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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

CEO

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Steve Bell

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

Special Projects

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Sally Sisson

Special Projects

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.

Paul Rouppe Van der Voort

National Harvest Manager

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Paul Rouppe Van der Voort

National 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.

Matt Doyle

National Roading Manager

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Matt Doyle

National Roading Manager

Matt joined the Napier team in May 2017 as Resource Optimisation Coordinator. In late 2020, he moved into the Road Engineering Manager position.

Matt manages our extensive engineering program, planning works and monitoring operation costs. It is his role to ensure landings and roads are constructed to FMNZ standards that minimises environmental impact and costs.

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

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.

Dave Byrne

Environmental Forester

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Dave Byrne

Environmental Forester

His role is increasingly important at FMNZ and the forest industry to help achieve responsible stewardship of the land and meet legislative requirements and industry best practice environmental standards.

Dave has a Diploma in Forest Management as well as bringing twenty-five years forestry experience to the FMNZ team. His past roles have included practical silviculture, mensuration and harvesting as well as forest management, forest engineering and log optimization and value recovery.

Lena Sowersby

Financial Manager

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Lena Sowersby

Financial Manager

Lena joined the FMNZ team in May 2017 and is based in the Waverley office.
Lena’s role started as Forest and ETS Administrator and has progressed to her current role as Financial Manager. She is responsible for the financial and administrative operations of FMNZ.

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.

Sarah Leppard

Business Services Manager

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Sarah Leppard

Business Services Manager

Sarah joined the FMNZ team in September 2023, having recently returned to New Zealand after six years abroad. Sarah is an accomplished business management leader with a proven track record in steering organisations toward sustained growth and success.

Sarah brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the FMNZ team as the Business Services Manager, based out of the Napier office. Her background is across a diverse range of industries in Business Operations, Marketing, Events and Human Resources.

Known for her strong interpersonal skills, diverse skillset, and ability to inspire teams, Sarah creates a positive and collaborative work environment. She believes in fostering talent and empowering individuals to reach their full potential, contributing to the overall success of the organisation.

Beyond her professional achievements, Sarah represented New Zealand in Canoe Polo and is actively involved in Surf Life Saving as the Ocean Beach Kiwi Club Captain, Board Member, and a Local Sport Committee member. She is committed to giving back to the community and creating a positive impact beyond the business realm.

Wayne Dodgens

GIS Analyst

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Wayne Dodgens

GIS Analyst

Wayne joined our team in October 2023. He joins us from the United States where he has over two decades experience in the Geospatial Information field. His expertise was honed through managing GIS for diverse projects, spanning asset management to environmental restoration. He also has an extensive background in drone operations, previously building and leading drone programs with 25+ pilots.

Working out of the Napier office, he is responsible for maintaining GIS data, associated systems, and processes. Additionally, Wayne is developing and leading drone initiatives at FMNZ.

Beyond his professional pursuits, Wayne finds joy in spending quality time with his family. An avid outdoors enthusiast, he enjoys hiking and camping activities, fully embracing the opportunity to explore the unique offerings of New Zealand.

Jason Osborn

H&S and West Coast Operations Manager

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Jason Osborn

H&S and 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 Manager

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Daniel Murdie

Harvest Manager

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.

Charlie Baty

Harvest Manager

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Charlie Baty

Harvest Manager

Charlie Baty joined the FMNZ Gisborne team in September as a Harvest Supervisor. Charlie has worked in the forestry industry for about 25 years. He started off in silviculture and then moved into the harvesting side. He has National Certificates in Mechanised Tree Falling and Mechanised Processing Level 4, along with some other forestry modules. Moving into a management role is an exciting challenge for Charlie that enables him to stay involved in the forest industry.

In his spare time Charlie enjoys getting outdoors, hunting and fishing and spending time with friends and family.

Lee Christison

Harvest Manager

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Lee Christison

Harvest Manager

Lee started at FMNZ Napier Office in October as Harvest Supervisor. He previously worked at HBRC Works Group where he oversaw the contracting arm of the council.

He has a background of cable logging and civil / structural construction with Infrastructure Pipelaying Technician, Level 4 Tree Faller and other Forestry / Logging qualifications.

