Speakers

Tania was appointed GM Generation in January 2022, having originally joined Meridian as Chief People Officer in 2019. Tania has strong experience in the electricity sector, including six years on the Leadership Team of Contact Energy in People and Health, Safety & Environment.

Tania also has a breadth of experience to share from running her own consulting business, leading people-related projects in the energy, science and research, manufacturing, retail, arts, financial services, non-profit and government sectors. A graduate of Victoria University, Tania started her career in the NZ Air Force.

Tania is passionate about people development and wants to ensure everyone gets the opportunity to realise their potential.

Attracting and retaining good people into the power industry is essential to tackling New Zealand’s climate challenge.

David is a specialist dam engineer at Tonkin and Taylor with over 30 years of experience working with all phases of dam engineering projects, and dam safety management. He has been a member of the management committee for the New Zealand Society of Large Dams (NZSOLD) since 2011 and represented NZ on the International Committee of Large Dams (ICOLD) Technical Committee on Levees from 2018 – 2023. He is currently leading the NZSOLD Dam Safety and Technology Committee which is undertaking a review and update of the 2015 version of the NZSOLD Dam Safety Guidelines.

After completing engineering studies at the University of Canterbury, Andrew started as a dam safety engineer in the consulting world, gaining experience in dam monitoring and surveillance, dam safety reviews, dam break hazard assessments, forensic investigations, deficiency resolution, and general dam safety management across NZ, Fiji, and the Philippines. Looking for a change, he then spent some time in local government broadening his skillset and entering the world of asset ownership. The draw of the dam’s industry never waned and when the opportunity to work for a large hydro owner arose there was no looking back. Andrew has been working for Genesis since 2019 and is currently the Engineering Manager for Civil & Dam Safety. Andrew has been on the NZSOLD Management Committee since 2020 and is the current Vice-Chair.

Danielle Hooper has over 10 years of experience in Building Controls and holds an NZ Diploma in Construction (Construction Management), with the majority of her experience being within the building consent management and processing of building consents at Waipa District Council.

Currently, Danielle holds the position as a Project Manager at Waikato Regional Council for all things Building Act such as Building Consent applications, BCA quality assurance manager and managing the Dam Safety Regulation requirements for WRC. 

Gemma Riley is a Building Control Officer at Marlborough District Council and has been in this role since January 2023. Gemma has a Bachelor of Building Science from Victoria University of Wellington, with majors in Project Management and Sustainable Engineering Systems.

Alongside processing building consent applications and conducting building inspections, Gemma has overseen the implementation and development of systems to ensure Marlborough District Council can effectively carry out the Regional Authority functions required by both the Building Act 2004 and the Building (Dam Safety) Regulations 2022.

Jo Frances is a Marine Scientist by training and was happy knowing nothing about dams until she was asked to look into the Dam Safety Regulations in February 2024.  She has worked at Greater Wellington since 2011 in resource management policy and planning, strategy, regulation, parks, change management, and as a project lead.

Jo’s current role as Lead Consenting Advisor in Environmental Regulation means that she picks up big pieces of work that no one else has time to do, and makes things happen – like reviewing the policy on dangerous dams, setting up the dam registry for the Wellington region, writing to (and taking calls from) all the known dam owners in the region, establishing the non-compliance procedures, and overseeing the SOPs for dangerous dams and dams posing an immediate danger.

Byron Pretorius has worked within Otago Regional Council’s Regulatory Group for eight years and possesses specialism in RMA compliance and enforcement, consent and policy advising and data system development.

Byron administers Otago Regional Council’s Building (Dam Safety) Regulations 2022 responsibilities and has prior experience conducting dam site investigations alongside dam engineers and in the implementation of the Otago Regional Council’s Policy of Dangerous Dams, Flood-Prone Dams and Earthquake-Prone Dams. 

Grant Webby is a Senior Principal Engineer at Damwatch Engineering with a focus on hydraulic structures investigation and design, physical and computational hydraulic modelling, the flood safety of dams and hydropower systems, reservoir management and sediment issues.  Grant spent 35 years with the Ministry of Works and Development and its successor, Opus International Consultants, before joining Damwatch in 2016.  Grant was a co-author of Module 2 “Consequence Assessment and Dam Potential Impact Classification” in the 2015 New Zealand Dam Safety Guidelines and collaborated with Bill Veale on the 2023 revision of that module.  He has recently contributed to the 2024 revision of Module 3.

