Registration Board

The New Zealand Institute of Forestry Registration Board regulates and administers member registration. To communicate with the Registration Board please contact the Registrar.

Registration Board

Peter Casey
Chairman, Board Member

Peter has been a member of the New Zealand Institute of Forestry since 1984. He spent 15 years in the Forestry Sector  up to 1996 where with a multi-disciplinary back ground of a Forestry degree, Chartered Accountant and a MBA he held a diverse range of roles. Peter has previously served on the NZIF Council in the 1990’s. 

Then up to 2017  Peter held senior roles in the public and private sector across the Transport, Infrastructure, Industrial Chemicals, Property and Fund Management sectors. Peter returned to the sector in 2017. Peter is currently the Chief Executive  of New Zealand Carbon Farming, the largest supplier of Carbon Credits in NZ.  Peter served on Council 2018-2020.

Peter is a Registered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Forestry, Chairman of the Registration Board (since 2018) and hopes his range of experiences can contribute to growing community recognition of the positive and value add role of the professional forester.

Peter Gorman
Registrar
Paul Adams
Co-opted Member, Board Member

Paul is the Research and Development Director at Forest Growers Research (FGR) which is part of NZ Forest Owners Association Inc (NZFOA). His role is to provide trans sector leadership on all aspects of forest growing research in New Zealand.

Paul’s expertise in forestry science, research, technical services, and operational management come from more than 30 years of working in the softwood and hardwood industry in both Australia and New Zealand. Before joining Forest Growers Research in early 2022 his most recent role was Forest Estate manager for Rayonier NZ and prior to that worked in South Australia and Tasmania in both hardwood and softwood forest management 

Paul is passionate about delivering practical results that lead to improved productivity, value and resilience of forests in New Zealand.

David Bunting
Board Member

David was appointed as the independent member of the Registration Board in 2015. He is a civil engineering graduate from Canterbury University, a Fellow of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand and has been a board member of the Institution of Professional Engineers, the Engineers Registration Board and the Chartered Professional Engineers Council. He is currently employed as an Environment Commissioner with the Environment Court. Prior to this, he worked in senior roles for a large firm of consulting engineers, architects and planners. He has worked on physical infrastructure projects in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and in many developing countries in the Asia Pacific region

Geoffrey Cameron
Board Member, Co-opted Member

Geoff is the newcomer to the Registration Board and says he looks forward to representing the views of the Institute membership, however they are presented to him.

Geoff is one of a vanishing breed – foresters trained under the New Zealand Forest Service training scheme who attended an overseas forestry school. He was the last Kiwi to graduate from the Oxford School of Forestry Science.

After graduation, Geoff worked in a number of New Zealand Forest Service positions in Head Office, the Forest Research Institute, Waipa Sawmill, Kaingaroa Forest, the Forestry Training Centre and in Dunedin. He joined Dunedin's Tasman Forestry Ltd in 1981 and worked for nine years in Otago/Southland, Nelson/Marlborough, and as a visiting lecturer at the School of Forestry. After that he was forest manager for the Christchurch City Council, then the Wellington Regional Council.

In 2000 Geoff became self-employed and successfully applied for recognition as a registered forestry consultant. His main areas of consulting work have been in rural fire project management, rural fire protection reviews and environmental (mainly FSC certification) auditing. Geoff joined the NZIF in 1970, and held the positions of Newsletter Editor and Councillor between 1982 and 1988. He was Secretary for the then Wellington Section from 2001 to 2003, and has been on the organising committees for several Institute conferences.

Geoff was elected as a Fellow in 2012.

Peter Casey
Chairman, Board Member

Peter has been a member of the New Zealand Institute of Forestry since 1984. He spent 15 years in the Forestry Sector  up to 1996 where with a multi-disciplinary back ground of a Forestry degree, Chartered Accountant and a MBA he held a diverse range of roles. Peter has previously served on the NZIF Council in the 1990’s. 

Then up to 2017  Peter held senior roles in the public and private sector across the Transport, Infrastructure, Industrial Chemicals, Property and Fund Management sectors. Peter returned to the sector in 2017. Peter is currently the Chief Executive  of New Zealand Carbon Farming, the largest supplier of Carbon Credits in NZ.  Peter served on Council 2018-2020.

Peter is a Registered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Forestry, Chairman of the Registration Board (since 2018) and hopes his range of experiences can contribute to growing community recognition of the positive and value add role of the professional forester.

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David (Jan) Derks
Co-opted Member, Board Member
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Andy Dick
Co-opted Member, Board Member
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Jeremy Fleming
Co-opted Member, Board Member
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Peter Handford
Co-opted Member, Board Member
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Vernon Harris
Co-opted Member, Board Member
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Sarah Helleur
Co-opted Member, Board Member
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Allan Laurie
Co-opted Member, Board Member
Andrew McEwen
Board Member

Andrew has been involved in New Zealand forestry since 1962. He is a NZIF Registered Forester and an NZIF Fellow. He served on the NZIF Council as a Councillor (2003-04), Vice President (2004-08) and President (2008-14). He was elected as a NZIF registered member representative to the Board in 2016.  He was part of the small NZIF team that pursued (for over 5 years) and eventually succeeded in obtaining an exemption under the Real Estate Agents Act for Registered Members of NZIF.  He chaired the NZIF Foundation from 2011 to early 2022.

