New Zealand Asset Management Symposium – Collaborating for Greater Impact

• Date: 13 August 2026
• Location: Auckland University of Technology Conference Centre
• Theme: Collaborating for Greater Impact
• Cost: $250 (Australian Dollars)

Keynote Speaker: Jessie Lea (New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga) – From projects to long-term planning: asset management as the foundation

Panel Session: Closing the AM capability gap – what Local and Central Government agencies can borrow from regulated and private infrastructure owners and vice versa

Other speakers:

• Wendy McPate (AMCouncil) – AMC 2026: Building Capability, Community and the Future of Asset Management
• CDR Phil Bradshaw and CDR Robyn Locke (Royal NZ Navy) – Maritime Fleet Renewal Programme
• James Kilty (Transpower) – Innovating to deliver New Zealand’s electrified future
• Nathan Cammock (Auckland Transport) – Electrifying Auckland’s ferry fleet
• Dawn Inglis (Co-Lab) – REG Consistent Condition Data for NZ Roads – efficient delivery enabling effective decision making and vice cersa
• Phillip Conroy and Christopher Butt (Babcock) – Risk based decision making and asset management planning for the RNZN
• Alex Castellanos (Unison) – Automating the visual assessment of copper conductors

Scroll down for topic summaries and speaker information:

Keynote: From projects to long-term planning: asset management as the foundation

 New Zealand’s infrastructure system is under increasing pressure to deliver better outcomes from existing assets, while responding to affordability constraints, changing demand and long-term investment needs. This keynote will introduce Te Waihanga Infrastructure Commission’s role in the investment management system and outline how the National Infrastructure Plan, the Government response, and the Commission’s emerging asset management assurance function are shaping expectations for stronger, more disciplined asset management across central government. 

The presentation will provide a practical overview of Te Waihanga’s Asset Management and Investment Planning Guidance, with a particular focus on meeting Cabinet’s requirements, performance metrics, and the shift from project-led decision-making to long-term, portfolio-based asset management planning. While the Guidance is directed at central government agencies, the principles are relevant to all asset-intensive organisations: better use of evidence, demand and economic forecasts; stronger whole-of-life planning; and ensuring that business cases are grounded in robust asset management and investment plans – moving beyond short-term responses and building the strategic foundations needed. 

Jessie Lea is Special Advisor for Asset Management at the Infrastructure Commission, leading initiatives to improve asset management across central government. A Chartered Planning and Development Surveyor (MRICS) with over 20 years’ experience in property and asset management in the UK and NZ, she is shaping long-term strategies aligned with the National Infrastructure Plan and Cabinet’s asset management programme. Jessie advocates for elevating asset management professionalism within government, driving meaningful change and equipping agencies with tools and guidance to deliver effective practices.

Maritime Fleet Renewal Programme

An overview of the Maritime Fleet Renewal Programme, the largest acquisition and transformational programme ever undertaken by the NZDF and some of the workforce, engineering and logistical considerations as the programme progresses.

CDR Phil Bradshaw is a Marine Engineer who has held a diverse range of roles including leadership of the Navy’s Marine Engineering Training School, two years as Marine Engineering Head of Department onboard an operational Frigate and four years as resident Naval representative for the lower South Island. Since promotion to Commander he has been Director of the Defence Media and PR Organisation, held responsibility for the introduction into service of major maritime capital projects, been Deputy Chief Naval Engineer, Chief of Staff for HQ Defence Logistics Command and is currently leading the infrastructure component of the MFR programme.

CDR Robyn Locke is a marine engineer with a specialty in naval architecture. She started her career in the Canadian Navy, serving at sea on HMCS Regina and Fredericton and ashore in naval architecture focused areas. She joined the NZDF in 2018, working in engineering policy and regulation before joining the MFR programme as the Technical Lead.

Innovating to deliver New Zealand’s electrified future

As New Zealand electrifies in an environment where resource costs are escalating ahead of inflation, at Transpower it’s more important than ever that we innovate to meet the growing demands of our work.

As the owner and operator of the national grid and a major infrastructure builder, we put considerable effort into keeping our costs as low as possible without sacrificing reliability or moving too slowly for New Zealand’s electrification needs. We have a number of work programmes underway to do this, including carefully managing our assets to get as much life out of them as possible, and a new challenge to help us accelerate key improvement activities underway to increase throughput and find savings for the long term while delivering on committed outcomes.

This is about working smarter and building on what we are already doing well, while adapting and innovating as an organisation to continue to deliver for New Zealanders.

James Kilty joined Transpower as Chief Executive in February 2025, prior to that he was Chief Executive at Powerco for three years. He has 25 years’ experience in the energy industry, holding a range of leadership roles at Contact Energy including Deputy Chief Executive, and has held a range of industry Board and leadership roles. James holds an LLB (Hons) (1st class) from Waikato University and has completed both the Harvard Business School High Potential Leadership Course and the Advanced Management Programme at Chicago University Booth Business School.

Electrifying Auckland’s ferry fleet

Auckland Transport’s Low Emission Ferry Programme is delivering a significant ferry asset transition, responding to the dual challenge of fleet renewal and decarbonisation. While ferries carry only around 6% of Auckland’s public transport passengers, they account for approximately 20% of its emissions highlighting both the urgency and opportunity for change. 

This paper outlines how Auckland is enabling electric ferry operations through the deployment of fast charging infrastructure, including New Zealand’s first marine Megawatt Charging System (MCS) installation. Operating at up to 3.3 MW, this infrastructure supports rapid ‘opportunity charging’ during passenger boarding, enabling electric vessels to maintain existing timetables without requiring additional vessels or operational compromise. 

