The Technical Committee members are responsible for reviewing all abstracts/papers submitted to the Congress. Each paper is reviewed by two members of the Technical Committee
Nicky Campbell-Allen
Nicky is a lecturer within the Centre for Quality & Supply Chain Management within the School of Engineering & Advanced Technology at Massey University. She teaches on both internal and extramural papers on leadership and management, quality management, process improvement and business excellence, is joint co-ordinator for the suite of qualifications available within the Quality Systems framework at Massey University, and has been an Evaluator for the New Zealand Business Excellence Awards.
Nicky has held a number of positions in the quality field including Staff Development Consultant, Quality Management Trainer and Policy Coordinator in a healthcare organisation, and as the Organisational Development & Quality Manager for an insurance company. Immediately prior to joining the staff of Massey University Nicky ran her own consulting company where she worked with both small/large companies (private/government owned), and specialised in quality management practices – including analysing business processes to determine areas for improvement, process redesign, policy writing, managing improvement projects and teams, and training staff in quality management practices.
Richard Greatbanks
Richard Greatbanks is a Senior Lecturer within the School of Business, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Richard is a Chartered Manufacturing Engineer, a Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors, and has acted as a consultant to both UK and New Zealand organisations. His Ph.D. studied the use of operational performance with UK SME organisations, and his subsequent academic research interests include the application of quality and performance improvement approaches within manufacturing, healthcare, public sector, and not-for-profit organisations. Richard teaches operations and quality management to undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral level, and also has a part-time academic leadership role within the Otago MBA programme.
Nigel Grigg
Chair – Technical Review panel
Nigel Grigg is Associate Professor (Quality Systems) at Massey University, and leads Massey’s postgraduate quality courses the Graduate Diploma, Post graduate Diploma and Masters in Quality Systems). He is a part-time Director and a former President of the NZOQ.
Nigel is a Chartered Quality Professional, member of the Chartered Quality Institute, the Institute of Directors and the NZOQ, senior member of the American Society for Quality and a certified six sigma black belt. He is a member of the international editorial review board of the journal TQM and Business Excellence, and has authored over 100 refereed journal papers, book chapters and conference papers in diverse aspects of quality management.
Warwick Harvie
Warwick Harvie is the Assistant General Manager of Franchise Development for Toyota New Zealand Limited. He has had a long and varied career in the automotive industry, beginning work life as an apprentice automotive engineer. He has extensive experience in both the retail and wholesale sectors for both Toyota and Lexus, and has held senior management roles in IT, Training and Sustainable Development for Toyota. He was seconded to Toyota’s pioneering Global Knowledge Center in Torrance, CA as a strategic planning specialist for five years, returning to New Zealand in 2009. He has completed advanced studies in Management at Massey University.
Alan Kirkham
A business leader with a very successful track record when leading multi-national corporations and SME’s in the telecommunications, aerospace, and management consultancy sectors. His roles saw him based in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific and he was personally involved in the development of customer relationships in over 120 countries. An innovator, whose personal attributes include the necessary leadership qualities to succeed in the most competitive markets. Awarded an OBE for services to the UK Telecommunications Industry in January 1998 and today provides mentoring and NXD support to New Zealand based businesses.
Venkateswarlu Pulakanam
Dr Venkateswarlu Pulakanam has over thirty years of academic and industry experience. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the College of Business and Economics at University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. His teaching and research interests include quality, operations and project management. Dr Pulakanam has over forty peer reviewed research publications. He was the MBA Director for three years at University of Canterbury and has worked in industry as Process Improvement Manager at Macpac Wilderness Equipment Ltd. and as a management consultant. He is a Senior Member of American Society for Quality (ASQ) and an ASQ certified Six Sigma Black Belt.
Mel Thornley
Mel has over 20 years of experience in the implementation of Business Process Improvement. He has a Master of Engineering degree and an MBA from the University of Sheffield and he is a Chartered Quality Professional, Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Master Lean Coach.
Mel has extensive experience in the implementation of improvement strategies gained from management roles in the automotive and engineering industries, along with several years experience as a manager in Customer Experience and Product Development.
Since founding the Thornley Group consulting and training company in 2006, Mel has delivered multi-million dollar sustainable benefits for his clients.
Mike Watson
Mike Watson is the Chief Executive Officer of the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation.
Mike is an experienced National evaluator and team leader and has extensive experience in organisational assessment and implementing the US Baldrige Business Excellence framework within New Zealand. Mike has provided consulting advice and training to many of NZ’s largest Corporates and also numerous organizations in both the public and private sector. Mike also lectures at Masters level on Quality Management.
Mike has a Post Graduate Diploma in Quality Management and a Diploma in Business Excellence. Mike is a Fellow of the NZ Institute of Management, a member of the Institute of Directors and a Certified Company Director. Mike also currently sits on the Capability NZ Board.