It's time to vote: 2025 ACE New Zealand Board and Regional Chair Elections
Voting opens on Wednesday 2 July for the 2025 ACE New Zealand Board and Regional Chair elections. Who will you choose to support ACE at regional and national level?
ACE New Zealand Board
The Board is responsible for the governance of ACE New Zealand. It oversees the strategic direction and management, and reports to members on their stewardship of the organisation. It’s made up of six elected representatives and up to three appointed members. Board members are elected to serve a three-year term.
A strong governing board is a diverse one. Our members are from a range of personal and professional backgrounds. We need our Board to reflect our membership and the communities we serve – from business leaders, engineers, project managers and planners, to marketers, lawyers and Māoritanga advisors, from Northland to Southland, large to small firms, and a mix of gender, age and ethnicity.
We also need our Board to have the time, passion and governance skills to take our organisation forward – so members experienced in governance or willing to learn. We need to ensure we have the right strategy to prepare our members for significant disruption across digital innovation and climate change, and we need to help drive more efficient and productive delivery by doing our part to ensure procurement practices and risk allocation remain future fit. We’re also navigating more systemic issues such as the need to increase representation among women, Māori and Pasifika, wellbeing leadership and growing consultant capability. If we are to succeed, our Board must be bold and brave, and have a view on the long-term horizon.
Positions up for re-election
This year the two positions up for re-election are:
- Chris Short, current ACE Vice President and Chair of the Audit, Risk and Finance Committee
- Jo Orr, current ACE Board member
Both members are re-standing and have the Board's support for re-election to ensure continuity of leadership and capability in critical areas like finance to drive ACE forward. The Board also needs a balance of experience and fresh thinking, and we welcomed three new board members in 2024. In this context, retaining experienced directors is an important consideration for the Board this year.
Candidates
The four candidates for this year's two vacant Board positions:
ACE New Zealand Regional Chairs
Regional Chairs provide consulting leadership in their region aligned to the ACE New Zealand strategy. They also want to expand their professional network, positively shape the future of the industry and give back to the sector. They have time to invest, have at least mid-level experience, and are involved in the business side of consulting and engineering.
This year there will be an election for the Regional Chair in Waikato. Candidates for Bay of Plenty and Auckland Central and South will be appointed unopposed.
Waikato candidates
Appointed unopposed
How to vote
Each ACE New Zealand member firm will receive a voting link via email from our electronic voting system, Election Runner. These will be sent to company directors, owners or managers (whoever is our key contact).
You will be voting on behalf of your firm so we encourage you to collaborate with your staff to choose the Board and Regional Chair candidates who will best represent your firm and help lead the great mahi of ACE New Zealand.
Key dates
- 2 July: Voting opens
- 23 July: Voting closes
- 18 August: Successful candidates announced at AGM
-
21 October: First Board meeting for newly elected Board members
Contact
If your firm doesn't receive an email from Election Runner on Wednesday 2 July, or if you have a question about the elections, please email [email protected].