Bill is an Associate Principal Engineer at Damwatch Engineering who has been working on dam and river engineering projects for over 18 years. He has worked mainly in New Zealand but has also been based overseas on projects in Albania, Belgium, England, Pakistan and Vietnam. Bill has a technical focus on the design and construction of hydraulic structures, dam safety engineering, hydraulic modelling and dam-break flood hazard assessments.

Jayandra is a Civil Engineer at Damwatch Engineering who has been working on dam and hydropower engineering projects for over 7 years. He has worked mainly in New Zealand but has also been based overseas on projects in Nepal, Norway and Vietnam. Jayandra has a technical focus on the hydraulic and hydrological modelling, reservoir sediment management and dam-break flood hazard assessments.

David is a water resources engineer at Riley Consultants Limited with over 10 years of experience across all civil, geotechnical and water resources disciplines. He has been involved in dam/dam safety from the very start of his career in some shape or form and has started focusing more on dams for the last five years. David has undertaken various types of work in dam safety including IDSR, CDSR and of course PIC assessments, as well as project work such as repairs and upgrades.

Dan is Dam Safety Intelligence’s General Manager.  He has 23 years of dam safety experience, as an owner and practitioner, in New Zealand, Australia, North America and Sweden, with expertise in dam safety programmes, management systems, training, advisory and maturity evaluations.  Dan was a contributing author of the New Zealand Dam Safety Guidelines (2015, and 2023 update), and is Past Chair of NZSOLD.  Dan is a Dam Safety Recognised Engineer and Practice Area Assessor.

Kristen is a Chartered Professional Mechanical Engineer with a focus on the hydropower and dams industry. Her experience includes hydro-mechanical engineering design on projects in New Zealand and overseas. Kristen is also experienced in the operation and maintenance planning and reviews related to dam safety and was a contributing author of the New Zealand Dam Safety Guidelines 2023 update about the gates and valves systems.

Leigh is Mercury’s Engineering Manager for the Technical Safety team which includes Dam Safety and Process Safety functions.  She started her engineering career as a graduate at Mighty River Power (and attended Jo Grilli’s 18th HydroPower Technology course in 2004).  Leigh’s background is in process engineering, and she has held design, operating and R&D roles in the geothermal power and oil & gas industries in NZ and Australia.  She has led Mercury’s Process Safety program for the past three years and more recently this role has expanded to include their Dam Safety program.

Nicky is a Dam Safety Analyst with Dam Safety Intelligence, a dam safety consultancy based in Wellington. Nicky has 13 years of experience as a Geologist working across the mining, construction and quarrying sectors. Her career has seen her work with, and lead, large and small teams across the UK and Europe, Australia and New Zealand.  Nicky’s current role combines her industry experiences to bring insight into the ongoing monitoring of dam surveillance data, supporting dam safety assessment, governance, regulation compliance and dam safety management systems of DSI’s clients, both here and overseas.

Bruce Walpole has a background in in hydrology and a specialisation dam safety/civil engineering, and leads a team of engineers and specialists in conducting comprehensive safety assessments, risk mitigation, and regulatory compliance for dams across New Zealand; Bruce is also a member of NZSOLD and been on the committee representing large corporate members.

Employed formally by Trustpower and currently employed by Manawa Energy for over 15 years in Dam Safety Bruce is currently the Dam Safety Team Leader.

Richard is a civil engineer with experience in design, construction and contract management. Particular interest areas are dams, water, multi-discipline design management and contract administration. Since 2020 he has been part of the owners’ site team for the largest dam presently under construction in New Zealand. Before working with Waimea Water, Richard worked for Stantec on the design and contract management of pipework, river and dam upgrades around New Zealand. Earlier experience includes stormwater detention dams, agriculture dams, industrial process engineering, structural, roading, three waters and geotechnical work in NZ, Australia, and Indonesia. He is a Recognised Engineer (PIC, DSAP) and IntPE(NZ).

Brian is Damwatch’s Geotechnical Technical Director.  He has over 40 years’ of experience in geotechnical and civil engineering, with particular expertise in embankment dams, geotechnical engineering, failure modes & effects analysis, risk assessment and dam safety.  Brian has held senior design, engineering and project leadership roles for projects in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Russia and the United States. He was the embankment design lead for the recently commissioned Waimea Dam in the Tasman Region.

