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Job title: Chief executive, Auckland Regional Transport Network Ltd.


Martin Gummer is keen on start-ups. This is the third job in a row where the 46-year-old has been charged with nurturing a company from infancy.

In the early 1990s, Gummer (pictured) became the founding CEO of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, then moved on in 1997 to the newly created Transfund, the Government's land transport funding agency.

The attraction to his new role was "the development challenge, the challenge of helping to establish new passenger transport facilities and operations in Auckland".

He likes setting strategy and culture and says it is stimulating to see things evolve and change. "I would find a steady situation a little bit tame or boring. There's an excitement about building something."

ARTNL is a local authority trading enterprise (LATE) owned by six of the region's city and district councils in the Auckland region and overseen by a board; it exists to develop and manage the infrastructure for public transport using ferry terminals, rail corridors and the Britomart transport centre.

The new job also ties together Gummer's private and public sector careers. "It's something which is a combination of the commercial and the community, building a business with a wider public benefit." The new post "weaves all those strands together".

Gummer is also pleased to return from Wellington to Auckland, where he spent 19 years after moving from Te Kuiti to study for a law and commerce degree at Auckland University.

"I was always interested in coming back to Auckland."