People

Gabites Porter Consultants recognise it takes skilled and professional staff to get jobs done. Our staff come from a range of backgrounds including engineering, economics, operations research, statistics, mathematics, computer programming and geography:

Engineers/Planners Software Development
Grant Smith

Director, Transportation Engineer    [Top]

Email:

grant@gabites.co.nz

Academic:

Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) - University of Canterbury, 1972.

Professional:

C.Eng, MICE, MIPENZ

Experience:

Grant has been with the Company in its various forms since September 1975 following three years working in the UK with Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners. He worked on motorway feasibility studies within the UK and also spent time analysing Survey data from Bangladesh. He was responsible for the development and maintenance of the SWKP transport planning software.

Since 1975, he has practiced as a consultant in New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia, advising Local, Regional and Central Government, as well as private clients. He has been responsible for a large number of transportation studies, ranging from full multi-modal analysis to specialist studies of the impacts of a specific development. Some of his recent work has been the building of multi-modal models from Home interview data on Auckland's North Shore and for the Waikato region. He is also very experienced as an expert witness in Council and Environment Court hearings and has recently project managed a multi million dollar case that spread over five years and involved over 40 expert witnesses.

His areas of expertise are in the modelling of urban and rural systems, economic and financial evaluation, public and private transport demand forecasting, computer software design and applications.

Grant has been a partner, or director since 1981. He has worked for almost every Local Authority in New Zealand and has established the company's activities in New South Wales, more recently in Queensland and also in Malaysia through a partly owned subsidiary company.

John Winter

Transportation/Traffic Engineer    [Top]

Email:

johnw@gabites.co.nz

Academic:

Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) - University of Canterbury, 1967
Master of Engineering Science - University of New South Wales, 1971

Professional:

MIPENZ

Experience:

John joined the company in 1982 following thirteen years with the Hamilton City Council. During that time he was involved in the formation of a traffic engineering and roading design section of Council. His final position was as Assistant Street Engineer where he had technical and financial control of street construction and maintenance programs and an ongoing involvement in transportation planning.

After two years in Christchurch, John established the Hamilton office of Gabites Porter. From there he has provided a wide range of advice and services to clients in the top half of the North Island. In this regard he has been involved in the development and use of transportation models for a number of urban areas, including Hamilton, Rotorua, Papakura and Taupo.

He also works for private clients and local authorities in preparing traffic assessment reports of projects for resource consent applications. He is very experienced as an expert witness for resource consent hearings before Councils and at Environment Court Hearings.

John has also had considerable experience on other transportation/traffic matters on such matters as environmental impact studies, central area studies, road and intersection designs and economic analyses. Under his control the Hamilton office provides a wide range of roading / traffic services including contract preparation and administration.

Dave Hunter

Senior Transportation Engineer    [Top]

Email:

daveh@gabites.co.nz

Academic:

Bachelor of Engineering - University of Canterbury, 1985

Experience:

Dave Hunter is a transportation engineer with Gabites Porter Consultants. He has been involved with transportation modelling, roading scheme designs, benefit cost analysis and traffic signal design since graduation in 1985. He began his career with the Christchurch City Council in 1985 where he was involved in the design, analysis, economic analysis and implementation of traffic signals as Assistant Signals Engineer. In 1988 he took up the position of Traffic Design Engineer where he was responsible for the economic and transportation analysis of major roading projects in Christchurch using TRACKS. He was awarded the IPENZ Fulton-Downer Silver Medal in 1992.

In 1993 Dave moved to Bahrain to take up the position of Strategic Planning Engineer for the Ministry of Works. There he was responsible for transportation and economic analysis of strategic roading projects within Bahrain. He managed the development of the SATURN computer based transportation analysis system and had responsibility for the development and ongoing monitoring of the Bahrain Master Transportation Plan. This required working with and acting as liaison between consultants, ministry staff, politicians and the public to coordinate outputs. He was also responsible for the design and investigation of a number of large roading and junction design projects.

Pam Harrison

Office Administrator & Draughtsperson    [Top]

Email:

pam@gabites.co.nz

Academic:

NZ Certificate of Draughting - Part completed

Experience:

Pam joined the group as a draughtsperson / typist in 1987. She continued in that role until 1992, when she took on the multifunctional responsibility of office administrator, receptionist, wordprocessor operator and draughtsperson.

