Who got that job?

By LIANE VOISEY

Chief executive, Wellington Water Management

David Hill, 53, was attracted to the role because of the opportunity to apply his experiences - in the past he has been involved with the restructuring of electricity generation processes and the management of council-owned water services.

Hill has a bachelor of commerce and administration from Victoria University and spent a large part of his career working in the finance industry in senior and general management roles and doing freelance company directorship and consulting work.

His previous role was as general manager of generation operations at Contact Energy, managing a number of energy generation sites in New Zealand and two operations in Australia.

Wellington Water Management will merge two operations from the water services area of Hutt City Council and the water and drainage areas of Wellington City Council. The company officially begin operation in April and will involve a move which will effectively "merge a couple of cultures together".

For Hill it will mean "looking at establishing best practice routines and structuring the organisation".

The two organisations have high-calibre performing staff and managers, he says, so it's not as if the two organisations have operational problems. "They're actually good at what they do but by merging them we can get some overall benefits of size."

He says the challenge is to get them operating, to deliver service levels straight away and to expand those levels of service. His aim is to grow the company and to create career paths for the staff and managers so a standard can be set.