Members of the AQA Board

Mike Lord is Chairman of the AQA. Mike has worked for Perry Group Ltd based in Hamilton for the past nine years in a number of roles across various divisions. Currently he is the Manager of Sales and Technical Services, responsible for Aggregate and Lime Sales, technical research, quality systems and consent planning. He has been a board member for three years, during which he has been Chairman of the Planning Committee that he helped establish.

In his three years in the industry Mike has been General Manager Perry Environmental Waste services (up until its sale to Envirowaste), a Board Member of Wasteminz.  He gained consent for the Waingaro Rd Quarry Ngaruawahia and the Tuakau Sand Quarry.

Mike has keen interest in developing new markets for products and services and in the long term planning for future aggregate access.  He has assisted with the publication of the Planning Guideline for the Aggregate and Quarry Industry, that is stored on the Ministry for the Environment's Quality Planning (QP) website. The Planning Guideline outlines the key matters in planning for quarrying and describes the main effects of quarrying and the methods available to manage these.  The QP website promotes best practice by sharing knowledge about the implementation of the RMA and is aimed at council practitioners, consultant planners, environmental managers, surveyors, lawyers and others involved in Resource Management Act processes. 

Away from work, time with family and travel are high on Mike’s list along with keeping fit, he enjoys fishing and diving, reading and listening to music.

Jason Glentworth is quarry supervisor at the Holcim Hastings Quarry in Fernhill in Napier.  Jason was voted onto the AQA Board at the 2010 AGM in  Napier where he was a member of the organizing committee for that Hawke’s Bay conference.

He has been in the industry for six years.  A mechanic by trade, Jason was the owner of a small business before joining Holcim. He had been told of the many opportunities for advancement in the industry and started as a quarry worker taking on all the training opportunities he was offered. After three years, learning all aspects of quarrying at the site, he was promoted to the role of supervisor.

Jason takes a special interest in ‘Zero Harm, Safety First’ - ensuring the safety of all employees, customers, and visitors who may be introduced to the quarrying environment.  He also encourages staff to continue their safety approach at home.

With an eye to the future of the business Jason believes in succession planning: identifying employees that have the ability and ambition to develop their own knowledge and skills to a higher level and to broaden their responsibilities.  He says the only way to keep talented people is to provide them with growth opportunities that are more promising than those they might find elsewhere.

Jason lives in Napier and likes spending time with his wife and children, fishing, diving, camping and watching his kids play sport.

Tony Hunter is General Manager with Blackhead Quarries in Dunedin.  He has been involved with the AQA for many years: as President, as Chairman of the Technical Committee and as a Board member.

He has been in the quarrying industry for some 25 years and a major highlight was overseeing the amalgamation of Fulton Hogan and Palmer & Son into Blackhead Quarries in Coastal Otago.

Tony’s off-duty pleasures include ‘watching the kids grow up’, spending time at his crib in Twizel, boating and water sports.

Robert Patience is Group Technical Manager with Higgins Group, based in Palmerston North, and covering the whole of the North Island.  Robert was an an AQA board member for two years and is now Chairman of the Technical Committee.  He is also a member on various external Roading NZ technical groups.

Robert has 25 years in the roading and construction industry in NZ in various roles as a civil engineer. During that time he was involved in the design and construction of the first inner city full depth asphalt motorway pavement in NZ; heavy traffic in-situ stabilised pavements in volcanic materials involving granular correction and emulsion binder; and major urban motorway project of thin asphalt over heavily bound granular.  He introduced European style stone mastic asphalt mixes for improved skid resistance and durability and was instrumental in the move away from traditional impact design fine dense graded asphalt mixes to more variation in continuous gradings with international gyratory compaction.

He is keen to encourage more quality process control in the supply of all types of aggregate products.  This includes maximising the full potential of continuously graded aggregates marginal and premium in unbound, semi and fully bound states with various types of binders; and hot mix asphalt material characterisation and behaviour and laboratory materials testing and recognizing variances in results. He would like to see a reduction in unnecessary long haul cartage of aggregates across the country.

Robert is adaptable in his outside work interests – take him outside and he likes Alpine skiing and sea fishing…Keep him inside and he likes computers and wine!

