cv -may2015-linkedin

CV – ANDREW FIRTH (MarketPRO Ltd)

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Address: 75 Allum St Telephone: (09) 528 8499

Kohimarama Mobile: 021 448 536 AUCKLAND Email: [email protected]

PROFILE:

I am a highly experienced professional (25+ years practical experience) with a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) degree

from the University of Auckland. For the last 15 years I have specialised in business improvement, change and growth,

complex issue resolution, programme and project management, and business coaching. Notably successful, my

approach is to work with clients to deliver sustainable solutions. I engage with and empower my clients, working

collaboratively to drive results through effective communication. I provide big picture thinking with a focus on the

detail. I provide strong, decisive, enabling team leadership, empower teams to think creatively and innovatively, and

encourage the challenging of options to ensure best solutions realised.

I am tenacious, and will do what is required to secure progress and results. I am highly organised, analytical,

structured, pragmatic, and decisive, and I work well autonomously. A team player, I communicate and relate well with

people (I understand the importance of people in delivering effective results). I am energetic, enthusiastic, and

outgoing.

I bring focused objectivity and a balanced view to each project. Every issue has a solution that will enable the business

to grow and thrive, for the staff, management, stakeholders and customers.

CLIENTS:

Local Government Clients including :

o Auckland Transport,

o Auckland Council,

o ATEED,

o the former Auckland Local Government Organisations (North Shore City Council, Auckland City

Council, Manukau City Council, Rodney District Council, Auckland Regional Council and the Auckland

Regional Transport Authority).

o Thames Coromandel District Council,

o Capacity (Wellington Water Management) Limited.

Private Sector Clients including:

o Cognition Education,

o Hubbards Foods Limited,

o ADC Architects,

o National Express Limited,

o Computer Press Limited,

o Keylogix Limited.

QUALITIES SUMMARY:

Skills:

Strategic and business planning;

Complex project management;

Programme and portfolio management;

Project programming and planning;

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Business and financial analysis, management and improvement;

Process and system analysis and improvement including performance and delivery measurement;

Process documentation analysis and development (including focused multi-level process mapping);

Risk analysis and management (mitigation/minimisation);

Management and team mentoring;

Business coaching

Microsoft - Word, Excel, Project, PowerPoint, Outlook and Visio.

Work Ethic:

Driven;

Focused;

Highly responsive to client requirements;

Always an asset to the client team;

Proud of my achievements and the value I add to my clients.

Management and Leadership:

Manages projects from concept through development and delivery;

Manages projects and teams to minimise risk and maximise results;

Delivers strong, supportive leadership, leads by example;

Leads multi-stakeholder teams to agreement on complex, challenging issues

Works well with senior management;

Supportively empowers every team member to deliver.

Communication Skills:

Creates and builds strong business relationships based on full open honest communication;

Written - excellent skills in report writing, presentations, operating procedures, design and project documents;

Oral - excellent skills demonstrated through effective listening while managing, leading, delegating, negotiating, mentoring and coaching;

Ensures issues are identified and resolved.

Client Service:

Provides added value to each client through an exceptional, proven professional approach;

Listens to my clients;

Delivers exemplary client service by determining and delivering what the client requires;

Drives teams to find and deliver solutions to seemingly insurmountable issues;

Looks for opportunities to improve client service.

EDUCATION:

Bachelor of Engineering (Civil), University of Auckland (1988);

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MAJOR CLIENT PROJECTS INCLUDE:

The following projects are intended to illustrate my experience and suitability for work in the areas of business improvement, change and growth, complex issue resolution, programme and project management, and business coaching:

PROGRAMME PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT:

Auckland Transport

(2013 - ongoing)

Auckland Rail Strategy Level Crossing Programme Development

Project Lead and Management of the Auckland Rail Strategy Level Crossing Programme Development. Project managing multiple Auckland Transport and KiwiRail stakeholders in defining existing and pending level crossing issues, and identifying and assessing options for removal of at-grade level crossings.

