“My professional goal is to be of the utmost value to clients and stakeholders by assisting them to identify and achieve the best outcomes for society in general.”
Nik is a highly experienced transport economist, logistics planner, planning engineer and teaching professional. After years working in rail and shipping, he joined the University of South Africa as Senior Lecturer in Transport Economics, where he wrote several study guides and assisted masters and doctoral candidates with economic related research.
After moving to New Zealand in 2007, Nik provided expert transport economic advice to the legacy Auckland Regional Transport Authority and NZ Transport Agency. He also assisted with the development of methods to measure transport performance and costs, as well as the provision of alternative funding scenarios as part of the Regional Land Transport programme.
In his role as Transport Economist with Auckland Transport, Nik provided feedback on numerous national and regional strategic plans including the New Zealand Transport Strategy, the Ministry of Transport’s Knowledge Hubs, the Auckland Regional Land Transport Plan, the Energy Strategy and Treasury’s Infrastructure Plan.
Leading the development of the road planning classification system for Auckland (as part of the Regional Arterial Road Plan Review), Nik was also a member of the working group that developed the One Network Road Classification for planning and funding purposes. This has since evolved into the One National Framework used by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency for land and transport integration planning purposes.
Assisting with the delivery of cross-organisational projects at both regional and national levels, Nik was a member of the team that planned for inter-regional freight movements between Auckland, Northland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty as part of the Upper North Island Freight Action group. This work resulted in the inter-regional Freight Action Plan 2022.
Nik was a member of the working group that enabled the development of identified greenfield areas in Auckland to accommodate growth through the Section 30 requirements of the Resource Management Act and was also a member of the Australasian team that analysed the costs of developing social infrastructure inside and outside Auckland’s urban boundaries.
Since joining Resolve Group in 2019, Nik has used his experience and acumen in economic and financial analysis, strategic planning and business case development, to provide clients with the knowledge and information needed to confidently choose between investment proposals and/or support specific investment options.
Working at Resolve Group has allowed Nik to participate in, and contribute to, a wide range of projects and outcomes across the infrastructure and services provision sector within a team context. Nik says, “I appreciate that team compositions are project outcome dependent and vary according to the specialisation needed. This has contributed to a variety of experiences over a short span of time making the job interesting and fulfilling.”
Nik offers his clients:
- Expert skills in economic analysis and the evaluation of data sets to establish correlations between various causes and effects.
- Teaching strengths to train staff and clients, mentor peers and facilitate teamwork.
- High level communication skills and the ability to build and maintain strong and open relationships.
- Extensive experience in business case development and peer reviews; he is a Better Business Cases Practitioner
Nik likes to play golf (single-figure handicap!), and work in the garden. An avid fisherman, his favourite fishing ground in New Zealand is the east coast between Whakatāne and the Coromandel. His biggest catch to-date is a 29kg kingfish caught off Whitianga, and closer to home, a 16kg snapper caught in the Hauraki Gulf. He has also spent timing fishing the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.