Hon James Meager
Associate Minister of Transport

Associate Transport Minister James Meager has announced two new appointments and three reappointments to the board of Maritime New Zealand.

“I am pleased to welcome Kevin Short and Vivienne Bull as new members, who will join Dame Jo Brosnahan, Danny Tuato’o and Parke Pittar, who have been reappointed to the Board,” Mr Meager says. “Dame Jo will continue as Chair and Mr Short will be Deputy Chair.”

“Mr Short has extensive leadership, security, and response experience, from a long and distinguished career in the Defence Force.

“Ms Bull brings valuable expertise to the Board from serving over 10 years as an executive at Napier Port, where her responsibilities included health and safety, industrial relations and community engagement. She also has wider public sector experience.

“Maritime NZ has an important role in ensuring the safety and security of our maritime sector, along with our search and rescue responsibilities. I am very grateful that Dame Jo, Danny, and Parke have agreed to continue in their roles.

“I am confident that these new appointments will ensure that we continue to have an excellent range of skills and experience to continue the strong governance and leadership of Maritime NZ.

“I’d like to acknowledge the work of the previous members, Roy Weaver and Ross Wilson, for their commitment since February 2019 and August 2023 respectively. Both served during key periods of transition and change, and their leadership and experience has been highly valued. Mr Weaver has also served as Deputy Chair since November 2022.”

The board has six members, appointed by the Associate Minister of Transport, and Lesley Haines is the other member of the Board.

Notes:

Dame Jo Brosnahan has chaired the Authority since December 2018. She is an experienced Chair who brings strong governance, leadership, regulation, and strategic skills to the role as well as an understanding of the stakeholders within the maritime sector, and central and local government. For most of her career, Dame Jo has been involved with the logistics, transport and local government sectors.

Kevin Short offers extensive leadership and expertise of relevance to a range of Maritime NZ’s functions: including its security and response capabilities. He recently retired as Chief of Defence (2018–2024) and has served just under 50 years in the military.

Danny Tuato’o is an experienced board director, as well as Managing Partner at the Whangārei Law firm Marsden Woods Inskip Smith (MWIS). He offers strong regulatory and education experience, as well as governance experience in water safety and at Coastguard NZ. His current governance roles include Deputy Chair of Fire and Emergency New Zealand and director for Airways Corporation of New Zealand Limited.

Parke Pittar has strong operational experience in ports and logistics throughout New Zealand. Through his career, he has held roles reflecting all facets of the maritime and port sector: on the sea, running a container terminal, being a port Chief Financial Officer, Chief Executive of a large onport service provider, and Chief Executive of one of New Zealand’s largest exporters.

Viv Bull offers valuable expertise around the port sector, health and safety, and organisational culture. She is currently an independent consultant, having recently stepped down her role as General Manager of Culture and Community at Port of Napier. She brings leadership in implementing the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, and in leading engagements with a number of community and supply chain stakeholders.

Lesley Haines has an extensive public sector background, including previous leadership of advisory and regulatory functions across several public service departments. She serves on the board of BRANZ (Building Research Association of New Zealand), and as a trustee of Motu.

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