Manesh Malla has decent experience in dam safety and civil engineering. Currently, he is a Dam Safety & Civil Engineer at Meridian Energy in Christchurch. Before that, he was the Dam Safety Manager at Opuha Water Ltd. He has also held positions at Meridian Energy as a Dam Safety and Civil Engineer in Twizel (previous tenure) and Surface Water Operations Engineer at the Selwyn District Council. Manesh holds a master’s degree in environmental Seismic Risk from Sapienza Università di Roma and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Nepal Engineering College.

Building on his degree in horticultural science Stephen McNally has spent 40 years working in various roles in horticulture and agricultural engineering sectors. He has been a crop management advisor, a grower exporter, an irrigation system designer and a water infrastructure consultant across NZ and Australia.  He was made an Honorary Life Member of Irrigation NZ in 2018 for his contribution to developing technical standards.  Stephen now works full-time for Irrigation NZ advising on freshwater policy and providing industry-led training.

Jim is a British import who has been in NZ for the past 12 years and lives and works in the sunny Bay of Plenty with my twin daughters and partner. Jim has environmental-related degrees with a professional background in contaminated land and remediation which he started in the UK and continued in NZ. He shifted to TCC in 2019 and has enjoyed the opportunity this position has given him.

Jim’s current position as a team leader in City Waters at TCC mostly involves assisting with the ongoing stormwater and wastewater discharges into the network and wider receiving environment. These discharges pass through a mature asset management framework which is maintained in an operational capacity as required by consent. This has led Jim into assisting with the dam safety review process due to my position at TCC.

Jim’s team are responsible for pollution events and wastewater overflows that discharge to the stormwater network. The other half of the team manages the operation of the stormwater and wastewater discharge consents that TCC hold with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council (BoPRC).

Tony is an internationally recognised hydraulic specialist who has authored over 150 technical papers on dam breach modelling and soil erodibility, spillway hydraulics, water measurement, and fish screening.  He leads the hydraulic modelling and fluid mechanics research efforts for the Bureau of Reclamation and will present their recent experimental studies of hydraulic jacking in spillway chutes.

Jim Walker is the Principal Dam Safety & Civil Engineer with Meridian Energy, with 28 years of experience managing dam safety assurance and dam engineering work for dam owners in New Zealand. Jim is a member of the NZSOLD Management Committee.

Steven Conlan is an automation engineer at Meridian Energy with over 10 years of experience in hydro assets. He regularly contributes to Critical Dam Safety Reviews across Meridians assets and is currently working on the Benmore Hydraulic Structures Equipment Upgrade, including the control and protection systems. Steven has a background in functional safety and aims to incorporate good engineering practices from other high hazard industries into dam safety.

Vis is a senior geotechnical engineer at Engineering Geology Ltd, with specialised experience in dam, tailings, and earthquake engineering. She has led numerous projects involving tailings storage facilities, water storage dams, infrastructure, and commercial and residential developments across New Zealand and Australia. Her professional experience spans a wide range of work in dam engineering, including site-specific seismic hazard assessments, comprehensive dam safety reviews, failure mode and effects analyses, risk assessments, and the investigation, design, and evaluation of tailings and water storage dams, as well as dam safety management.

Before joining EGL, Vis completed her doctoral degree in geotechnical earthquake engineering at the University of Auckland. Her research focused on a holistic low-damage seismic design philosophy, which allowed her to develop expertise in advanced geotechnical laboratory testing, numerical analysis using state-of-the-art constitutive soil models, and nonlinear time history analysis.

Dr Kaley Crawford-Flett is the Chair of NZSOLD.  She is a geotechnical engineering specialist who promotes the advancement of engineering practice through industry-focused research, technical project management, and independent consultancy.  Kaley also holds a position as an Honorary Academic within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Auckland. 

Peter Amos is the Managing Director of Damwatch Engineering Ltd, a specialist consulting company for dam engineering and dam safety based in New Zealand.  Peter has more than 35 years of experience as a dam designer and dam safety specialist, including new dams and innovative dam upgrade projects for seismic conditions and resolving seepage problems.  He has carried out dam safety assignments in Canada, Australia, Vietnam, Laos, Fiji, Bhutan and the Philippines and is currently leading dam safety capacity-building projects to improve dam safety practices in Vietnam and Ethiopia.  Peter is a past Chairman of the New Zealand Society on Large Dams (NZSOLD) and led the preparation of the 2015 New Zealand Dam Safety Guidelines.  He also represents New Zealand at ICOLD (the International Commission on Large Dams), sitting on the ICOLD Environment Committee.