Worked with multiple stakeholders to develop integrated comprehensive assessment of existing level crossing issues, defining how impact of issues will significantly increase to untenable levels due to growth in rail and road usage, and intermediate consequences of the future usage growth steps.

Developed integrated approach including project plan to produce a programme of short term improvements to rail level crossings across Auckland, and a prioritised programme of longer term level crossing removal. Involved working collaboratively with KiwiRail, Transdev, Auckland Council and numerous Auckland Transport stakeholders.

Note: Previous Auckland Councils had unsuccessfully tried to define the future foreseeable negative impacts of combined road-rail usage at-grade level crossings. This project successfully achieved this by unraveling this complex issue and providing the long awaited justification to provide significant capital funding to deliver solutions. It has provided AT with a clear forward path to address the impending issue. This work has moved the topic of level crossings from the “if there is a problem in the future” to “there is going to be a problem”

Auckland Council

(2014)

Local Economic Development Group LTP development and submission

Project Lead and Management of the development of a programme of realistic projects that deliver the Auckland Council Local Economic Development Strategy and utilise the available programme budgets

Developed a realistic programme of work out of the initial project list, noting that the initial project delivery programme was unrealistic.

Ensured Local Economic Development had sufficient high priority substitute projects in development to mitigate risks of non-delivery of programme.

Facilitated discussions between separate Council groups impacted by or involved in the delivery of the updated Local Economic Development programme to optimise programme delivery.

Prepared Council committee reports proposing programme and subsequent programme finalisation.

Auckland Transport

(2012-2014)

AEP Inter-agency Programme Development and Management

Development and monitoring of all of the projects that are required to be delivered to enable launching of the new electric rail service for Auckland. This was a multi-agency programme involving over 70 projects with a high level of complexity and interdependency. Work included liaison with stakeholders and partners on projects including ongoing monitoring of progress and understanding of issues and possible impact on critical path.

Successful ongoing monitoring of progress allowed unrealistic inter-agency expectations regarding the completion of the project to be exposed and managed

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Auckland Transport

(2012-2014)

Auckland New Bus Service Network Changes Project

Project management of the development and delivery of significant changes to the Auckland bus services network (affects all bus services in Auckland reducing number of routes from 350 to 150, requires major bus interchange infrastructure provision, and is integrated with new contract tendering model).

Worked with project team and key senior management to achieve collaborative agreement of a realistic programme of stakeholder engagement, consultation, contracting and implementation including infrastructure provision for the nine phases of New Network rollout. Included management of unrealistic delivery expectations.

Successfully delivered phase one (the southern consultation and network finalisation phase).

Note: Auckland Transport has never delivered service changes on this scale and complexity before. This has required a new approach and process, and is being successfully delivered.

Auckland Transport

(2012-2013) Public Transport Infrastructure Programme

Development of a Public Transport infrastructure programme to support implementation of the Public Transport Development Plan changes for the Auckland region. Work included identifying and programming infrastructure needs including property purchase, monitoring progress against required programme and providing Public Transport input into infrastructure development

Auckland Transport

(2012)

Rail Strategy Property Programme development

Worked with key AT and KiwiRail staff to identify future rail land requirements, understand existing ownership and provide justification for proposed future use.

Unravelled complex ownership picture and proposing changes to optimise future proof

development of a programme of property acquisition to support rail strategy development.

Auckland Council

(2011 – 2012)

Auckland Council integration with Auckland Transport City Rail Link project

Facilitated Auckland Council to understand potential impacts of the Auckland Transport City Rail Link project on key locations in the CBD and determine proposed response

Assembled key staff from affected groups within Auckland Council, facilitated a process to disseminate City Rail Link project, understand its’ impacts and develop a proactive Auckland Council response to project.

Engaged with senior management to report impacts and proposed response, and support ongoing inter-agency discussions on initiatives, roles and responsibilities.

