After close to eight years as the mover and shaker of our Industry Development division, we say goodbye to our General Manager Nick Inskip who is following his passion for the social sector and becoming CEO of the NZ School Trustees Association.
While it leaves us with a major role to fill, we know this is a significant career opportunity for Nick who will be able to utilise his full set of skills in his new role.
No doubt, all who have interacted directly with Nick will attest to how much he believed in what he was doing – working tirelessly to shape and implement strategic objectives to better understand and promote the general heavy engineering sector for our members and transform it into a sector of higher value added products.
Initiatives such as the Industry Development road map and geothermal capability register will be the legacies he leaves behind at HERA which will pave the way for more exciting opportunities in the future.
Equally promising is his development of the New Zealand Marine Energy Centre concept in conjunction with AWATEA, the European Marine Energy Centre and several local stakeholders and emerging activity in an offshore wave energy powered fish farm project which will be manufactured by our membership for local and export markets. These types of prospects require vision, a great deal of connectivity to the stakeholders and support from many quarters including industry and government to take the manufacturing industry on a transformational pathway – something Nick always had in spades.
Nicks work to advocate for industry often led to frustration – particularly around his belief that the government was not in sync to resource investments for our industry’s future, despite their policies saying otherwise, and we hope we can do him proud in continuing to carry this advocacy torch and get everyone in alignment in the long term.
Starting out alone, Nick has built Industry Development to what it is today, a motivated team of five staff – putting great emphasis on keeping Energy Research Manager Dr Boaz Habib and Market Co-coordinator Kim Nugent fully updated on current developments. In his steed, they’ll both rise up to the unique opportunity of stepping in to fill Nick’s boots, with Boaz becoming Industry Development Manager and Kim taking over the role of developing our ocean engineering research opportunities.
Nick’s friendly, well informed, enthusiastic and supportive presence, characterised by his humble and socially responsible approach to life will be well missed, and we’d like to thank him for his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavours to ensure ‘every student achieves their highest possible education potential’ in his new job.
Have you been working with Nick on any projects and need us to touch bases?
While Nick has been busy visiting many of our members out in the field over the past month, we recognise that he may not have been able to see everyone. Given we only have a short time left before he officially finishes off with us, its important we connect with anyone who may need to get the lay of the land going forward if they haven’t already.
If you’re needing clarity around any AGGAT related projects, please contact our newly appointed Manager Industry Development Dr Boaz Habib.
For any ocean engineering queries please contact our Marketing and Communications Kim Nugent.
