Our Board

Board President

Paul Deavoll, Head of Customer & Communications, Orion New Zealand Ltd

Paul is currently Head of Customer & Communications for Orion NZ Ltd. His team is responsible for Orion’s external relationships including communications, stakeholder and customer relationships, internal engagement and Orion’s sustainability strategy and actions.

As an experienced people leader, Paul has a broad range of business capabilities that extend across human capital, commercial, customer management, technical leadership, sales, marketing, channel development, communications and engagement.

As an active supporter of the redevelopment of a vibrant new Christchurch, Paul has been involved in several reference groups associated with Christchurch redevelopment, and is well-networked across Canterbury.

In addition to his leadership of Business Canterbury's Board, Paul is also Chairman of the Ronald McDonald House SI Trust Board, and a Trustee on the Christchurch Foundation. Previously, Paul had three years on the NZ Technology Industry Association Board.

Introducing

Our Board Members

Our Board is made up of 4 member elected Directors and up to 4 appointed Directors. Each year, two Board Directors step down. Nominations are sought annually, and members vote for the member elected Directors. The results are announced at our Annual General Meeting in October. The member elected Directors can then appoint up to four additional appointed Directors, as per clause 8.2(b) of our new Constitution.

Our current Directors were appointed at the Annual General Meeting on Thursday 24 October 2024.

Managing Director,
Connect Consultancy

Erin Black

Erin is the Managing Director at Connect Consultancy. Connect is a leading management consultancy company, specialising in providing strategic solutions to help businesses sustainably thrive.

Erin is also a member of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum and Institute of Directors NZ. As a member of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, Erin brings cross-sectoral and trans-national insights. Erin was recognised as 'Professional Woman of the Year' by the National Association of Women in Construction NZ in 2019, for her services to the sector and community. She was also honoured to join the NAWIC Excellence Award’s Judging Panel in 2024.

A certified Prince2 Agile Practitioner and double degree graduate, Erin holds Bachelors of Commerce (Management) and Arts (Psychology) from the Universities of Canterbury and Otago respectively. Her background in market research and analysis is the foundation for the inquiring mind, ability to make decisions based on evidence, and challenge that Erin brings to the board table. As the current Board’s longest serving member, Erin also brings a wealth of institutional knowledge and insight to this role.

Business Canterbury Board Chairman

Paul Deavoll

Paul has been an elected board member of Business Canterbury since 2019, including Board Chairman.

Director,
Team Direction.

Hayley Hobson

Hayley has attended monthly board meetings, delivered financial results, and provided strategic advice to clients through her role at Team Direction.

As GM Finance of Cardrona Distillery, she presented to the board on a monthly basis.

Founder/CEO,
2BConnected

Grant Walker

Grant is CEO and Founder of 2BConnected, a call centre provider that helps businesses with their phone-based sales and customer service needs.

Being surrounded by and bought up in a family of small business owners, running and managing businesses is in Grant's blood. Throughout his career, he has successfully led and developed sales, marketing and customer service teams in call centre operations.

Grant chose Christchurch to set up business because he feels it is a great place to source exceptional talent and community has an innovative and resilient nature which allows businesses to grow and thrive.

Grant offers a unique and proactive approach to business, often viewed as someone who thinks differently, he is very comfortable taking and voicing a view which may differ from the norm, but he respectfully stands up for what I believe is the best solution.

He is energetic, passionate, determined and extremely hard working, with a drive to see all businesses grow and develop further.

Group Financial Controller,
Vortex Engineering Ltd

Glenn Hansen

Aside from his current role at Vortex, Glenn's 40-year career has included experience in a wide range of business categories and employment roles.

Previously employed in horticultural production and production management roles, Glenn then worked many years as an accountant in public practice, working with many business owners in across industries providing advice and encouragement, and solving the myriad of problems they faced.

More recently Glenn has with start-ups in software and IoT, before moving to an engineering & manufacturing group of companies spanning the Tasman and selling globally.

In addition, and allowing Glenn to step into members shoes, he has a keen interest in economics and economic development. This expressed itself in work with the manufacturing sector nationally, and also in thinking with respect to the role at Business Canterbury encouraging continuous improvement.

Erin Black, Vice Chair

Managing Director, Connect Consultancy

Erin is a Director at Connect Consultancy.

She is also a member of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum and Institute of Directors NZ.

As a member of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum's Indigenous Business Sector Group, Erin brings cross-sectoral insights plus an acute understanding of strategic stakeholder engagement.

Erin was recognised as 'Professional Woman of the Year' by the National Association of Women in Construction NZ in 2019, for her services to the sector and community. She also has experience in the Aviation and Tech industries from her work in Customer Management at Airways New Zealand.

A double degree graduate, Erin holds Bachelors of Commerce (Management) and Arts (Psychology) from the Universities of Canterbury and Otago respectively. Her background in Market Research and Data Science is the foundation for the inquiring mind, sound analytical skills and challenge that she brings to the board table.

Grant Walker, Vice Chair

Founder/CEO, 2BConnected

Grant is CEO and Founder of 2BConnected, a call centre provider that helps businesses with their phone-based sales and customer service needs.

He is energetic, passionate, determined and extremely hard working, with a drive to see all businesses grow and develop further.

Andrew Dallison

Business Consultant

Andrew is currently a Business Consultant operating across the SME segment, a director of Business Vision Consulting Limited, and Partner

with Oxygen8 - Business Consulting (BSP), based in Christchurch. Prior to this, Andrew built a substantial body of experience over 38 years in the manufacturing sector, mostly in Australia, but also in the UK, Vietnam, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and more recently back in his homeland of NZ.

His industry experience is equally diverse including, chemicals, consumer and industrial packaging, and building products, and supplying a dynamic NZ Construction sector.

Andrew has held senior leadership roles in several listed and private companies and has relevant governance experience as a Counsellor with Victorian Division of the AIG, (Australian Industry Group), and he is passionate about supporting and building business networks across Canterbury.

Glenn Hansen

Group Financial Controller, Vortex Engineering

Glenn is currently Group Financial Controller for the Vortex Engineering group of companies, based in east Christchurch.

His group engages in environmental engineering, with four companies each in Australia and New Zealand, employing around 150 staff. His team works in air pollution control, industrial heat, Three Waters infrastructure, and hazardous material containment (including petroleum products).

At Vortex, Glenn leads the finance/admin team servicing the Group. In addition to finance, he oversees IT, risk, marketing, internal communications, and external relations for the Group.

Glenn is active in representing Canterbury manufacturers and the broader business community to government through The Chamber, and in contributing to the Advanced Manufacturing ITP and sectoral vocational education redevelopment.

For eight years, he served on the Board of South Island's largest sports club, and he remains a director of a wine company and Trustee of a tourism enterprise.

Oliver Hunt

Founder/CEO, Medsalv

Ollie is the founder/CEO of Medsalv, a medical device reprocessing company based in Christchurch.

Medsalv serves the largest hospitals across New Zealand with the goal of making the health system more financially and environmentally sustainable.

Ollie's day-to-day role involves working with the many agencies that power the health sector, driving change at every level of New Zealand’s largest organisations - ranging from the Ministry of Health, Ministry for the Environment, to DHBs, Councils and other central organisations.

Prior to starting Medsalv, he completed a BE(Hons) in Mechanical Engineering. Medsalv was started as a component of his M(Eng) in Management - both at the University of Canterbury.

Ollie is passionate about Canterbury as a great place to live, work and play - if he is not at his desk you’ll likely find him mountain biking on the Port Hills, skiing the Craigieburns, or hunting waves somewhere on Banks Peninsula.

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