Auckland Regional

Transport Authority

(2009-2010)

Rugby World Cup 2011 Programme Manager Development and delivery of RWC programme management which included:

representing ARTA in regional forums,

assisting in the leadership of the regional transport workstream,

development, tendering, award and project management of a Public Transport feasibility assessment to establish the level of transport requirements for the RWC and how these could be delivered,

detailed development of transport operational plans for venues,

EOI and tender for bus operations,

integrated ticketing negotiations with RNZ2011,

networking and integration of RWC delivery that affected transport development including stakeholder management,

working to develop the ARTA RWC team, and

identification of tasks required to both further progress transport planning for the RWC as well as supporting ARTA’s regional partners.

Auckland City Council

(2007-2008)

Programme Development Developed project programmes for Transport Strategy group which involved:

development of realistic task, cost and resource based programme baselines for all

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capital and strategic projects in conjunction with LTCCP, annual planning and subsidy requirements,

monitoring of monthly performance against pre-agreed programmes with issue mitigation development as required,

performance reporting.

North Shore City

Council

(2007)

10/20 Year Programme Development

Development of the Transport Divisions 10 and 20 year capital programmes which included: o identification of a successful methodology using existing divisional knowledge to

develop the programmes, o engaging the required participants in the methodology and the deliverables

programme, o facilitation of numerous programme development sessions which effectively

downloaded the collective knowledge of the division into a structured programme template,

o compilation of the information provided and development of the base data annual programmes for 20 years,

o scenario development and presentation of the possible programmes Council could propose in the upcoming LTCCP and the financial impacts of each.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT:

Auckland Transport

(2012-2013) Distributed Stabling Facilities

Project managing development and construction of two key train stabling facilities. Work included developing agreed facilities requirements with external end users and working to secure appropriate facilities locations with land owners

Auckland Transport

(2012-2013) Manukau Public Transport Interchange

Project managing development of alternative Public Transport interchange arrangements at Manukau to interface with new rail station. Includes working with multiple internal and external stakeholders to understand issues and needs, and facilitate solution development that meets requirements, developing Masterplan with multiple stakeholders, and developing project delivery steps (project of this scale and nature had not previously been done by Council).

Auckland Transport

(2012) Asset Inventory Development

Project managed development of the AT Property Asset Inventory including working with each workstream lead to develop inventory content and bringing all together into single document.

Included understanding use, ownership, financial responsibility, AT requirement and required ownership interest to meet requirement.

Involved over 1,000 individual property elements, multiple stakeholders across AT and Auckland Council and determination of legal complex status for many property sites.

Auckland Council

(2012) Auckland Council City Rail Link Coordination

Lead a project to understand current Auckland Council involvement in City Rail Link project ($2.9b rail tunnel), identify gaps and misalignments, develop action plan to address issues and manager delivery.

Auckland Transport

(2010-2011) Link Bus Service Changes

Project managed development and delivery of the Link bus service changes, including joint NZBus /AT development of service design within new shared risk contract framework. Delivered by deadline of RWC 2011. Included complex procurement issue and negotiation to resolve.

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(2010-2011)

Development of the City Centre Master Plan Transport Component

Project Management of the Transport Elements of the Development of the City Centre Master Plan

Oversaw the development of future vision options for the development of the key Auckland CBD transport routes.

Facilitating Auckland Transport and NZTA through a process to assess how to achieve the vision set out in the City Centre Master Plan, including finding solutions where traditional thinking constrained options to achieve the end vision.

Project involved managing the expectations of involved parties to ensure project momentum was not unduly impacted. Delivered successfully - project eventually resulted in agreed multi-agency programme to move to City Centre Master Plan vision.

North Shore City

Council

(2007)

Corridor Strategy Development

project management, planning and delivery of corridor strategy for the Council which included: o identification of the process through stakeholder engagement to develop a

corridor strategy to guide all council development, o development of a brief to engage consultants to deliver phases one and two of

project, o facilitation of discussions with the council stakeholder group to develop

innovative solution development techniques and the changes in approach needed for project success,

o participation as core team member in the project.

