Speakers

Murray Dobson

Head of Property Westpac NZ

As Head of Property for Westpac New Zealand, Murray and his Property Team manage Westpac’s leasehold property interests across New Zealand. This includes over 200 retail branches and over 50,000 sqm of support office space in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Murray served 13 years as an Engineering Officer in the RNZAF before pursuing a career in Commercial Property. In the past 14 years he has gained extensive experience across a large range of commercial property interests across New Zealand, and helped establish the North Shore office of Colliers International Office.

Prior to his current role, Murray was the National Property Manager for Crane Distribution NZ Ltd, managing the Mico, Mastertrade and Cory’s Electrical trade supply brands.

Elisabeth Gleed

Facilitator BBC UK

Elisabeth is currently responsible for facilitating the implementation of flexible working for over 4,500 people moving to the BBC’s Broadcasting House - the W1 Project. She has been with the BBC since 2006, as a Change Manager in Workplace, supporting large move projects and developing the BBC Flex Programme.

Prior to moving to London, Elisabeth worked as an independent Facilitator and Coach in New Zealand, with over 15 years experience in the business of change. She has worked extensively at the strategic level of change in many businesses, including Vector NZ, Vodafone, Telecom NZ, and the IRD.

Elisabeth has been involved with workplace design and change since 2001 and worked with DEGW Australia on a number of NZ based projects.

Anthony Henry

Division Director Macquarie Group

Anthony is an Interior Designer with qualifications from the University of Technology in Sydney and the Royal College of Art in London.

He joined Macquarie Group in 2004 to lead workplace design and innovation as part of the Corporate Real Estate team. In this time he has worked on numerous projects, supporting Macquarie's growth in Australia and overseas.

Prior to joining the Macquarie, Anthony was a founding partner of the design consultancy 'futurespace'.

Lisa Hinton

Practice Manager Context Architects

Lisa is Practice Manager at Context Architects, an Auckland Architectural practice specialising in designing spaces and providing Architectural services for commercial and interiors projects.

Context Architects is Westpac New Zealand’s lead Architectural consultant and completed over 40 projects for Westpac in 2009, working to ensure design and brand consistency across the bank’s property operations.

Lisa runs the practice’s human resources, financial and marketing operations. Her background is in export marketing and corporate communications, and she was formerly the Technology Team Manager at Trade New Zealand, establishing exporter Beachhead hubs in Singapore, Silicon Valley and London.

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Business, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Public Relations and a Masters in International Relations.

Chris Hood

Worldwide Head of Real Estate Hewlett Packard

Chris has actively studied the impact of reengineering initiatives and developing workplace solutions that compliment changes in the business environment. He has been involved in literally hundreds of projects conceived to develop a better fit between the evolving patterns of work and the environments which best support them.

He has also enthusiastically exchanged ideas with others through his numerous speaking engagements at conferences and symposiums across the world, and in the media.

Chris has been with Hewlett Packard for over 28 years, on projects in more than 20 different countries. He trained as an Architect at the Oxford School of Architecture.

Wade Jennings

Senior Project Leader Peddle Thorp & Aitken

Wade is an Architect and Senior Project Leader at Peddle Thorp & Aitken where, since 2007, he has been disseminating to the designers within the practice his international experience of both sustainable construction practices and commercial workplace environments.

A native West Aucklander, he graduated from the University of Auckland’s School of Architecture before spending 10 years working in the Amsterdam office of HOK, one of the world’s largest and most respected design organisations. Key projects Wade completed with HOK include the Cisco Systems EMEA Campus in Amsterdam, Barclays Bank World Headquarters on Canary Wharf and a 70,000 sqm extension to Jorn Utzon’s Kuwait National Assembly Building.

Established in 1968, Peddle Thorp & Aitken is among New Zealand’s leading design practices, and has a large portfolio of high profile and complex projects across commercial, healthcare, science and technology, hospitality, retail, sport and leisure, justice, urban planning, education and residential buildings.

Phillip Ross

CEO Cordless Group

Phillip is an author, commentator and consultant specialising in the impact on the world of work and the workplace.

He has worked with organisations such as Ernst & Young, Eversheds, McKinsey & Co, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Royal Bank of Scotland on future workplace concepts based on emerging technologies, and has spoken at conferences around the world including the Wall Street Journal Europe CEO Forum on Converging Technologies and Corenet’s Global Summits in Beijing, Sydney, Orlando and Melbourne.

In 1994 he founded Cordless Group and wrote and published The Cordless Office Report. He has written three books on the future of cities, work and workplace: The Creative office, The 21st Century Office and Space to Work (all co-authored with Jeremy Myerson) and has contributed to a number of other books including the Corporate Fool and the Responsible Workplace.

Debbie Summers

Worksite CR Manager New Zealand Post Group

In her role as Worksite Corporate Responsibility Manager, Debbie is responsible for the development and delivery of waste, energy and green building programmes for the New Zealand Post Group.

Used to working in corporate marketing and communications, Debbie found herself on the corporate responsibility path after joining Datamail Group in 2007, a New Zealand Post subsidiary. Wanting the organisation to be able to walk the talk, not just talk the talk, Debbie set about making changes that clearly demonstrated the organisation’s commitment to sustainability.

Having now clocked up over 90 waste audits and facilitated the installation of over 12,000 eco-tubes, Debbie’s practical, hands-on experience has helped her understand what it takes to influence, engage and implement corporate responsibility for the many different workspace environments within New Zealand Post.

Kerre Woodham

Kerre Woodham is the host of New Zealand’s number one night-time talk show four nights a week on NewsTalk ZB, and also hosts ZB's Sunday morning current affairs/lifestyle show, Kerre's Cafe. She has a weekly column in the Herald on Sunday, is a book reviewer for She magazine, pops up on television from time to time throughout the year and is a regular on the speaking circuit. Her foray into marathons, running both the Auckland and New York Marathons, led to her writing a book, From Short Fat Chick to Marathon Runner. And it hasn’t stopped there - she will join us at the Symposium fresh from the 2010 Paris Marathon.