Delivering this capability within constrained waterfront environments and legacy electricity networks has required innovative approaches to both engineering design, system integration, and ongoing asset management. Key challenges include maintaining high operational reliability, integrating emerging international standards that are still under development, and enabling the flexibility to adapt to future industry direction. 

A central feature of the charging solution is the use of advanced load management, allowing ferry charging demand to be actively managed as a flexible load. This enables peak demand to be reduced, network constraints to be respected, and existing infrastructure to be utilised more efficiently without overbuilding network capacity. 

As the first vessels and charging systems transition into operation, Auckland’s experience demonstrates how complex transport electrification can be delivered while balancing performance, cost, and risk to do more with less. 

Nathan Cammock is a chartered electrical engineer and Programme Director for Auckland Transport’s Low Emission Ferry Programme. He has experience delivering complex programmes of work as an asset owner, consultant, and construction contractor across power transmission, distribution, and generation sectors – both locally and in the UK. Nathan joined Auckland Transport in 2020, and has led road safety initiatives, busway construction, and more recently the renewal and electrification of Auckland’s public transport ferry fleet.

REG Consistent Condition Data for NZ Roads – efficient delivery enabling effective decision making and vice cersa

Consistent condition data is important in the transport sector’s approach to lifecycle asset management, benchmarking, performance management and investment decision making.  The Road Efficiency Group Te Ringa Maimoa (REG) is delivering the first phase of the Consistent Condition Data Collection (CCDC) project: sealed pavement surfacing data collection of all local authority roads.  This presentation outlines how the programme was developed, the business case objectives, and what the data is enabling – benchmarking and better investment decision making. 

 Dawn Inglis is the Manager of RIMU – Road Infrastructure Measurement & Use – a business unit within Co-Lab, in the Waikato. RIMU plays a key role in delivering the Consistent Data Collection Contract (CCDC) project for the Road Efficiency Group Te Ringa Maimoa (REG) programme. A Fellow of Engineering NZ, Dawn is a passionate and experienced engineer who has spent most of her career in local government. She brings deep expertise in transport asset management, having previously served as Group Manager Service Delivery at Waipā District Council and Manager of RATA (Regional Asset Technical Accord).

Risk based decision making and asset management planning for the RNZN

In May 2022, Babcock Australasia commenced its journey toward achieving and maintaining ISO 55001 certification. A key milestone in this process was the establishment of an effective asset management team comprising of a support, asset risk and assurance. 

A structured approach has enabled the creation of comprehensive Asset Management Plans which forecast maintenance and cost until EOL.  This structured approach has also enabled Decision-makers to confidently approve treatment actions based on clearly defined Risk detail incorporating evidence of impact, likelihood and mitigation details. 

Risk Management is a key part of Asset Management. Knowing a risk is there is the easy part. Getting that information to the right person who can make the decision to improve it is the hard part. Technical teams and executive leadership speak fundamentally different languages, and neither side has developed adequate translation tools. 

It is not easy to develop this competency across an organisation. In this presentation, we’ll look at some examples of good and bad risk communication, provide some tricks and hints on developing engineers to work well with others, and develop your skills at getting your decisions made. 

Philip Conroy joined the Royal Navy in 2000 as a Marine Engineer. He served on Aircraft Carriers HMS Ark Royal, HMS Invincible and HMS Ocean. During his time in the Roal Navy he completed his Artificer training, receiving a Degree in Marine Systems Engineering and gained extensive knowledge of Marine Mechanical/Electrical systems. After 14 years Philip left the Royal Navy to start a new chapter in New Zealand. Philip Joined the Royal New Zealand Navy in 2014 and was assigned to HMNZS Canterbury. After reindorsement of his engineering certificates, he took on the role of Propulsion Plant Maintenance Manager. After three years serving on-board HMNZS Canterbury Philip came ashore to join the Operational Support Team, providing support for all Royal New Zealand Navy Platforms. He was also the Fleet Diesel Inspector during this time. After 20 years at sea, Philip left the Royal New Zealand Navy. He has remained in the Royal New Zealand Navy Reserve Force unit and regularly assists with training. He is occasionally deployed to assist in various engineering roles. Philip started a new role at Babcock (NZ) in 2020, working on a systems risk assessment project for 2 years. This project was the foundation for his current role where he leads a team managing Risk for all Royal New Zealand Navy Platforms.

Christopher Butt is the Availability, Reliability, Maintainability for Babcock NZ, working for the Royal New Zealand Navy. In this role he is responsible for root cause investigations and identifying corrective action into technical issues with Naval vessels. Chris has worked in defence, maritime and rail sectors throughout his 13 year career. Chris has a Master’s degree in Science from the University of Manchester. Outside of work, Chris enjoys bikepacking and whitewater kayaking.

Automating the visual assessment of copper conductors

This presentation explores the development of an automated approach for assessing the visual condition of overhead copper conductor at Unison Networks Ltd. The process deploys Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to capture pictures of electricity distribution lines, then Computer Vision (CV) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are applied to the photographed conductor to provide a consistent visual score. The visual score output is used as an input to evaluate the condition of copper conductor. Learnings will be shared as well as future work including the potential use of these images to improve assets’ data quality.

Alex Castellanos is working as Digital Engineering Technical Lead at Unison Networks Ltd. He obtained a PhD degree (2015) in electrical engineering from the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand). He has over 15 years of experience in the power and energy industry including energy use, power generation, and power transformers monitoring and control. His current area of interest is data analytics and condition monitoring for the management of electricity distribution network assets.