PROJECT WORK:

Auckland Regional

Transport Authority

(2010)

Commonwealth Games Feasibility Planning

Development of a detailed feasibility assessment of how existing and special bus services would service demand during a Commonwealth Games event in Auckland. Included detailed bus resource assessment, operational delivery and costing model.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENT:

Cognition Education

Limited (2014-

Ongoing)

Operational Division Improvement Project

Project Lead and Specialist delivering design and development of operational improvements to Saudi school bus operation. Included identification of what World Best Practice looks like for the operation, gaps between existing operation and World Best Practice operation and improvement plan.

Cognition Education

Limited (2013)

Training Needs Analysis

Project Lead and Specialist delivering Training Need Assessment and business planning and improvement delivery modules for TTC (new Saudi Arabian private company delivering school bus services for 600,000 Saudi school girls)

Developed and delivered business needs competency assessment of management and staff for existing and proposed business functions. Included site visit to conduct onsite interviews, understand key business drivers and issues, and better understand client environment to ensure recommended solutions met requirements. Developed prioritised skills development programme for each staff member including identification of delivery options.

Developed framework and improvement plan to enable this young, growing business with high aspirations to realistically set growth targets and progress along integrated well-understood programmes to achieve these targets.

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Auckland Transport

(2014 - ongoing) Programme Review and improvement

Review of a multitude of major capital projects’ programmes, assessment of them as realistic representations of remaining work to complete the project against specified budgets, risk assessment of likelihood of completing project on time.

Mentoring project managers to update and improve project programmes to provide overall confidence in capital budget allocations and annual spend profile.

Auckland Transport

(2012) Public Transport Health and Safety Review

Development of a planned approach to auditing current H&S practises, understanding process deficiencies and associated risks to Auckland Transport and proposing solutions to address issues prioritised by risk.

Auckland Transport

(2011-2012)

Capital Projects Improvement Initiative and Project Management

Developed and delivered a number of successful improvement initiative projects to address organisational development and growth issues in the capital project development area. Initiatives included development of financial and project reporting systems, project and programme management process improvements, and facilitation of discussions to resolve issues and develop agreed solutions to difficult issues, particularly around roles and responsibilities.

Auckland Regional

Transport Authority

(2009)

Business Travel Planning Process Development

Development of a process and supporting documentation for the preparation of business travel plans with the process able to be applied to a variety of different businesses by the businesses themselves with guidance only from ARTA. Delivery and project management of a trial of the process using four selected test businesses. Project included: o identification of the process required to develop a business travel plan and the

responsibility for each task, o development of templates and documentation to support the process, o management of the four trial businesses through the process including setting

up of workshops,

production of a report on the process developed, the learnings from the process trial and the essential elements required for future improvement and salability of the business travel planning process.

Auckland Regional

Transport Authority

(2009)

Development of ARTA Land Transport Programme

Development of a process for processing, review and reporting on the subsidy applications from the seven Auckland Councils for LTNZ funding. This process had an extremely tight timeframe and was completed successfully. The work involved: o identification of the outputs required and their relative timing, and the

consequential process required to develop these outputs, o development of project plan and role descriptions, o development of spreadsheet system to manage and report on information

provided, o reporting of prioritised programme together with graphical representation of

results for the various interested stakeholder groups, o identification of areas where process could be improved for following years.

Rodney District Council

(2008-2009)

Development Contributions Assistance

Provision of assistance to Rodney District Councils Development Contributions team to review and facilitate improvement and consistency in the supporting information justifying the projects that made up the Councils Development Contributions charge. This project included: o working with individual project managers and their consultants to understand

information and rationalising it into a defensible position, o evolving policy with financial and asset managers around treatment of projects

re Development Contributions.

Involved working to a very tight deadline. Initial deadline met with further project requirements ongoing.

