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Job title: Risk manager, University of Auckland

Mark Kaemper, 40, has had a globetrotting sort of career. Born, reared and schooled in Germany, and keen to join the petroleum industry, he graduated from Leeds University, England, with an engineering degree.

His first post was with British Petroleum as a petrol engineer, working on oil platforms off the Scottish coast.

A management job in Norway followed, and it was there he met the Auckland woman, Melanie, who would become his wife.

The pair returned to New Zealand in 1993 and Kaemper started working with the then-Petrocorp in New Plymouth.

During the company's various subsequent metamorphoses, he did postgraduate study in risk management through Australia's Monash University and the risk management part of his job eventually became a full-time occupation.

Kaemper was last Gough Gough and Hamer's risk manager.

The "stimulating" environment was the big attraction of the university job, says Kaemper, whose role involves identifying, minimising or transferring threats to the smooth running across the university's departments and functions. It's not small responsibility: the University of Auckland has net assets of $640 million, 3,500 staff and more than 30,000 students.

Kaemper, who started his new job just after Easter, works across areas as varied as finance and technical and health and safety areas.

"I was looking for an environment that offered a broad perspective and I've certainly got that here."

His horizons are being broadened in other ways, too: "One of the perks [of working at the university] is being encouraged to get involved, so I have attended a few lectures and have been invited to give a few guest lectures myself about my background," he says.