Port working group chair announced

Auckland Council today announced the appointment of Rick Boven as chair of the Consensus Working Group (CWG) for the Port Future Study.
Mayor Len Brown says Dr Boven brings a wealth of experience gained in New Zealand and abroad, in both the public and private sectors.

“Rick Boven is an extremely experienced strategist and facilitator with a strong grounding in environmental management, infrastructure and transport topics”

“The CWG has a multi-faceted role in creating a long-term strategy for the Port. It must carefully provide the scope and direction for this complex piece of work, whilst maintaining a strong working relationship with the sector’s stakeholders.

“We feel that Rick is the right person to steer this ship,” he says.

Chair of the Auckland Development Committee Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse welcomes Dr Boven’s extensive governance, policy and business consulting experience.

“Rick has a great mix of skills alongside qualifications in environmental management, change management and business.

“This brings wide experience in building shared understanding of proposed new strategies, developing consensus and a readiness to act within leadership teams and boards.

“Most recently he has been a member of the Independent Review Panel of the Tai Timu Tai Pari – Sea Change project,” says Ms Hulse

Dr Boven says he is excited about this new challenge and privileged to lead such a significant project on behalf of Auckland.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know all of the stakeholders who will be involved and to working together with them to develop a fact-based proposed solution using a consensus driven and collaborative process.

“The future of the Port is an issue of importance to many Aucklanders. I am committed to leading a professional and in-depth study which provides recommendations back to Council that fully takes account of the views of our varied communities,” says Dr Boven.

At its meeting on 14 May, the Auckland Development Committee unanimously endorsed a collaborative process for undertaking the Port Future Study. This included the Governing Body-lead appointment of an independent chairperson to chair the Consensus Working Group.

As independent chair, Dr Boven’s role will be to ensure the principles of collaboration are applied across both groups involved in the Study, manage the various stakeholders and oversee the work and recommendations that will be made to the council.

The next step in setting up the framework for the Study is to establish a Stakeholder Reference Group (SRG) and Consensus Working Group (CWG).

Overall, the Port Future Study will provide a collaborative process, without political involvement, that will consider economic, cultural, social and environmental costs and benefits of a range of options for the future long-term strategy of port development, including alternative port locations and reconfigurations.

The SRG will be made up of 40 to 50 representatives from a broad range of sectors and interests.

It will represent its various stakeholders, communicate back to organisations within the sector and undertake work requested by the CWG as needed. The 12-15 members of the CWG will be self-selected from this Stakeholder Reference Group.

The role of the CWG is to finalise and agree the study scope, provide direction and decisions as required, identify work to be undertaken and make recommendations to the Auckland Council on the way forward.

More information on the proposed stakeholder engagement process and draft scope of the Port Future Study can be found here
http://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2015/05/AUC_20150514_AGN_5976_AT.PDF

ENDS

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