A senior adviser with 24 years of public-sector and operational experience across regulatory work, change, business process, and programme delivery. Formerly NZ Police, formerly hospital business process and project management in Australia, formerly Ministry for Primary Industries (Animal Welfare Compliance, Animal Exports, M. bovis, operational policy). Now an independent adviser through Private Paradox, applying generative AI as a working tool in regulatory and operational settings.
A short answer.
I have spent the last six years inside the standards and operational policy work that the BIES role is built around. I led VoyageLink, MPI's digital uplift for animal export voyage reporting, end to end. I authored Animal Welfare Export Certificate decision documents and the supporting procedures. I have written the kind of stakeholder engagement plans and notification artefacts the Standards Companion drafts. The first four months of 2026 I have used generative AI tools as a daily working instrument, including in the build of this site. The role calls for someone who can apply genAI thoughtfully to real regulatory work, design human-in-the-loop processes, and demonstrate the capability through their own use. The Standards Companion is that demonstration.
Against the published role requirements.
Direct mapping of the JD's "About You" requirements to specific evidence in my work history. Each row cites a concrete example.
| Requirement | Evidence |
|---|---|
| 5+ years' experience in process improvement, business analysis, or regulatory work | NZ Police constable 2001 to 2008 (regulatory and investigation work). Ballarat Health Services 2008 to 2017 (business process and PM, including PRINCE2 Agile). MPI 2018 to December 2025: Animal Welfare Compliance investigations, M. bovis programme work including boundary redraws, Animal Exports operational policy, VoyageLink digital uplift programme. |
| Experience guiding the delivery of improvements through to implementation | Lead role on VoyageLink, MPI's digital reporting uplift for animal exports by sea. From requirements gathering through to live operation across multiple shipping companies, with the Quick Start Guide and Setup Forms used by every export operator. Authored the Data and Insights A3 brief for the broader Sea Data work stream. |
| Hands-on experience with generative AI tools, demonstrated through using them in your own work | This site. Built using generative AI as a working development tool. The four tools each call the Anthropic Claude API. The pre-cached outputs are real Claude outputs structured to a strict schema. The needs analysis was synthesised from Claude-assisted document review of public BIES outputs. I use AI tools daily in client work and in personal workflow, with documented prompt patterns. |
| Ability to identify where generative AI could add value, and where it would not be appropriate | The "GenAI fit test" matrix on the Needs Analysis page. The Tier 4 "out of scope" classification on the Governance page. Both published in this artefact, both consistent with documented genAI suitability research and with the work patterns BIES actually does. |
| Ability to design safe, human-in-the-loop AI processes | The six-control architecture on the Overview page. The seven-step operating model and the four-tier risk classification on the Governance page. The pre-mortem identifying seven failure modes and the kill conditions that withdraw the tool. All built consistent with Public Service Commission guidance on AI in government and the Public Records Act 2005. |
| Strong analytical and communication skills | The entire site. Specifically: the structured needs analysis, the bottom-up value model, the formal RACI and decision rights matrix, the BIES-style notification drafts in Tool 4. McKinsey/Bain consultant standard formatting, NZ English throughout, no AI tells. |
| Experience supporting capability uplift or coaching others | Authored the MPI Animal Exports team induction and welcome materials. Built the VoyageLink Quick Start Guide and the user, device and vessel setup pack. Wrote the Animal Welfare Export Certificate procedure followed by industry applicants. Stakeholder engagement plan for the Poultry workstream. |
| Collaborative, curious mindset, and comfort with experimentation | The build pattern of this artefact. Identify a real problem, build a working tool against it, prove it through artefacts not assertions, expose the controls that make it safe, accept the operating model that hands accountability to the analyst not the model. |
| BONUS: Experience with public sector environments | Police 2001 to 2008. Public hospital programme management 2008 to 2017. MPI 2018 to December 2025. Familiarity with Westminster public service operating norms, the Cabinet Manual context, OIA, Privacy Act, and Public Records Act obligations. |
| BONUS: Service design | Process improvement and stakeholder engagement work across MPI Animal Exports including the Memo on AWEC Timeframes, the Stakeholder Engagement Plan for Poultry, and the Verification Service Communication Memo for Maritime NZ engagement. |
| BONUS: Te Tiriti o Waitangi | Honest answer: my formal Te Tiriti partnership work is more limited than the other rows on this table. The operating model on the Governance page treats Te Tiriti partner engagement as a Tier 4 (out of scope for tool use, manual analyst and partner work only), and identifies engagement with Te Uepū as a first-90-days priority. I would expect to learn from the existing BIES practice in this area. |
Six years of standards-adjacent work, summarised.
Animal Welfare Compliance · 2018 onwards
Investigator work under the Animal Welfare Act 1999. Witness statements, search warrants, prosecution files, investigator training (Module 1). The detail-discipline this work demands is the same discipline IHS drafting demands.
M. bovis programme
Activity Risk Assessment work, boundary redraws, sampling protocols, farmer support handover documentation. Operational delivery against published procedures, in the highest-stakes biosecurity response New Zealand has run.
Animal Exports · operational policy and digital uplift
Lead on VoyageLink. Author of AWEC decision documents for sea and air export consignments to multiple destination countries. Industry stakeholder engagement, daily voyage reporting frameworks, performance agreement structures, memo to the Director-General on COVID readiness, executive memos to MFA on legal advice engagement.
Why VoyageLink matters for this role
VoyageLink was MPI's digital uplift for animal export voyage reporting. Before VoyageLink, daily voyage data came in by email and PDF, in inconsistent formats, with manual re-keying for analysis. VoyageLink moved the work to ArcGIS Survey123 and a structured database, with offline operation for vessels at sea, automatic submission to MPI on connection, and structured reporting available to the Animal Exports team and to industry.
My role spanned requirements, vendor engagement, user setup at fleet level, training material (the Quick Start Guide is signed under my MPI contact details), the Data and Insights A3 brief, and operational rollout. The pattern is identical to what BIES needs for AI uplift: identify a real workflow bottleneck, design the safer and faster way to do the work, take it through to live operation, write the guidance the front-line user actually needs.
Started in NZ Police in 2001, learning regulatory work and investigation discipline at the front line. Moved to Australia in 2008 for consulting and then took a Project Manager role at Ballarat Health Services, including PRINCE2 Agile project delivery in a public hospital environment. Returned to New Zealand and joined MPI in 2018, initially in Animal Welfare Compliance investigations, then into the M. bovis response, then into Animal Exports operational policy and the VoyageLink digital uplift, finishing in operational policy work to December 2025. Through 2026 I have been operating as an independent adviser through my company Private Paradox, building working AI artefacts in regulatory and operational contexts. This site is the most recent and most substantial.
Available on request.
Two MPI managers will provide references on request. Both are familiar with my work in Animal Exports operational policy and the VoyageLink delivery. Contact details available on application.
Two ways to reach me.
Email is faster. Phone works any weekday between 8 and 6 NZ time.
Location
Auckland-based, willing to relocate to Wellington for this role.
Application
Formal application lodged via the MPI Careers portal. CV and cover letter supplied separately.