Ngāi Tahu Tourism appoints new directors

MEDIA RELEASE – Ngāi Tahu Tourism appoints new directors

Dave Hawkey and Paul Bingham have been named as the new members of the Ngāi Tahu Tourism Board.

“As a tourism operator in the Queenstown and Canterbury areas, Dave Hawkey brings a wealth of experience to his new role,” says Sarah Smith, Chair of the Ngāi Tahu Tourism Board.

“Paul Bingham also has a well-established tourism background, along with expertise in digital marketing; and as a director of Air NZ he has a good working knowledge of best practice health and safety. They will both bring valuable knowledge and experience to the board,” she says

Dave Hawkey’s professional career has largely been focussed in the tourism, hospitality and education sectors. He has worked in both the public and private sector.

Dave established the International Antarctic Centre in the early 1990s, before taking up an offshore post as Marketing Director – Americas for Tourism NZ. More recently he has been the Chief Executive of Real Journeys Ltd, chairman of two regional tourism organisations and a director of numerous subsidiary companies.

He is currently the Chief Executive of the University of Canterbury Students’ Association, which is embarking on a major redevelopment of their building following the Christchurch earthquakes.

Dave is the Chairman of Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism Ltd, a role he has held since November 2012. He is also a Director of UBS Canterbury. He holds a BSc, MBA (Hons) and is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management.

In his 23-year career, Paul Bingham has worked in the United Kingdom, USA, Singapore and New Zealand. As managing director of Black Cat cruises (from 1999), he took the company from a relatively small, but well known, business to become one of the New Zealand's top tourism companies Black Cat Cruises, won the 2003 supreme tourism award and doubled the size of its fleet from four to eight vessels.

Paul is currently Director and Chief Operating Officer of software platform, Shuttlerock. He is also Chair of Black Cat Cruises and a Director of Air New Zealand.

His tourism background includes senior marketing roles at Tourism Holdings Limited and Air New Zealand. Previous directorships include Tourism New Zealand and Chair of Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism. He was a winner of the PATA Young Professional award.

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