REANNZ Appoints Senior Management Team

New Zealand’s Advanced Research Network Appoints Senior Management Team

The Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand Ltd (REANNZ) today announced the appointment of Donald Clark as its inaugural Chief Executive.

REANNZ is a newly created crown-owned company charged with establishing, owning and operating a very high-speed Advanced Network (AN) designed to support research, education and innovation in New Zealand.

Before joining REANNZ, Donald Clark was the Prime Minister’s policy adviser on telecommunications, transport, economic development, state-owned enterprises, science & innovation and broadcasting. He has also advised ministers on the government’s ownership interests in the Crown Research Institutes. Prior to joining the New Zealand public service, he worked in Europe as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He was also an early employee at technology start-up Ask Jeeves UK. Donald holds a chemical engineering degree from the University of Edinburgh.

“The REANNZ Board is delighted to have secured Donald for the important position of leading the development of New Zealand’s advanced research and education network through its establishment phase,” said REANNZ Chair, Dr Jim Watson.

“He has good working relationships with many of our members and with stakeholders within and outside government. He has the capability to ensure the concept of the advanced network becomes reality, to ensure the sustained support of its user groups and to deliver on the commitments made to the company’s shareholders and members of the Network.”

Two key members of the project implementation team, Charles Jarvie and Mark Cordy, are staying on as senior management team members in charge of Development and Operations respectively.

“The REANNZ Board is also very grateful to the outstanding groundwork undertaken by Charles in leading the project team to this point,” said Dr Watson.

Charles Jarvie has headed the project team for the Network from its formation under the guidance of the Ministry of Research Science and Technology. Previously Charles was CTO of Alcatel NZ following key roles in telecommunications infrastructure projects. While working for Telecom New Zealand’s international division he led the development phase of the Southern Cross fibre optic submarine cable project that now connects New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, and Hawaii with North America. Charles is a graduate of the University of Canterbury School of Engineering.

Mark Cordy joins REANNZ from telecommunications consultancy Amos Aked Swift (NZ) Ltd. Mark has over 25 years’ experience in telecommunications having held a variety of senior positions within Telecom New Zealand Limited. His expertise includes commercial and contracts negotiation, specification and evaluation. His technical skills include standards and practices, transport and data systems, and network management systems. Mark has been working on the core domestic and international REANNZ contracts for over 18 months.

Dr. Watson says that the REANNZ Board were very pleased that Charles Jarvie and Mark Cordy have agreed to join the company after serving on the implementation team.

“Charles and Mark bring with them a wealth of knowledge and excitement about the Network that will ensure no momentum is lost in the delivery of this important new piece of discovery and learning infrastructure.”

Mr Clark will take up his appointment from 12 June.

About REANNZ

REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand) Ltd is a newly created Crown-owned company charged with establishing, owning and operating an Advanced Network (AN) for the research and education sectors in New Zealand. The AN is a very high speed network designed to support research, education and innovation by enabling the rapid transfer of extremely large data sets to facilitate new forms of research and research collaboration, nationally and internationally.

The range of applications is broad including nano-materials development, environmental and financial modeling, computational chemistry, astrophysics and e-health among many others.

The development of the AN will ensure New Zealand is literally “plugged in” to other international networks across Australia, Asia, the Americas and Europe, where National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) have already been set up and are viewed as part of the national infrastructure for the research, education and innovation sectors. The members of New Zealand’s network will initially be the universities, Crown Research Institutes and the National Library.

The REANNZ board members are:

- Dr James Watson (Chair), Founder of Genesis Research & Development Corporation and current President of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
- Dr Rick Pridmore, Chief Executive of the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
- Professor Warwick Clegg, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Information Technology, at Victoria University.
- Jane Taylor, a barrister from Queenstown.
- Carol Moffat, previously manager of the ICT Strategy for Schools, director of Multiserve Education Trust and Core Education Trust.

ENDS

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