Peter was the Lead Design Consultant during the construction of the 53m high concrete-faced rockfill Waimea Community Dam, the first dam of 50+ metres height built in New Zealand in the last 20 years.  Peter is also one of the lead authors of the 2024 revision of Module 4 (Construction) of the NZ Dam Safety Guidelines.

Daniel is a Chartered Professional Engineer (Civil), a panel member of the Society of Construction Contract Practitioners and the Society of Construction Law and a member of NZSOLD.

He has extensive knowledge in the development of challenging large-scale capital projects around New Zealand.  This includes the construction and refurbishment of a number of large dams, irrigation schemes and other renewable energy projects.  Daniel filled the role of Construction Manager and Engineer’s Representative for the $200M Waimea Dam.

Steve is a Special Counsel at Anderson Lloyd specialising in infrastructure and construction projects, with a focus on project delivery and troubleshooting.

With over a decade of experience in private practice across England, Singapore, and New Zealand, he has advised on numerous transactions and disputes. Steve has authored the New Zealand Construction Law chapter of the Chambers Global Practice Guide annually since 2022, and contributed to updating the NZSOLD Guidelines – Module 4 (Construction and Commissioning).

His notable water storage projects include the Waimea Dam, the Matawii Dam, and the Otawere Reservoir.

Steve’s other projects have included irrigation schemes, fish screens, hydropower projects, wind farms, motorways and other roading, streetlights and traffic lights, schools, prisons, water and wastewater infrastructure, airports, industrial properties, sports facilities, residential developments, commercial offices, supermarkets, and many more.  

Titus is a Technical Director at Riley Consultants. He has over 20 years’ of experience in geotechnical and dam engineering, with expertise in the design and safety of water storage dams, stopbanks and seismically resilient infrastructure across NZ and the Pacific.

Titus is a Chartered Professional Engineer, Practice Area Assessor and an accredited RMA Hearing Panel Member. Most recently, Titus was the design lead on two High PIC dams in Northland.

Eli is a Principal Dam/Geotechnical Engineer at Riley Consultants. He has 14 years’ of experience in dam and geotechnical engineering, with expertise in designing water storage dams, dam safety reviews, and designing foundations for civil infrastructure on complex ground conditions.

Eli is a Chartered Professional Engineer and Recognised Engineer (Dam Safety). He was the design lead and oversaw the construction and commissioning of a 25m high, High PIC dam in Northland.

Robert Shelton is a Senior Project Manager at Manawa Energy. He has been with Manawa for 14 years in several roles in dam safety, civil engineering and project management. Robert led the Generation Enhancement team for a number of years and he has a passion for hydro generation and dams. He has previously presented to NZSOLD on Potential Failure Mode Analysis and is the Project Manager for the Arnold dam strengthening project.

Prior to Manawa, Robert worked internationally for over 17 years on a variety of infrastructure projects in Australia, Europe and Asia.

Josh Aplin is a Senior Civil Engineer at Manawa Energy based out of their Christchurch Office. He has been at Manawa Energy for five and a half years and has worked on a range of Dam related projects throughout his time. Prior to working for Manawa Energy Josh worked for Central Plains Water overseeing the design and construction of the Central Plains Scheme and Sheffield Scheme.

Graeme Boyd is a Civil Engineer specialising in dams, hydropower and water resources, with over 30 years of experience in the planning, engineering, construction and commissioning of dam projects in New Zealand and internationally.

He is a Technical Director for Damwatch where he has responsibility for leading and overseeing technical and design activities on dams and hydropower projects. He has a special interest in hydraulic structures and hydro-mechanical equipment, which has given him an appreciation and respect for the power of water and what it takes to safely store, manage and move it.

Graeme became involved with the Waimea Community Dam project part-way through its construction, where his duties included design manager for the final stage of temporary diversion works. In that role, Graeme was instrumental in preparing the Reservoir Filling Plan to safely managing first-impoundment of the reservoir.

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