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Auckland Regional

Council (2007-2008) Consent and Consent Compliance Improvement project

Engaged to salvage existing improvement project, providing assistance and leadership to ensure objectives delivered within constrained timeframe. Included reformulation into realistic packages, and implementation of package initiatives to ensure delivery of defined outcomes on time and with minimal time requirement from already stressed staff and management. Project successfully delivered.

Auckland Regional

Council (2008) Consents Group Review

Review of the roles and responsibilities of a large number of consents delivery staff, recommendations for restructuring the division based on addressing known issues and process improvements, and implementation of restructure. Aligned with the Consent and Consent Compliance Improvement project

Manukau City Council

(2007-2008)

Capex Improvement Project Assistance

Provided objective overview of current project that was experiencing major progress issues. Identified initiatives to unlock issues and progress capital programme development and delivery improvements. Project included understanding work done to date by others, assessment of level of actual buy-in and understanding of the project within senior management and the project team, and recommendations of improvement and further initiatives to bring project back on track.

North Shore City

Council

(2005-2006)

Development of Sponsor role

development of role of project sponsor for Transport division which involved: o analysis of existing capital delivery programme processes and issues, and

identification of improvement initiatives, o design of sponsor role, o initial delivery of sponsor role and development of improvements, o reporting of programme and project delivery, o identification of risks/issues affecting business, highlighting of these to

appropriate management and tracking to resolution.

North Shore City

Council

(2005-2006)

Programme Planning and Reporting

Developed a robust strategic capital programme planning and reporting system for the North Shore City Councils Transport Division which involved: o identification of the information required to effectively report on programme

implementation progress including expenditure, resource, timing and confidence measurement,

o development of project programming template and assistance to development project programmes for all capital projects,

o development of a spreadsheet based reporting tool to consolidate project information provided and develop multi-level monthly report,

o implementation of system and assistance to refine output during initial reporting periods,

o development of additional information capture and reporting following initial success of system.

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Thames Coromandel

District Council

(2005-2006)

Council Wide Process Improvement

MarketPRO was engaged by the Thames Coromandel District Council to undertake Council wide process improvement project, starting with process mapping of existing delivery. The process mapping was targeted to initially contribute to identifying why the Councils major issues exist and assist in solution development. The work included: o working with the senior management team to identify structure of Council

processes, current risks and issues, assignment of these risks and issues to the process structure followed by prioritisation for mapping purposes of the business areas.

o mapping of the infrastructure, regulatory and customer service areas of the business, followed by governance. Undertook workshops with staff to identify processes and issues they experienced followed by mapping and confirmation of accuracy.

o analysis of maps produced to determine probable causes of issues raised by both management and staff.

o production and submission of report to senior management team on outcomes of first three business areas along with suggested initiatives to either resolve or minimise issue, or to develop solution.

Capacity (Wellington

Water Management)

Limited

(2005-2006)

Strategic Business Planning

Development of an assessment of the options available to the CEO to improve delivery capability and identify future new business opportunities which included: o high level analysis of existing business performance and current delivery issues

and constraints, o two day workshop session with CEO to brain-storm potential solutions and

business development ideas, o production of report covering process and outcomes.

North Shore City

Council

(2004-2006)

Programme and Project Management Improvement

Working with senior management to develop a programme of integrated improvement initiatives that individually and collectively provided better understanding and outcomes for the delivery of the transport programme. Areas included: o project management, o programme integration and alignment both within transport and with other

NSCC departments, o programme reporting and issue identification.

North Shore City

Council

(2004-2005)

City Plan Development

Development of improved method for establishing priorities in the NSCC transport programme, and application of this methodology to development of the 2009-2023 LTCCP. This project included: o working with individual project and programme managers to better

understand and refine proposed work programmes with standardised supporting information,

o compilation of programmes and projects into an overall draft programme, o working with NSCC in the refinement of this programme as it is embedded into

the overall NSCC LTCCP programme and receives political review.


