reporting to the CEO. Balancing a visionary approach with a pragmatic and detail oriented mindset, providing a robust means to stress test ideas before significant commitment of resources.

Undertook business development for various clients. Developed business cases, worked with founders and project leads to develop and refine requirements, define functional specifications, development of project plans and development roadmaps.

Appointed to governance roles within some spun-out businesses. 

Product refresh and costdown - ultrasonic spray device in retail/commercial/industrial applications

• • Planned manufacturing capacity expansion from 5k units/month to 100k units/month.

  • Design-to-cost, working closely with tooling manufacturers and plastics factories, negotiations with Asian contract manufacturers, sourcing components.

  • Electronics cost down, embedded firmware optimisation, and use of lower cost purchased components.

  • Plastic injection molding redesign for manufacture and assembly. Part count reduction, material volume reduction, adhesive and fastener review and changes, improved aesthetic using texture, colours and materials properties.

  • Blow mold modification for reduced material use, improved quality, reliability and assembly.

  • Assembly rejig, making use of ultrasonic welding, removing adhesives. 

Product ideation, prototyping, and preparation of sales samples for low cost/high reliability audio connector for airline industry

• • Work with client to define requirements and specification. Design-to-cost to out perform mass produced 3.5mm audio connector. Design for reliability initially focused on aircraft seat use case.

  • Several iterations of prototypes developed. Developed multi-stage stamp tool for sales samples. Sales samples exceeded 'infinite life' threshold in client testing. Plug is self cleaning and cannot damage the socket. Both plug and socket are manufactured using common automated manufacturing techniques, and use a fraction of the material used for 3.5mm plugs and sockets.

Design and manufacturing of highly efficient fan blades for cold storage industry, fan condition and air performance monitoring equipment. Standards based wind tunnel and instrumentation development.

Standards based compliance and testing. Risk assessment.

Liaise with/visit Asia based staff and contractors for QA, factory and supplier identification, evaluation and selection, materials and component sourcing. Tooling factories include plastic injection molding, multi-stage stamping, wire, yarn and fabric manufacturers, rapid prototyping suppliers, testing and compliance.

Innovation and Projects Lead

Salvo acquired Innovators Ltd in 2019, and I continued my previous role Innovators role under the Salvo brand.

Broad responsibilities for project evaluation, specification and execution. Integrate teams with diverse skill sets to deliver project outcomes. Reporting to the CEO. 

Undertook project and technical leadership on development projects for various clients, including radar and sonar projects for the marine industry, drug identification system for a medical device company, infrastructure demand response hub and appliance demand response modules for a power company, infrastructure transformer asset monitoring for a power company,  ultrasonic spray device targeting retail/commercial/industrial applications, low cost/high reliability audio connector for airline industry, design and manufacturing of highly efficient fan blades for cold storage industry, fan condition and air performance monitoring equipment, network edge monitoring for power company, aircraft refueling monitoring and measurement equipment, high sensitivity gas sensing equipment and associated cloud analytics, machine learning, reporting infrastructure, including ethylene measurement calibration equipment. Standards based wind tunnel and instrumentation development, cloud infrastructure for data ingestion, analytics and machine learning.

Liaise with/visit Asia based staff and contractors for QA, factory and supplier identification, evaluation and selection, materials and component sourcing. Tooling factories include plastic injection molding, multi-stage stamping, wire, yarn and fabric manufacturers, rapid prototyping suppliers, testing and compliance.

Technical Lead / Project Management (contract)

I undertook several short-term contracts to provide engineering and management cover during the short-notice, extended leave of absence of the CTO and a key operations engineer.

I was responsible for the ongoing development and evaluation of the first prototype of a rapidly adjustable robotic exoskeleton concept. Reviewed and updated project schedule. Reviewed and clarified market, customer and regulatory requirements.

Undertook comprehensive risk assessment and analysis to ISO14971. Began implementation of an ISO13485 compliant quality management system.

I guided engineering design teams to identify and resolve design and manufacturing issues, working toward IEC60601 compliance.

I worked with CEO, CFO and Production Manager to plan/budget, schedule staff and resources to minimise costs and delays. I reported to the Board on progress against the plan.

Principal Robotics Engineer; Technical Director

INRO used robotic technology to automate existing forklifts. This enabled the vehicle to drive by itself for the majority of tasks yet still be operated manually when needed. INRO’s automated vehicles operated amongst humans in factories and warehouses – requiring the ultimate in safety.

I was responsible for the design, delivery and documentation of all robotics aspects of the complete system, based on an-depth knowledge of the complete system to be delivered and commissioned for the customer. 

I built and led a team to successfully develop all robotics aspects of the product for key customer and shareholder, Fonterra. INRO’s vehicles achieved their throughput targets, with Fonterra expanding their use of automated vehicles in other operational areas.

I developed overall vehicle automation system design for prototypes, and led mechanical design of retrofit kit, electronic, electrical and hydraulic interface design, and implementation. I developed automated vehicle safety systems to meet international and industry standards. 

INRO successfully converted multiple vehicle models to robotic automation, including those from Crown, Linde and Toyota/BT (diesel, LPG and battery powered). These vehicles could be converted between manual (human) and automated driving modes at the flick of a switch.

INRO achieved world firsts:

• First commercial implementation of automated internal combustion counterbalance forklifts in a commercial warehouse in 2009. 

• First automated standard reach forklift truck for use in a commercial cold store in 2011.

These vehicles achieved 99.8% reliability, a 29% reduction in fuel costs, more than double the lifespan of tires, over a three-year period.

INRO was sold to Crown Equipment Corp in 2012.

Technical Manager

Technical Officer, Robotics

Technical Officer, Computer Systems Engineering

Technical Officer, Manufacturing Systems

● Provided technical support for advanced research programmes.

● As Technical Manager, responsible for up to 15 full time staff and an opex budget of over $ 1M, supporting 50 academic and over 1200 students and researchers per year.

Frontline technical support

Responsible for field and bench repair of a wide range of industrial and commercial computer systems, automated cutters, dictation systems, barcode scanners.

Weapon and Electrical Control Fitter

Responsible for operational availability and maintenance of shipborne electrical and electronic systems including satellite, inertial and magnetic navigation aids, gun and missile fire control, internal communications systems, power generation and distribution, damage control.

The trust board of Salt Community Trust is hands-on. I have been involved as an advisor since 2019, and as a trustee since May 2020.

In March 2020, with increased demand as a result of Covid19, we significantly expanded our food bank, and set up healthy and safe procedures allowing the food bank to operate even during alert level 4. The food bank operated closely with MSD, Emergency Management and Auckland City Council, as well as with other community groups and social enterprises. 

In early 2023, the trustees identified ongoing funding as a strategic threat to our ability to invest in and support our local community. We started an opshop enterprise to earn a more stable income. Our opshop has consistently exceeded our business case requirements, allowing us, despite a difficult economic environment for all charities, to continue to support our foodbank, schools programmes and to provide employment in our community.

The trust also operates in-school programmes in local primary and secondary schools, and hold regular events for people living with disabilities and their carers. We also hold a free Christmas day lunch for people in our community.

Initial Response Unit / Instructor

While I was active in the rescue team, I qualified with:

• Urban Search and Rescue CAT1: Responder Certification

• Urban Search and Rescue General Rescue Trainer Certification

• Fire and Rescue Service Industry Training Organisation and Local Government Industry Training Organisation Assessor