The first half of his career was with the NZ Forest Service in general forestry and research. He was very involved in the corporatisation and then privatisation of the former State forests, along with Treaty of Waitangi issues and settlements involving forests and forest land in the 1980s and 90s. 

Andrew has received a number of awards, including the NZIF Thomas Kirk Award in 2014, a Commonwealth Forestry Association Award of Excellence in 2015 and was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to forestry in the 2016 New Year’s Honours.

Andrew strongly believes that registration is a way for a forestry professional to demonstrate they aspire to high professional standards. It follows the President Kennedy quote of “ask not what registration can do for you, ask what registration says about you as a professional”. Andrew is concerned that too many NZIF members still think of registration of interest only to consultants, rather than as a professional standard all should aspire to achieve.

Robert Miller
Co-opted Member, Board Member

"Rob graduated with a Bachelor of Forestry Science in 1976 opening the door on a career spanning 46 years and work in 18 different countries across five continents. He recently retired from the Ministry for Primary Industries where he worked for the last 19 years.

Prior to this, he plied his trade in the private sector. Starting off as a contractor, he eventually took his skills offshore working as a forestry consultant and project manager with Groome Poyry. For the good part of a decade Rob lived and worked in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Returning to New Zealand in the mid 1990’s, he continued in the private sector before crossing to the ‘dark side’ and joining the public service in 2003. Contrary to his initial trepidations, he says, working for the Government proved to be stimulating and incredibly fulfilling.

Rob initial years with the then Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry were in the Indigenous Forestry Unit and then Sustainable Programmes where he was part of a team which rolled out forestry in the Emissions Trading Scheme. In 2012 Rob took a role with the Primary Growth Partnership, promoting innovation across the primary sectors, until he reconnected with his forestry roots in 2018 and joined Crown Forestry.

Rob stood for Council because he is keen to contribute during this critical time for the NZIF as the government registration scheme for forestry advisors comes into force.

As a previous member and chair of the NZIF Registration Board and Council member with extensive forestry experience in both the commercial sector and in government, he is well positioned to help guide the NZIF through this important phase.

More than ever the forestry sector is in the limelight and the Institute needs to position itself to provide leadership for the sector as New Zealand navigates climate change, the sector’s social licence to operate, changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme, environmental impacts and the role of forestry as a sustainable land use."

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Mark Morice
Board Member
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Ellanese (Elley) Mytton
Board Member

Ellanese is a Registered Member of the NZIF and has been a member of the Registration Board for 3 years. She holds a Bachelor of Forestry Science degree from the University of Canterbury (2000) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Business from the University of Auckland (2017). Ellanese has worked in the New Zealand Forest industry in technical, forest management and consulting roles and hopes to bring to the Board the perspective of a mid-career practicing registered consultant.

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Simon Rapley
Co-opted Member, Board Member
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John Schrider
Co-opted Member, Board Member

John has worked in the forest industry for over 40 years and previously been a Director of forestry consulting business, Forme Consulting Group Ltd, for 30 years.

He has worked on a wide range of forestry consulting projects in New Zealand and offshore and continues to enjoy his involvement and interaction with forestry people. His wealth of experience is supplemented by continuing professional development which he values as absolutely critical to maintaining highest delivery standards.

John is a Fellow of the NZ Institute of Forestry, has served as NZIF Councillor between 2006 and 2016 and Chair of the Registration Board from 2008 until 2014. He has also been a Registered Forestry Consultant since 1990.

Janet Scott
Board Member

It has been a real privilege to be a member of the NZIF Registration Board over the past two terms providing continuity in this time of flex in the industry.

My most recent forestry experience has involved harvesting a family woodlot this year.

I studied forestry at Canterbury University, then worked as a technical forester for the New Zealand Forest Service (NZFS), Forest Research Institute (FRI), NZ Timberlands, Carter Holt Harvey Forestry, Forestry Corporation and Fletcher Challenge Forests, as well as completing short contracts in Scotland and Indonesia over the years.

After a (another) major restructuring round, I went travelling and ended up in London where I worked as a consultant commercial risk manager for over 13 years; running my own company for 10 years. I worked on mostly rail construction projects ranging from smallish station re-builds (£250k) to major rail reconfigurations worth several billions of pounds, including the Thameslink programme, on behalf of both client organisations and major contractors.

Highlights of my forestry career have included being the only female forester  working for NZ Timberlands in forest management. NZ Timberlands managed 50% of the NZ plantation forest estate in those days. And, am so proud to be nominated for a long-service award (20 years) as a member of my local fire unit.

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Kirsten Stuart
Board Member, Co-opted Member
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Tim Thorpe
Co-opted Member, Board Member
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Rob van Rossen
Co-opted Member, Board Member