Josh Wyatt

Harvest Manager

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Josh Wyatt

Harvest Manager

Josh Joined the FMNZ team back in January 2021 and has recently progressed to a harvesting role. Josh has been involved in the silviculture industry for over 18 years mostly carrying out forest inventory. He has achieved New Zealand certificates in silviculture forestry operations as well as units in data collecting, health & safety, supervision & firefighting. Josh enjoys the daily challenges as well as learning and upskilling in new areas in the forestry industry.

Chris Gill

Harvest Manager

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Chris Gill

Harvest Manager

Chris joined FMNZ in November 2020 as Assistant Harvest / Engineering Supervisor, working out of the Napier office. His role at FMNZ includes scheduling engineering maintenance and site rehabilitation across our Hawkes Bay forests. Chris recently completed a Diploma in Forestry Management, finishing at the top of his class. Previously, he worked for 15 years in the steel fabrication and maintenance industry which included forestry repair work and building logging trucks.

Harry Dinneen

Technical Forester

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Harry Dinneen

Technical Forester

Harry has worked for FMNZ as an intern since November 2020. He completed his Bachelor of Forestry Science at Canterbury University in November 2022 when he joined us fulltime as a Technical Forester.

Harry’s responsibilities include mapping, maintaining forest records and providing technical assistance to operational staff as well as assisting with operational activities when required.

Harry enjoys the mix of challenges and tasks that his role provides and is looking forward to developing within the industry as a Forester.

Nathan Wallace

Regional Forest Manager – Gisborne/ North Wairoa

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Nathan Wallace

Regional Forest Manager – Gisborne/ North Wairoa

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.

Harrison Woolley

Regional Forest Manager – Napier/ South Wairoa

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Harrison Woolley

Regional Forest Manager – Napier/South Wairoa

Harrison joined FMNZ in 2020 as a Forest Supervisor and has progressed to his current role of Regional Forest Manager in Napier.

Along with his forestry team, Harrison takes care of the day to day management of the forests from Wairoa to Central Hawkes Bay. These operations include land preparation, silviculture, mensuration, forest establishment and general forest management. In association with our Gisborne Manager, he also plans and supervises the FMNZ planting and releasing programme each winter for both new afforestation and cutover planting.

While working for FMNZ, Harrison has gained multiple national certificates and modules for various forestry activities including basic fire fighting. He enjoys the variation his role offers and enjoys the challenge of successfully managing both staff and forests.

Anthony Bowden

Forest Manager

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Anthony Bowden

Forest Manager

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.

Gene Court

Forest Manager

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Gene Court

Forest Manager

Gene started with FMNZ in January 2022 as an Assistant Forest Supervisor. He will be working out of the Napier office and his duties will include forest visits, pest control and silviculture supervision.

Gene has many interests with anything to do with the outdoors including running and mountain biking. Although his career in the forestry industry has just begun, he has a strong interest in learning his forest management role as well as the forestry industry.

Cameron Hall

Forest Administration

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Cameron Hall

Forest Administration

Cameron joined the FMNZ team at the Waverley office in April 2021 as a Forest Administrator. His role is focused on data entry, processing of invoices, reporting and tracking actuals vs budgets for our managed forests and all other duties pertaining to forest admin.

He has worked in Biosecurity industries for the past 10 years mainly focusing on daily management of administration and in the last 3 years progressed into compliance, assisting MPI (Ministry for Primary industries), EPA (Environmental Protection Authority) and WorkSafe with legislation and process control.

Gek Yu

Harvest Administrator

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Gek Yu

Harvest Administrator

Gek joined the FMNZ team in January 2020 as Assistant Harvest Administrator.

Her duties include data entry, processing of invoices and log dockets and other administrative tasks.

She has administrative and customer service experience through her previous roles.

Nadine Valentine

H&S and Contract Management Administrator

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Nadine Valentine

H&S and Contract Management Administrator

Nadine joined the FMNZ team in August 2016, working in the Napier office.
Her current responsibilities include contract management, report collation and formatting, health and safety and compliance administration along with other general administrative duties as required.

Nadine has a background in administration through her previous roles. She enjoys the variation of duties her current role offers as she is putting her experience to good use while at the same time, learning about other aspects of FMNZs’ business.

Lana McQueen

Napier Office Receptionist / Administrator

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Lana McQueen

Napier Office Receptionist / Administrator

Lana joined the FMNZ team’s Napier Office in August 2020 as Receptionist / Administrator. Her responsibilities include front of desk, issuing forestry permits, database maintenance, phone operation along with other general administrative duties. Lana has a background in administration through her previous roles.