Auckland Council has appointed Mat Tucker as the Group Recovery Manager for the January Floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. This will be an initial 12-month fixed term appointment, reporting directly to the council’s Chief Executive, Jim Stabback.
The council sought candidates who had expertise across four broad areas: leadership, relationships and influencing; stakeholder and community engagement, as well as recovery knowledge.
Chair of the selection panel, Mayor Wayne Brown welcomes Mr Tucker as the Group Recovery Manager.
“Mat is a highly capable leader with clear experience in resolving complex problems with creative solutions.
“An engineer, Mat is used to delivering projects on time and within or under budget. There is no question of his ability to deliver what is needed, which is what we are looking for,” says Mayor Brown.
Mr Tucker has demonstrated strong large-scale programme leadership, especially on recovery work, having worked with both the Christchurch Recovery Infrastructure and Housing Rebuild Programmes. He also has strong connections to central government.
Mr Tucker will join the council on 26 April.
Acting Recovery Manager Phil Wilson will return to his role as Governance Director. This also coincides with the council’s Director Māori Outcomes, Herewini Te Koha (who has been acting Governance Director), taking up a Deputy Chief Executive role with the government’s Cyclone Recovery Unit in Wellington.
Mr Te Koha joined the council in August 2021 and has led the council’s Ngā Matarae team and contributed to a number of strategic programmes as part of the executive leadership team.
“In his new role Herewini will lead the cyclone recovery unit’s engagement and communications with councils, iwi and the business sector across the flood and cyclone affected regions.
“I fully expect he’ll continue to work with colleagues here at the council in support of the Auckland recovery effort,” says Mr Stabback.
About Mat Tucker
Mat is an accomplished leader with strong operational and project leadership experience in the construction industry, both nationally and internationally.
This includes leadership roles at Kāinga Ora, Visionstream, Downer Infrastructure and Fletcher Construction. Mat also has Aotearoa-specific experience with disaster recovery due to his experience with the Christchurch Recovery Infrastructure and Housing Repair Teams.
Most recently, Mat was both a Director and the General Manager of Piritahi, Kāinga Ora’s multi-billion dollar Auckland infrastructure programme.
Mat has a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) from the University of Portsmouth, UK, is a Chartered Engineer (UK) and has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Canterbury. He is also a Member of the Institute of Directors, Engineering New Zealand and is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, UK.