Jim Cox

Senior Software Engineer    [Top]

Email:

jim.cox@gabites.co.nz

Academic:

Bachelor of Surveying 1984 (with credit)
Bachelor of Arts May 1987 (Computer Science & German)
Avalanche I October 1988

Professional:

AMNZIS

Experience:

Jim's specialty is GeoSpatial Information Systems. Jim has worked for a number of engineering firms, software houses and research institutions.

His training in surveying and computing have led to practical experience in roading, engineering and geographic information systems. Jim has worked on a diverse range of projects from facilities management to motorway re-alignments to simulations of animal populations and movements. His personal interests include hazard assessment and mapping and software engineering. His IT experience is built on this firm engineering platform being conversant with Unix, Microsoft and Macintosh operating systems, C++ Fortran Pascal and basic languages, GIS and databases.

Jim is responsible for the development & maintenance of Gabites Porter's TRACKS Suite. This involves working with project engineering staff to design new TRACKS modules, extend & enhance existing modules and resolve performance issues within the TRACKS suite. In addition Jim also provides technical support for TRACKS Clients and administers our IT resources.

Dave Smith

Senior Transportation Planner    [Top]

Email:

dave.smith@gabites.co.nz

Academic:

Bachelor of Technology (Operations Research)(Hons) - Massey University, 1994
Master of Philosophy (Operations Research) - Massey University, 2001

Experience:

Dave first joined Gabites Porter as a Transport Planner in 2000 after gaining 5 years experience in mathematical and simulation modelling, and production planning in the manufacturing industry. After a brief foray working as a Planning Analyst for Ezibuy in 2003, Dave has returned to Gabites in 2004 as a Senior Transport Planner.

Dave holds both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Operations Research, having specialised in the deterministic side of this mathematical field. Dave's Masters degree in Philosophy focuses on the development, simulation and application of Tabu Search heuristics to industrial scheduling and planning models.

He has worked on a range of New Zealand and Australian models as maintained by Gabites Porter and his contributions are primarily in model development, model validation, impact studies, parking studies, benefit-cost studies, data analysis, accident analysis and traffic surveys.

Roger Ward

Senior Traffic Engineer    [Top]

Email:

roger.ward@gabites.co.nz

Academic:

Bachelor of Engineering - University of Canterbury
Diploma Of Traffic Planning and Control - University of New South Wales
NZ Institute of Management Diploma - Wellington Polytechnic

Professional:

Member IPENZ, IPENZ Transport Group, ALGENZ

Experience:

Roger has particular expertise in management of budget preparation, road maintenance programmes and contracts, asset management plans and data systems, traffic services and systems, transportation planning, long-term financial strategy, public responses and Council reports.

Roger undertook contract supervision and community safety works. Council controller of all transport policy, network improvement, operations and maintenance, and travel safety issues.

John Kinghorn

Transportation Engineer    [Top]

Email:

john.kinghorn@gabites.co.nz

Academic:

Diploma in Civil Engineering - Waikato Institute of Technology, 2003
Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) Hons - University of Auckland, 2006

Experience:

John joined Gabites Porter as a Transportation and Traffic Engineer in early 2010. He began his career with Hamilton City Council in 2003, where he was involved in a wide range of civil engineering projects and developed as a traffic engineer.

His traffic engineering experience includes safety audits, traffic impact assessments, strategy studies, traffic modelling, crash reduction studies, and SCATS signal management and improvements.

He also has expertise in the design, tendering, construction, and project management of civil engineering works including roundabouts and signalised intersections.

Matt Ellery

Transportation Analyst    [Top]

Email:

matt.ellery@gabites.co.nz

Academic:

Bachelor of Science (Mathematics & Physics) - Victoria University Of Wellington, 1994
Post Graduate Diploma in Science (Texiles) - University Of Otago, 2001

Experience:

Matt came to Gabites Porter in 2006 with 11 years of analytical experience gained while working for technology development companies in the textiles industry, specialising in commercial research of instrumentation technologies. He also has experience with quality systems management.

Matt’s skill in mathematics, statistical methods and computing have provided a sound base from which to develop his transportation modelling and analyst activities.

Robyn Hyde

Transportation Modeller    [Top]

Email:

robyn.hyde@gabites.co.nz

Academic:

BBS (Economics), Massey University 2008

Experience:

Robyn joined the company in October 2008, following the completion of a Bachelor of Business Studies in Economics.

Robyn has strong analytical skills, and an appreciation of transportation networks both in New Zealand and overseas, having spent 12 years working in the travel industry. Robyn has an interest in the financial and economic analysis of transportation projects.

Since being with Gabites Porter she has worked on a range of New Zealand and Australian models while developing her transportation modelling and analyst skills.