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Our Forest Management Team

FMNZ has been operating since 1974 and our team has over 250 years of combined industry experience. We offer superior service in every aspect of managing your forest. It is the reason we achieve excellent returns for our clients on their forestry investments.

As we form long-term relationships with our clients, it’s important for us to put the best possible people on-site. This translates to consistently high standards of work. We also encourage our people to broaden their skills with ongoing training.

Steve Bell

Joint CEO

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Steve Bell

Joint CEO

Steve Bell, our Forest Manager has over 28 years of experience in forest management.

Steve oversees all aspects of the FMNZ business from land acquisition to harvest. He has worked for FMNZ since 1992 being involved in the establishment and now harvesting of the forests we manage.

Working from the Napier office, he is the liaison point for the forest owners and represents FMNZ within the forest industry and is currently Vice Chair of the Hawkes Bay Forest Group.

Working from the ground up, Steve has gained national certificates and tertiary qualifications in forestry along the way.

Sally Sisson

Joint CEO

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Sally Sisson

Joint CEO

Sally is the Forest Administration Manager and has worked for FMNZ since May 1994 out of our Waverley office.

She is responsible for the financial and administrative operation of FMNZ. This is a varied role which encompasses a forestry knowledge built up over the past 25 years and applied to strategic planning, financial management, reporting and administrative functions of the company.

Her background is banking/finance/systems and management.

Rory Bennison

Land Information and Technical Forest Manager

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Rory Bennison

Land Information and Technical Forest Manager

Rory started working for FMNZ in May 2000. He has a background of over 20 years of experience in the industry, having been involved in various aspects of the business.

Rory’s main roles include land information management, GIS and Database management, ETS advice, all aspects of forest mapping, as well as having a pivotal role in developing FMNZ systems and procedures.

He ensures FMNZ are kept up to date with new and emerging technology and is continuously looking for technological improvements that add to the productivity of FMNZ.

While working for FMNZ he has completed a National Diploma in Forestry (Forest Management), as well as NZQA Certificates in Establishment and Silviculture and Harvest Planning.

Nathan Wallace

Assistant Forest Manager

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Nathan Wallace

Assistant Forest Manager

Nathan has worked for the company since 1996 and is based out of our Gisborne office.

Nathan manages the Gisborne team and is responsible for the day to day operations within the Gisborne/Wairoa area. This includes land preparation, silviculture, forest establishment and general forest management. He also organises and supervises our planting programme each winter for post-harvest and greenfield afforestation nationwide.

Nathan has a sound knowledge of forest establishment and silviculture, holding National Certificates in these activities. He also has achieved firefighting modules in both the urban and rural fire sectors and is a volunteer fire fighter.

Paul Rouppe Van der Voort

Harvest Manager

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Paul Rouppe Van der Voort

Harvest Manager

Paul started with FMNZ in April 2016 as our Harvest Manager.

Working out of the Napier office, he is responsible for the management of all our harvest operations. This includes supervision of the harvest and engineering contractors as well as our own staff working alongside our harvest operations.

Since 1985, Paul has been involved in all aspects of harvesting and has extensive knowledge of harvest planning, cable and ground base harvesting and forest engineering. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration and an NZ Certificate in Forestry.

Ian Bell

Woodflow & Log Marketing Coordinator

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Ian Bell

Woodflow & Log Marketing Coordinator

Ian has worked for FMNZ since June 2014.

Ian is based in the Napier office where he is responsible for log marketing and woodflow management. This includes preparation of weekly cut-cards, woodflow forecasts and monitoring, as well as liaising with our domestic and export clients.

During Ian’s 28 years in the forest industry he has worked for Rayonier, Carter Holt Harvey and been a Director of Woodmetrics. He has worked in varied roles from establishment to harvesting and marketing of woodlots including a period consulting in Indonesia.

Roxane Price

Harvest Administrator

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Roxane Price

Harvest Administrator

Roxane (Rox) joined the FMNZ team in September 2013 as our Harvest Administrator.

In this role her time is focused on data entry, processing of harvest invoices and docket reconciliation of all harvest related operations. This includes engineering, log sales, log cartage and harvesting income/expenditure. Rox manages the administrative harvest information for all of our harvest operations nationwide.

Her background includes a NZ Diploma in Business and experience in administrative and information services roles.