Eric Souchon is Managing Director of H G Leach & Co – Quarrymen and Contractors from Paeroa. He was appointed to the AQA Board in July 1998 and has remained on the Board ever since, including serving a term as President of the Association.

Eric has been involved with the construction, contracting and aggregate industry for nearly 30 years and has been recognised as a Chartered Professional Engineer and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Quarrying NZ.

Eric is proud of the fact that during his time with H G Leach the company has won the AQA Health and Safety Award twice and the Mimico Environmental Award.  In addition its staff have won numerous industry awards with both IOQ and AQA.

Eric is committed to ensuring that the image, relevance and value of the quarrying industry is better understood and appreciated by the public, central and local government and users of aggregate.

He is supporter of importance and role of EXITO as the industry’s training organisation, along with apprenticeships to bring young people into quarrying as a career choice.

Away from work, Eric’s interests revolve around family, the kids on the sports field and a small farming interest they have near Paeroa. He is a keen tennis player and has done the Coast to Coast several times.

Bruce Taylor is the Quarries/Transport/Excavation Divisional Manager for Fulton Hogan in Nelson.  He has been a member of the AQA Board for many years and was President from 2005 to 2007.

He has 45 years experience in the industry and is glad that he started at the bottom and worked his way up.  Bruce says that he has learnt a lot from dealing with many good people over the years, experience and knowledge that he hopes that in turn he passes his knowledge and experience onto others.

Bruce believes the quarrying industry has lot going for young people if they ‘get stuck in, put their heads down, and are prepared to listen and learn’. 

He is keen on getting the community to understand the importance of aggregate resources and why quarries are vital to the country as a whole.

A family man with eight grandchildren, Bruce can be found out on the farm or wood chopping.  He is also a member of Rotary.

Dr Greg Arnold has been a member of the Technical Committee since its inception.  He is the Director of Pavespec Ltd with nearly 18 years of research and project management experience, specialising in pavement design, research and Repeated Load Triaxial testing of granular and subgrade pavement materials. Current research projects range from development of pavement design criterion for granular materials, pavement testing using the Falling Weight Deflectometer, fatigue testing stabilised aggregate beams to develop design criteria to prevent pavement cracking and implementation of Repeated Load Triaxial testing in specifications for granular materials. 

Prior to Pavespec Ltd Dr Arnold was Transit New Zealand’s Engineering Policy Manager. 

Dr Arnold has a doctorate in Engineering from the Nottingham Centre for Pavement Engineering at the University of Nottingham, England and holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree and Master of Technology in Pavements. 

Originally starting as a laboratory technician, Stacy later moved onto process and application of crushing and screening products with Metso Minerals. In 2008 Stacy joined Winstone Aggregates, where he fills the role of National Technical Manager.

Stacy has a particular interest in aggregate processing and quality control. He is keen to see more transparency in the reporting of aggregate quality and compliance. Improved communication of the compliance of our products gives our customers confidence in our ability to their requirements.

In addition to being a member of the AQA Technical Committee, Stacy will also be the AQA representative on the NZRMCA technical committee.

Stacy is always keen for a bit of hunting and fishing, and a couple of times a year, he takes on half marathons.

Alan Stevens was appointed to the AQA Technical Committee in 2010 and represents Roading New Zealand where he is an Industry Manager based in Wellington. He has broad experience with seven years at the Pavement and Bitumen Contractors Association and Roading New Zealand preceded by 18 years in the ready mix concrete / masonry industry.

During his career, Alan has been involved in many industry wide initiatives to better the contracting industry for all stakeholders: Operate Safe, training and unit standards development, industry specifications and best practice documentation, the Asphalt Plant Accreditation Scheme, management of the Bitumen Industry Code of Practice, research projects to name a few.

His career highlights include:

• Developing quality assurance and health and safety systems for the roading and aggregate production industries.
• Assisting with the design of aggregate production facilities to help meet demanding client quality requirements.
• Starting two new ready mix concrete operations on greenfield sites and winning an environmental award from Tasman District Council for the Waimea Estuary site.
• Managing ready mix concrete, masonry manufacturing, and stresscrete operations numbering 15 different operations in total.
• Specialising in problem solving and diagnostic functions with concrete plant operation and design.
• Creating solutions to overcome technical design and performance challenges for concrete products

Alan’s particular focus is on initiatives to better the industry as a whole to ensure quality outcomes for all stakeholders that address their respective interests and concerns.

