A recognised leader in sustainability and transport, smart cities and environmental management, Louise is passionate about helping cities become more liveable and find their place in nature. A self-confessed auto-didact, Louise also knows that bringing people along on that journey is vital.

I love listening to people and researching new subject matter, in books, online and through my social networks. Everyone can teach you something, and I intend to learn all the way through my life. 

Louise notes that sustainability professionals cannot get by without a strong head for business and she is no exception, having always had to prove the sustainable transport projects she’s led have tangible benefits. Building on her master’s degree in economics, policy and environmental science, she spent two years in finance at the beginning of her career and was recognised as one of the best commercial project managers in the legacy Opus business, both for management systems and results.

With a history of finding simple, practical and understandable solutions to complex problems, Louise has been sought out as a valued strategic advisor to answer questions such as: ‘what does a smart city mean to Auckland?, ‘why do business cases keep leading us to car-based infrastructure outcomes?’ and ‘how can we decarbonise our transport system, fast?’.

An independent, original and deep thinker, Louise particularly enjoys taking on challenges where more than one brain is required to solve a problem or balance a dilemma, and combines this with an empathetic and collaborative leadership style that inspires and motivates people, resulting in high quality outcomes.

I have a mind that can envisage the end goal and then build the system to get there, bringing teams and stakeholders with me on that journey.

Louise relishes challenges and is a capable project manager and a confident speaker with more than 20 years’ experience in delivering successful projects. She has joined Resolve Group looking for opportunities to work on transport planning, business cases, research, project and programme management and, of course, sustainability. She is particularly interested in applying her extensive knowledge and experience of Traffic Demand Management, Vehicle Kilometres Travelled reduction and behaviour change, shared mobility, on-demand transport and the first/last mile.

A born entrepreneur with a gift for social interaction and a natural aptitude for refining systems and processes, the career path that led Andrea to Resolve Group clearly explains her value to us and to our clients.

Building effective relationships with people is the foundation of business excellence; experience has taught me that strong relationships make it easier to amplify and facilitate collaboration, communication and productivity; we achieve better outcomes together.

At 18, and straight from school, Andrea walked into a job at Bendon in Hamilton, helping the company make their procedures and practices more efficient. Recognising her skills, she was moved to their head office in Auckland where she continued with time and motion improvements and assisted them to set up a business model, which she then helped to apply to their newly acquired Australian company, Hickory. She left to run a Payless Plastics in Hamilton and made it the third most profitable in NZ in its first year.

When children came along, she and her husband moved to Christchurch where they ran first a TipTop franchise and then a Supershuttle franchise, both of which had the level of flexibility that works well when you have small kids at home. She says she wouldn’t run a shuttle service in any other town, but that in Christchurch she got to, “enjoy her customers, taking them to see all the fun things the city has to offer. A ride was a social event, not just a way to get from around.”

She worked for a number of companies, including Fonterra, before finding real satisfaction in helping improve a Sportsground web site and then working as Office Manager for Sport Waikato. During this time, with two boys fully involved in the BMX circuit, she found herself coaching new riders and discovered she got great pleasure in the role. Moving to Auckland in 2010, she got a job in planning and purchasing with the Airforce and was drawn to joining the base’s mentoring programme where she helped grow and improve the scheme. She then moved to a role in disposals analysis, finding buyers for decommissioned aircraft and improving other waste management processes.

Andrea joined Toastmasters as a member, an evaluator, a chairperson and the club president for a year. It was, she says, “a fun experience where, while making new friends, I learnt about some awesome and interesting cultures.” The involvement with Toastmasters didn’t just improve her public speaking abilities, she learnt other, invaluable skills such as critiquing others with respect and running workshops, and says it helped her grow more confident as an individual. These skills combine very usefully with Andrea’s abilities as a mentor. She trained through NZ Mentoring, an organisation she joined while helping manage the RNZAF mentoring scheme at Whenuapai Air Base, Auckland. She says this scheme is one of the best in NZ and she still volunteers there today.

It was around this time that Andrea did her degree in Applied Management through Otago Polytechnic and gained a Graduate Diploma in Supply Chain Management through Massy University. This led her to a job in procurement with Auckland Transport, which is where our General Manager, Ben Sherriff, came across her and recognised in her a self-motivated person, always striving for personal excellence, with a breadth of experience that would be a great fit for Resolve Group. We are very pleased to have Andrea join our team and look forward to seeing the ways in which her ability to see the bigger picture and to sensitively apply change management, and advocate for efficiency where she sees it being helpful, will benefit both us and to our clients. Welcome aboard, Andrea.