Matt Doyle

Resource Optimisation Coordinator

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Matt Doyle

Resource Optimisation Coordinator

Matt Doyle joined the Napier team in May 2017 as Resource Optimisation Coordinator.

Matt looks after value recovery for FMNZ – this means maximising the value cut from every tree harvested. He also optimises the long term volume cut from the overall estate.

Matt has a Bachelor of Forestry Science Degree and has worked as a Forest Planner in Gisborne, Ireland and as a contract forester in the Lower North Island.

Mark Roper

Environmental Forester & Principal Ecologist

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Mark Roper

Environmental Forester & Principal Ecologist

Mark joined the FMNZ team in June 2018 as an Environmental Forester and Principal Ecologist.

Mark’s role is ensuring best environmental practices are implemented at an operational level. This necessitates working closely with the operational team and contractor base to ensure compliance with local and national environmental regulations and industry best practices (NZ Environmental Code of Practice for Plantation Forestry (E-CoP) and the National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forestry (NES-PF)).

Mark has worked around the world in the scientific research and environmental consulting industries. He has been involved in several large infrastructure projects and was Project Ecologist for the Transmission Gully Motorway, north of Wellington.

Jonathan Saunders

Geographic Information System Technician

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Jonathan Saunders

Geographic Information System Technician

Jonathan joined the FMNZ team in January of 2019 as a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Technician.

His role includes general mapping and GIS maintenance such as updating new roading, skid sites and cutover areas. His GIS skills include a wide variety of mapping such as hill shade, environmental, slope and pre harvest maps. Jonathan also works with Pix4D which is drone mapping software to create high resolution orthophotos with the ability to measure stockpiles.

He Graduated in 2018 from the University of Waikato with a Bachelor of Science.

Fraser Cunningham

Harvest Planner

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Fraser Cunningham

Harvest Planner

Fraser joined the FMNZ team in November 2017 as the company GIS Technician. He has since been promoted to his current role as a Harvest Planner.

His current role involves planning the harvest operation including road and landing placement, through to resource consent applications. His GIS and mapping abilities are also useful in his planning work.

Prior to joining FMNZ, his work experience was in the mineral industry, where he worked as an exploration geologist in Western Australia and New Zealand.

Fraser graduated from Victoria University with a Bachelor of Science Majoring in Geology and Geography.

Michelle Ibbotson

Health & Safety and Compliance Coordinator

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Michelle Ibbotson

Health & Safety and Compliance Coordinator

Michelle Ibbotson joined FMNZ in March 2017 as Health & Safety and Compliance Coordinator.

Her main role is ensuring FMNZ staff and their contractors work to and maintain a high standard of Health and Safety compliance. This is achieved through regular audits, the application of risk management solutions and the regular review and improvement of our Health and Safety procedures.

Michelle spent more than a decade logging in and around Hawkes Bay and is ticketed in Breaking Out, Manual Processing and Log Making. Michelle holds a National Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety Level 4 and is preparing to begin a Diploma in the same field.

Jason Osborn

West Coast Operations Manager

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Jason Osborn

West Coast Operations Manager

Jason joined us in June 2011 as a Forest Supervisor based in Napier. In October 2016 he was promoted to West Coast Operations Manager and is now based at the Waverley office.

His main roles include harvest management, harvest planning and procurement.

Jason’s forestry career started when he pruned trees during his school holidays, over 30 years ago. He has an NZ Certificate in Forestry, a National Certificate in Log Making and a number of logging and log scaling modules. Jason has worked as a silvicultural supervisor, ran his own silvicultural gang and logged extensively both in cable and ground based operations.

Daniel Murdie

Harvest Coordinator

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Daniel Murdie

Harvest Coordinator

Daniel has worked for FMNZ since April 2002, where he started as an Assistant Forest Supervisor, progressed to a Forest Supervisor and in 2018, he was promoted to Harvest Coordinator based from the Gisborne office.

He is responsible for the harvest operations within the Gisborne region including cable, ground base logging operations and roading infrastructure.

He has an extensive background knowledge of the forestry sector from his years working as a Forest Supervisor. His qualifications include a Bachelor of Engineering (Forestry), with Honours and numerous NZQA certificates.

Tony Brightwell

Harvest Coordinator

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Tony Brightwell

Harvest Coordinator

Tony joined the FMNZ team in January 2019 as Harvest Coordinator based in the Napier Office.

