Update from Brendan Nally, DCE People

Tranche 3 People Branch appointments

Today I’m pleased to announce four new appointments under the reorganised People Branch structure, which was announced in February as part of the tranche 3 decisions made earlier this year.

Here are the appointments I have made this week, along with some background on each of the successful candidates:

Tim Martin – Executive Assistant to DCE People

Tim joined Fire and Emergency in February 2019 as Executive Assistant to the DCE Integration.  Previously, Tim has held roles across a range of sectors in executive administration, digital design, project management and policy advisory.

Ian Pickard - National Manager People and Workforce Capability

Ian’s proud career with our organisation has spanned over nearly 50 years, with 25 of those years spent in senior leadership positions, including the roles of Director Strategic Development and Regional Manager and Assistant National Commander.  In 2014, Ian moved into his current role as Training Programmes and National Training Centre Manager where he has helped lead a significant culture and capability shift across the organisation.   

April Christie - Chief Advisor – Safety Health and Wellbeing

April’s career spans over 15 years in occupational safety health and wellbeing leadership roles throughout New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific.  April joined Fire and Emergency in February 2018 as National Safety Health and Wellbeing Manager and is passionate about leading programmes that help shape the culture, capability and environment of organisations to ensure that people are safe and well in both their work and personal lives. 

Elizabeth Church - National Manager Culture and Change

Elizabeth joined the former New Zealand Fire Service in early 2017 as Chief Advisor to the Office of the CE. She supported the independent review in to bullying and harassment, co-founded the Respect and Inclusion Taskforce and in 2018 moved into the role of Programme Lead for the Positive Workplace Culture Programme – focused on building a Fire and Emergency where everyone feels safe, welcome and included.

I would like to personally congratulate and acknowledge each of these individuals on their appointments. The recruitment process was highly competitive with strong internal and external interest received across all roles, and I am delighted that we are appointing our very own internal talent into these critical roles.

I have previously indicated that we will be taking a phased approach to the stand-up of the People Branch.  As part of this, there are four remaining roles - Chief Advisor Key Relationships, Chief Advisor Volunteerism, National Manager People Services, and National Manager People Experience – that I’m in the process of recruiting for. I expect to be in a position within the next month or so to announce appointments to these roles.

Additionally, over the next few weeks, we’ll be working through a plan of how we transition to the new People Branch structure, with the newly appointed leadership positions in place by mid-July.  

These appointments are an important step in helping us build a unified Fire and Emergency.  I’m looking forward to bringing the new team together, and working in partnership across the organisation so we can to continue to efficiently focus on what Fire and Emergency is ultimately here to do – protect people, property and the environment.

Brendan Nally

Deputy Chief Executive - People