Management committee
Management committee members
The NPCA is run by a management committee of six people, two of whom are elected annually at the AGM.The management committee has four meetings a year. It currently comprises:
NPCA's National Co-ordinator is Maurice Kennedy.
Bill Martyn, Chairperson
Bill started out working for the former mid-Southland, Marlborough, Alexandra and Kaikoura Pest Destruction Boards in a number of roles, including as a trainee and then a training officer under the Agricultural Pest Destruction Council training scheme in the mid-1980s. He was self-employed in the forestry industry for a number of years before joining Greater Wellington Regional Council in 1994 as a pest control field operator and then field supervisor.
He joined Horizons in 1997 as a pest management coordinator based in Taumarunui, and is now an Environment Manager for Horizons, which includes acting as the Biosecurity Manager and Manager of the Regional Response team.
Clyde Holden
Clyde Holden owns and manages Holden Contracting Limited with his wife Deborah. They started out in pest control work in 1980, selling skins commercially, later branching out into goat control and deer recovery work as well. In 1997, they began possum monitoring and control work for the Animal Health Board (AHB), and then specialized in possum monitoring and ferret survey work.
The company now has a large team of contractors and recently employed an administrator to help with the paperwork which, Clyde says, has increased enormously over the years to meet such requirements as Quality Assurance, tendering and operational plans. Most work is for the AHB but they do some private contracting, including pest control on land leased by the aluminum smelter at Tiwai Point, near Bluff.
Clyde is on the committee of PestNET New Zealand. He looks forward to bringing a new perspective to the management committee – that of a monitoring contractor.
Brent Rohloff
Brent Rohloff is the Animal Health Board representative on the committee. He is AHB’s Programme Manager for the Southern South Island.
He started out in pest control in 1999 as a sub-contractor to Leith Contractors, working mainly in Southland and South Westland on Tb vector and conservation possum control projects. After a brief period with the Otago Regional Council, he joined Southern Pest Management in 2002 as a Field Officer before moving to his present job in early 2009.
Brent brings considerable practical field skills and vector management knowledge to the committee and believes an important part of his role is to facilitate communications between NPCA, its members, and the Animal Health Board.
John Sanson
John manages the National Co-ordination Team in the Pest Management Group of MAF Biosecurity New Zealand. The Pest Management Group provides leadership and coordination for the pest management sector, and John’s team focuses on building partnerships and coordinating long-term management programmes. Examples of this include coordination of the didymo management programme, and development of regional marine biosecurity partnerships.
John has previously worked in the local government sector, including Resource Management Act implementation at a regional council, and management of district council compliance services. He also spent time working for a Borough Council in London to fund an OE trip. John has recently been appointed as the MAFBNZ representative on the New Zealand Biosecurity Institute Executive.
Martin Brenstrum
Martin owns and manages Central Districts Pest Control Ltd, the Napier-based contracting business that he started as a one-man show in 1997. Until then, he had been a school teacher for 28 years, teaching early on in rural areas where he developed an enduring interest in deer hunting. He started trapping possums in 1958 at age 12, for the bounty, and poisoned and trapped possums for their skins during the 1970s and 80s until the market collapsed in 1987.
In the late 1990s, realising that the demands of teaching had taken its toll, he was able to escape professional burnout by turning his life-long interest into a successful business. Martin co-manages CDPC with his wife Kathy and son Tim. They employ 25-26 field staff. Martin splits his own time 50/50 between office work and field work.
Mike Hawes
Mike lives in Nelson, where he works for the Department of Conservation as a Technical Support Supervisor in the Nelson /Marlborough Conservancy.
He originally worked for the New Zealand Forest Service, undertaking animal and vegetation surveys, and then joined DOC in 1987 where he has worked in various roles in the animal pest field. In his current role, he provides advice and support on animal pest issues to field staff, managers and others outside DOC.
See also the 2009 Chairperson's Report presented at our last AGM and our Operational Plan.