He is responsible for supervising the harvesting crews and roading contractors. He also provides advice and logging experience in a planning capacity as well.

Tony has been involved in the logging industry since 1980 in various roles right up to harvest manager. He has not only logged throughout NZ but also in Canada and Australia. Tony has achieved level 4 National certificates in Tree Felling, Cable Harvesting, Mechanised Harvesting, Ground Based Harvesting, Log loading and Forestry.

Sam Scott

Harvest Coordinator

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Sam Scott

Harvest Coordinator

Sam started working with FMNZ as a Harvest Coordinator in February 2017.

Sam is responsible for the management of the day to day harvesting operations based from our Napier office. He is also involved with Harvest Planning and Roading Operations Management.

He has a Diploma in Forest Operations Management from the Waiariki Institute of Technology and has worked with several harvesting contractor crews over several years.

Jade Phillips

Harvest Coordinator

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Jade Phillips

Harvest Coordinator

Jade joined FMNZ in November 2017 as a Harvest Coordinator.

His role covers harvest planning, consent applications, earthworks and supervision of clear fell harvest and roadlining operations. He works out of the Napier office and is currently overseeing the harvest of several different forests in the Napier/Wairoa area.

His Qualifications include a Bachelor of Forestry Science from Canterbury University.

Luke Williams

Harvest Coordinator

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Luke Williams

Harvest Coordinator

Luke joined the FMNZ Napier team in January 2018 as a Harvest Coordinator based at our Napier office.

His roles include supervising clear fell harvesting using cable logging techniques as well as roadline operations using ground base machinery. He is also involved with harvest planning prior to commencement of the harvest operation. The forests he oversees are in the Napier/Wairoa region.

He has completed a Level 6 Diploma in Forest Operations and Management as well as a Level 4 Tree Feller and Breaker Out. Luke has a background of 8 years of industry experience in silviculture and harvesting.

Richard Airey

Forest Supervisor

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Richard Airey

Forest Supervisor

Richard joined the FMNZ team in October 2016 as an Assistant Forest Supervisor based in our Napier office and has since been promoted to Forest Supervisor.

His main roles include field quality control and collecting forest data, supervision of silvicultural operations, monitoring forest health and forest establishment and management.

Richard has a Bachelor of Applied Science, majoring in Natural Resource Management and a diverse work history based around environmental management, silviculture and forest establishment.

Anthony Bowden

Assistant Forest Supervisor

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Anthony Bowden

Assistant Forest Supervisor

Anthony (Ants) joined our Gisborne based team in October 2018 as an Assistant Forest Supervisor.

His main roles include day to day silviculture operations, forest health and general forest supervision including scheduled forest/property inspections and reporting of our Gisborne and Wairoa properties.

Ants has 5 years industry experience working in and supervising silviculture operations, data collection/forest inventory, establishment and working alongside forestry related helicopter operations.

Hamish Strachan

Assistant Forest Supervisor

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Hamish Strachan

Assistant Forest Supervisor

Hamish joined the FMNZ Napier team in April 2019 as Assistant Forest Supervisor.

His role includes undertaking pest control and regular maintenance checks of all the forests we manage throughout the Hawkes Bay Region.

Hamish has a background in forestry maintenance and viticulture and has completed various NZQA qualifications in both forestry safety and forestry maintenance.

Lena Gibbs

ETS Administrator / Forest Admin

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Lena Gibbs

ETS Administrator / Forest Admin

Lena joined the FMNZ team in May 2017 and is based in the Waverley office.

Lena’s role includes accounts payable, bank reconciliation, data entry and cashflow reporting. She is also FMNZ’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Administrator and involved in the registration and de-registration of clients from the ETS, preparation of ETS returns and maintains the client database and records.

She has previous experience and knowledge of accounting, budgeting, reporting and a base knowledge of the forests FMNZ manage through her years working at our sister company RDNZ.

Nadine Valentine

Napier Office Receptionist / Administrator

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Nadine Valentine

Napier Office Receptionist / Administrator

Nadine joined the FMNZ team’s Napier office in August 2016 as Receptionist / Administrator.

Her responsibilities include front of desk, issuing forestry permits, data entry, database maintenance, minute taking, phone operation, digital and paper copy filing along with other administrative duties pertaining to the job.

She has a background in administration through her previous roles.

Cobus Visage

Forest Roading Engineer

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Cobus Visage

Forest Roading Engineer