New General Managers Appointed

17 July 2009

Three new General Managers and an Acting Chief Information Officer have been appointed to Land Information New Zealand's senior leadership team.

General Manager Customer Services: Jan Pierce

Jan Pierce has been appointed General Manager Customer Services. She has spent the last eight years as a member of the leadership team of the rural financial services company, Farmers Mutual Group. Over that time, her responsibilities have included human resources, organisational development, support services, operational leadership of service centres and the development of a contact centre.

Jan started her career in the banking sector, followed by several years in the health sector, where she was the Human Resources Manager of a large Crown Health Enterprise employing over 5,000 staff. Jan has an Executive Diploma in Management Studies.

General Manager Strategic Development and Support: Sue Gordon

Sue Gordon has been appointed General Manager Strategic Development and Support. She joins LINZ from the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) where she has been the Deputy Secretary Organisational Development and Support for six years. In this role, Sue has been responsible for organisational development strategy and the Communications, Finance and Facilities Management, Human Resources, Information Technology, Knowledge Management, Legal and Programme Management functions.

Before joining MED, Sue previously held organisational development roles in Fonterra, including managing structural changes in early 2003 and previous work on a series of development initiatives. Prior to that, Sue led the organisational development practice area at Sheffield (Wellington). Sue has also held roles at the Ministry of Health and Housing New Zealand, and started her career at the Ministry of Defence. She has an honours degree in Political Studies from the University of Otago and an LLB from Victoria University.

General Manager Policy and Regulatory: David Crawford

David Crawford has been appointed as the General Manager Policy and Regulatory. He comes to LINZ from the Ministry of Transport, where he was the General Manager Land Transport Environment and Safety, responsible for land transport safety and environment policy. This included coordination of transport climate change policy, land transport regulation, motor vehicle register and driver licensing policy, and day-to-day relationship management with the NZ Transport Agency on safety and environmental programmes.

Prior to joining the Ministry of Transport, David worked in a range of sectors, including maritime safety and marine protection, biosecurity, oil and gas exploration, conservation, resource management, IT and as an academic at Massey University.

David has a Masters degree in Horticultural Science (in economics and marketing) and is a past president of Federated Mountain Clubs.

Chief Information Officer: Debbie Ward

The current Acting CIO Debbie Ward has accepted an offer to act in this role for a further 12 months. Debbie has been with LINZ for seven years, with responsibility for IT planning and strategic direction setting. During this time Debbie has also held responsibility for a number of other IT or information functions, including information management, development, business analysis and web services.

In November last year, Debbie completed her Executive Masters of Public Administration (EMPA) from the Australian New Zealand School of Government. Prior to joining LINZ, Debbie worked for the Hutt City Council as the IT Manager. She has also worked in IT Management positions at Wools of New Zealand (formerly NZ Wool Board) and MetService.

The appointments are a result of existing vacancies and an impending retirement in the current team.

See further information on the changes to the LINZ senior leadership team.

Media enquiries: Justine Gilliland, Land Information New Zealand, phone +64 4 498 3844, mobile +64 27 332 5246 , email media@linz.govt.nz.