Gemma’s an award winning engagement specialist who thrives on enabling people to get involved in shaping their place through inclusive engagement. She is a Director of G &T Connect - an engagement consultancy focussed on connecting voices and shaping futures.

Her extensive work with communities in Aotearoa New Zealand spans 18 years.  Passionate about communities, her continued innovation was recognised through the IAP2 core value awards, winning Project of the Year in 2021 and the NZ Planning Institute Nancy Northcroft Supreme award in 2022.

Gemma has worked across the transport, urban development, water and energy sectors and has a special passion for disaster recovery and climate adaptation planning.  Personally, she has been through managed retreat, so she brings empathy and these insights to her work.  Gemma loves working with people and holding space for the ‘hard conversations’. 

Gemma is Mum to Lillian and Marlow, she loves to get outdoors water skiing, walking in the hills and camping. She’s on the St Albans School Board of Trustees and in her youth was the NZ White Water Kayaking team and loves a bit of an adrenaline rush!!

Andrew is a senior principal consultant and civil engineer with over 30 years of experience and specialising over the last 15 years in infrastructure and asset management. Andrew holds a master’s degree in engineering management and in recent years has led numerous business cases focused primarily in the transport sector across New Zealand. His public sector experience covers strategic planning, project, and programme management across local and state government in both New Zealand and Australia, including the delivery of capital works programmes and maintenance and operations management for a range of public and private infrastructure.

Over the past 5 years he has become increasingly involved in resilience and adaptation focused investment, including decarbonization projects and disaster recovery and adaptation programmes. From this experience, he has seen the importance of aligning solutions to match the community that is being served. This in turn has demonstrated the importance and significant value from tailoring engagement approaches to match the stakeholders and communities that will be impacted by the investment decisions being made.

In my current role, I work with external stakeholders to support community-led conservation and regional regeneration, believing collective effort is key to impactful outcomes.

I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and deepen my understanding of tikanga, whakapapa, and Mātauranga Māori through the Te Wharekura project—a true partnership between local government and Tangata Whenua.

Julia Siddall is a consent planner with Auckland Transport and one of two owner interface managers in the Communications and Engagement team on Te Tupu Ngātahi (Supporting Growth) Alliance.

She has two years’ experience planning for resource consenting, designation processes, policy and subject matter expert input. Her role on the alliance includes internal and external stakeholder engagement.

In her spare time Julia plays hockey and likes to get out exploring new places.

A transformational leader with 15 years’ experience as a CEO in the not-for-profit sector, coupled with extensive senior management experience in the private sector and 20 years’ experience working within collaborative models.

Under her leadership, IAP2 Australasia focused on delivering a suite of valued initiatives to members which has resulted in tremendous growth, membership has more than tripled to over 14,000 and revenues have likewise increased.

Marion has an MBA from Henley Management College, UK. She has been married to Kevin for over 30 years and is enormously proud of her two adult sons.

A resourceful optimist, she grew up in the Northern Territory, and much of her life has been shaped by her dad’s words “well it can’t be that hard”.

Based in Ōtaki with her multicultural, bilingual whānau, Sarah is a principal and owner at Aurecon, leading Engagement and Change Advisory for Aotearoa. Her team helps clients and communities solve some of NZ’s most complex infrastructure problems.

Sarah’s 30-year career began in the arts, analysing and communicating complex ideas for diverse people doing ambitious things on tiny budgets! A good foundation for her eminence in navigating complex infrastructure development and management, supporting government and communities through change to find their common ground.

Through promoting IAP2 training and principles, Sarah has delivered great outcomes and unlocked opportunities for communities, decision-makers, technical experts, and engagement practitioners alike.

In a range of executive positions, throughout his career Tony has led major health, mental health, education, housing and disability infrastructure projects for the Victorian Government during COVID. Tony has also led major change and transformation programs in the disability sector following the introduction of the NDIS. Tony brings over 30 years of governance experience to the table.

As Chair of IAP2 Australasia Working Internationally to re-shape Engagement globally, Tony is passionate about good engagement equals good outcomes. Tony is also a non-Executive Director of the State Trustees of Victoria managing over $2.4 billion in assets supporting over 10,000 of Victoria’s most vulnerable citizens. Tony is also a Councillor for Hepburn Shire Council.

Recently awarded the Kimberley Kitching Award for Human Rights by the Prime Minister in 2023, Tony harnesses his disability as a great strength and demonstrates that disability does not equate to inability, bringing the great value of lived experience to the workplace and board room.