Our
People

Prior to joining Assurity Consulting in 2018, Steve was NZ country Manager for CoreLogic NZ Ltd. This followed a twenty-year career with The Nielsen Company, with several senior leadership roles across the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region.

Steve holds a degree in Economics and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Marketing from Massey University.

Prior to Assurity Consulting, Garth was the Deputy CEO and Wellington General Manager at Fronde (previously Synergy International), where he led the growth and development of Fronde’s software development business.

Earlier roles include NZ Country Manager for Progress Software, and Wellington General Manager for QED Software.

Garth holds and has held a number of Board roles, including Assurity, Fronde and Ericsson-Synergy.

His education includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Operations Research from the University of Canterbury. Garth also attended and graduated from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business Executive Program.

Darren started in IT in 1984 and brings a comprehensive understanding of the industry to the company, from business development and analysis, to project management and governance. He has started and led multiple successful businesses on the past two decades.

Prior roles include CEO of Synergy New Zealand (UK) Ltd, and Chairman of Hypr.

Darren attended and graduated from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business Executive Program.

When not at work, Darren’s passion is being at sea with his family.

Alex is an experienced professional director with a passion for working with others to maximise potential. He is currently an independent director/trustee for Christchurch City Holdings, Quotable Value, Effectus, Plunket, and also Chair of the Board for Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust and Anchorage Trustee Services.

Prior to becoming a professional director, Alex spent 20 years at KPMG focussing on Audit and Risk; this included 12 years as a Partner.

Alex is a Chartered Fellow of the IOD, a member of the Chartered Accountants Australia and NZ, and a Chartered Member of ICAEW.

Alex is a family man with two teenage children, he is a keen cyclist but much of his spare time is currently taken up building a kit car with his son.

Katie is an experienced leader of people and business operations. Her career started in Human Resources then evolved into people management and business operations management during her five years with PwC in London.  Immediately before joining Assurity, Katie held the role of Customer Service Centres Manager for Auckland Transport, where she managed a team of over 100 spread across 12 locations in Auckland.

Katie holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Management and Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, both from the University of Canterbury.

Outside of work Katie is kept busy with her young family and loves camping, travel, and following the performing arts.

Grant completed management studies at the University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Business in Johannesburg.

Grant enjoys keeping reasonably fit and attempting to improve his golf game when not spending time with family and friends around a bbq and delighting in his young grandchildren.

Before joining Assurity, Chris enjoyed a 20-year career with market intelligence firm Nielsen, during which he lived in 5 countries and set foot in just over 70 countries.

Chris performed senior roles in both emerging and mature markets and helped teams achieve outstanding results in often complex and challenging environments. He finished as CEO of Nielsen Pacific business, where he led a team of over 600 people, oversaw a major transformation, and improved customer and employee satisfaction.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Management from Lincoln University.

Before joining Assurity, Aron held global recruitment roles based in London and Wellington focused on the technology and management consulting sectors. He has some 15 years’ experience in talent-focused roles.

On the weekends, you’ll find Aron skiing on the slopes, playing tennis, and spending time with family.

Justine has been part of the Wellington Branch Leadership team since 2014 and in that time has held leadership roles in Practice, People, and Delivery. Prior to joining Assurity, Justine enjoyed a career consulting for IBM, Unisys, and HP.

Justine believes that excellent delivery is achieved through building strong relationships, having great people who ‘walk a mile’ to ensure they know their customers, and working with integrity.  She believes that applying this approach to every aspect of delivery – from commercial negotiations and building a team through to the final invoice – is a formula that ensures we can be proud of the work we do.

In Justine’s words, “Our goal is to provide confidence in delivery, by embedding rigorous governance and ensuring an excellent client engagement experience, alongside delivering outstanding results.”

Outside of work, Justine enjoys travelling, which more recently has meant road tripping around Aotearoa.   She’s also a keen ‘urban walker’…. especially if there’s a good coffee at the end of it.

Russell is an experienced IT Delivery Consultant, having specialised in strategic quality change on large-scale programmes in the Banking, Financial Services, Telco, and Government arenas. Before immigrating to Aotearoa New Zealand, he enjoyed an IT career across Europe with Deloitte Consulting & Daimler Chrysler before settling on these shores. He is passionate about delivering successful outcomes through co-design, collaboration, and placing people at the heart of change.

Russell is a passionate fisherman when not spending quality time with his family supporting their equine pursuits.

Benjamen has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, both locally and internationally, in private and public sectors (and a couple of NZ-based start-ups). His background includes work on large programmes including global Service Management at Sony Ericsson Global, Service Management and Regulations at Hackney Borough Council, Dynamics 365 at NZ Trade and Enterprise, Enterprise Analysis at Z Energy, Compliance and Contact centre at Genesis Energy, Design the Career system strategy at TEC and Careers NZ. Go Google at New Zealand Racing Board and the roll-out of ERP and CRM at the Te Kōhanga National Trust.

Benjamen loves great coffee, travel, and music and has a sound engineering diploma from a production studio in London.