He is also keen to see the development of better contract models that are transparent and fair to all contract participants - this work extends to the way our industry specifications are developed and written.

When he is not working, Alan, and his wife of 31 years, enjoy working around their rural property, exploring New Zealand and the Australian outback by 4wd, wine and food, arts and theatre, reading.

Jayden Ellis is General Manager – Laboratory and Technical Services, Stevenson Resources serving Auckland/Franklin/Waikato.

He has been in the industry for 17 years, starting at Stevenson Laboratory in 1993, where he was promoted to Laboratory Manager 2001.

He was appointed as a ‘Technical Expert’ for IANZ 2008 and also in that year was awarded NZCE(Civil).

Jayden was a Founding Member of Civil Engineering Testing Association New Zealand (CETANZ) in 2008 and elected Vice President of CETANZ in 2009, when he also joined the AQA Technical Committee.

Jayden is particularly interested in technical solutions, in aggregate product development, quality assurance, and control. Within this he is concerned at the age and therefore the need for review of NZ Standards for testing of aggregates and soils. He would also like to see some standardisation of regional aggregate specifications.

Jayden likes the water and what it can produce – so boating and fishing are popular activities…and watching a good movie is always good if the weather’s too stormy.

Colin Taylor is the Technical Manager for Holcim Concrete and Holcim Aggregates (both divisions of Holcim (New Zealand) Ltd).  Its concrete operations include 12 ready mix plants in the Auckland and Waikato regions, and a concrete masonry plant near Hamilton.  It has aggregate quarries at Bombay and Hastings, Kiwi Point in Wellington, and a share in the Millbrook quarry near Wellsford.

Colin’s technical team has a centralised laboratory at Bombay for concrete and aggregates testing. Both the Auckland and Hastings laboratories are IANZ accredited.

He has worked in a number of technical roles, including the NZ concrete roof tile (Monier) and clay brick divisions of CSR Building Materials.

As Technical Manager, Colin was also Quarry Manager for the six clay quarries operated in the Auckland and upper Waikato. He has held Technical Sales (Exports) and Marketing roles in Ceramco's Mineral Division - including New Zealand China Clays (now owned by French minerals company Imerys) and Microsilica (New Zealand) Ltd (now owned by Golden Bay Cement) which mined and processed amorphous silica from a geothermal area near Rotorua for use in high performance concrete.

Born in NZ, Colin is a Science Honours graduate from the University of NSW, in Sydney.

Grant Anderson has been involved with the Planning Committee since its inception. He is an Environmental Advisor with Holcim (New Zealand) Ltd and while his is based in Christchurch, Grant works all over NZ.

He has worked in the industry for five years and highlights include the development and implementation of solutions which have an amicable outcome for both the operations managers, and which address the councils concerns. 

Grant’s industry focus is about improving negative perceptions of the industry that lead to delays, followed closely by security of supply in the future due to land use conflicts. 

Grant hopes that his work with the Planning Committee will help get aggregate extraction in front of councils at the early stage of plan development, and ensuring the industry ‘raises its heads above the parapet’ so the industry can be more visible.

Grant is an outdoors man and when he has time he enjoys waterskiing, snowboarding, running and squash.

Jonathan Green is a member of the Planning Committee and is National Resource Consents Manager with Fulton Hogan in Auckland. He has been in the industry for 16 years.

Jonathan has particular interest in reducing the demands made on the industry to implement mitigation or treatments that are not evidence based and show little or no discernable environmental benefit. 

Jonathan is a family man who enjoys club level motorsport, running and surfing.

AQA’s Executive Director is Roger Parton, who for the past four years has kept the Association in good running order. He has extensive experience in the not-for-profit sector including 14 years as Chief Executive of Clubs New Zealand. With this expertise, he is adept at meeting the challenges of managing a membership-based organisation and providing value added benefits to meet the wide range of membership types.

On the rare occasions he is not working, Roger enjoys family life, DIY and, as his impressive range of state of the art gadgets testify, electronics.