We have just recently held our Annual General Meeting for our members, and have some new announcements that we’d like to share as a result.
We’re excited to announce that Dave Anderson, Technical Director at John Jones Steel, is the newly elected Chair of the HERA Board. Dave has served as a HERA Board member for four years and has been the Deputy Chair for one year.
The new Deputy Chair is Craig Stevenson, Technical Director- Built Environment at Aurecon. Craig is one of the few consulting engineers who has served as a Deputy or Chair at HERA, with the last being Dale Turkington (Beca) who served as Chair in 2004.
The Outgoing Chair has a special role at HERA, having an appointed role on the Board and Salaries Committee. Matthew Kidson, Director at Kernohan Engineering will move into this key role and was thanked for his leadership on the Board over the past two years.
At the AGM, two Board members retired. Mike Lehan, Contracts Manager at Bishop Building and previous HERA Chair, had been on the HERA Board for over ten years. He will be missed from the Board as he has been a long-term contributor and led significant developments in the direction and evolution of HERA.
Board member Jennifer Hart, Principal – Transport Infrastructure at Beca, also retired and was thanked for her contributions as both a Board Member and Chair of the Financial Audit and Risk Committee. Jennifer was the third ever woman on the board, so also a trailblazer.
We were very pleased to introduce four new members to the HERA Board, which bring with them a rounding out of the diversity of the Board, in terms of skills and experience, age and gender. They are: Yvonne Chan, Director of External Engagement at AUT; Ben Jensen, Financial and Project Manager at Jensen Steel Fabricators, who will also join the Financial Audit and Risk Committee; Jayden Mellsop, Contract Manager and Director at Eastbridge; and Jane Warren, Director and Joint Owner, Dixon Manufacturing.
Annual general meeting 2020
Our annual general meeting was also well-attended with members both on-site at HERA House as well as joining via Zoom in a first-ever hybrid AGM. CEO Dr Troy Coyle presented the Annual Report, which due to the change in financial year, represented 9 months of HERA activity. Breaking with tradition, the Annual Report was based on Treasury’s Living Standards Framework and focused on HERA’s contributions to the four wellbeing capitals of human, natural, financial/physical and social.
Troy Coyle also thanked outgoing Chair, Matthew Kidson, for his service and specifically the time commitment that is required of the Chair.
Also presenting to the AGM were HERA General Managers Michail Karpenko and Kaveh Andisheh. Retiring HERA librarian, Musarrat Begum, was acknowledged for her contributions over the past two years, including migrating our substantial library to a digital platform, and her initiatives as Health, Safety and Environment Officer.
Delivering value to our membership in FY20
HERA has embraced its vision and mission to build a tribe of metal heads and the past year has seen many pivots which led to innovations in our digital offerings, transformation of our courses into online offerings, delivery of structural software, a surge in membership and continued engagement with our members. The digital focus served HERA well during the Covid-19 lockdown period and enabled us to continue to deliver membership services effectively.
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