(2003)

Asset Modeling

Developed asset model to identify optimum footpath renewal scenario for Auckland City for next 50 years which involved: o analysis of the existing asset data (17,000 asset segments) relating to footpaths,

including the interpretation of condition, performance and usage data, estimates of the remaining asset lives and the corresponding maintenance requirements,

o development of model to enable scenario comparison and optimisation, o development of scenarios to provide financial and network asset impacts

comparison report.

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(2002-2003)

Business Improvement Project Engaged as Service Design Manager for the new Business Design Team, Traffic and Roading Services, Auckland City Counci to improve service delivery. The work included:

analysis of the business operation, identification and prioritisation of areas requiring improvement,

process mapping and analysis; gap analysis, solution identification and implementation (included comparison of optimised processes to current business structures and recommendations for improvement); assessment of current roles, responsibilities and accountabilities and incorporation of these into analysis,

strategic planning (workshop facilitation) and plan compilation including measures and target setting,

project identification and planning; preparation and presentation of detailed project plans including MS project plans,

identification of aspects of annual planning process and alignment of these into a single, detailed process plan,

creation and management of three year and annual business planning process (includes setting of delivery briefs between individual business operations),

assessment of financial inputs and required outputs and determination of solutions to improve these; identification and evaluation of financial options facing the business (includes assessing external financial factors and their potential effect),

detailed review of current measurement and reporting systems (includes assessment of confidence levels in information); identification and recommendation of improvements and development of detailed project plans to produce these,

business risk identification and prioritisation; determination of mitigation measures and integration with risk analysis to assist in forward business planning (determining where business development emphasis should be focused),

development of both change management and communications into project planning and liaison with appropriate experts in both areas.


(2002)

Wharf Financial Modeling

Developed financial model to support wharf user charging system (I previously designed and implemented the wharf user charging system for Auckland City Council while I worked for URS - see below) which involved: o development of detailed modeling of the present and future financial

requirements for the wharves owned by Auckland City Council, o successful negotiation of a business agreement between stakeholders.

CONTRACT ROLES:

Auckland Council

(2010-2011) Transport Programme Manager

Develop a role within Auckland Council City Centre team that was required to have a complete knowledge of all transport relates initiatives and activities occurring or planned for the City Centre and the alignment and interdependency of each within the transport programme and the other city centre programmes. Required a large amount of stakeholder and partner liaison and reporting.

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EMPLOYMENT HISTORY PRE MARKETPRO

URS Limited (1996-2001)

Associate - Senior Financial, Risk and Project Manager Type of work included:

Risk assessment and mitigation/minimisation from financial perspective;

Development of financial models for user pays charging regimes;

Financial modeling for asset management purposes;

Development and management of national wastewater database;

Tender evaluation and management for large pipeline project;

Design and documentation for water supply pipeline;

Lobatse Water Augmentation Scheme - Botswana, Africa (1994-1996)

Site Engineer – Contract management and administration

Supervision of Contractor constructing 70km long 600mm diameter water supply pipeline, three pump stations and treated water reservoirs with maximum flow rate of 1000 m3/hr. Pipe materials - GRP, and ductile iron (high pressure areas). Contract value: US$30 million.

Design of new 600 mm diameter pipeline sections, including hydraulic analysis, route selection, pipe line and fitting design, materials specification and drawing preparation. Design of ancillary works as part of contract.

Urban Development Project - Swaziland, Africa (1992–1994)

Senior Engineering Consultant

Detail design of new and upgraded water supply infrastructure for new housing projects. Preparation of relevant specifications, contract documentation, drawings and schedules including existing water supply systems analysis using modeling software;

Feasibility study, design and project tender document production for landfills to service each of the two main cities in Swaziland.

United Kingdom contract work (1989-1992)

Design Engineer and Project Manager

Pre-design and design of water and sewage supply and reticulation for a small agricultural village. Tender assessments and recommendations of five projects with an average value of approximately NZ$400,000

Murray North (NZ) Ltd (1987-1989)

Design Engineer

water, wastewater, stormwater and landfill design

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