André Lovatt to take up Auckland Airport role

Monday, 20 November 2017

André Lovatt to take up Auckland Airport role

Regenerate Christchurch chair and Arts Centre chief executive André Lovatt is to leave the city to take up a new role at Auckland Airport.

Mr Lovatt, who returned to Christchurch in 2012 after more than a decade working overseas to assist with the city’s rebuild, has been appointed Auckland Airport General Manager Airport Development and Delivery. His role will involve managing the delivery of the airport’s $1.8 billion infrastructure spending programme.

Recruited as chief executive of the Arts Centre of Christchurch, André returned to the city in October 2012 after working for six years as director of international design company Arup in Singapore. Over the last five years, he has worked with the Arts Centre team to deliver a comprehensive restoration strategy for one of the city’s best recognised heritage landmarks.

Currently more than 50 per cent re-opened to the public, with a large number of buildings now housing new tenants, the Arts Centre has won a number of local and international heritage restoration and architecture awards, including an Award of Merit in the prestigious UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation for the restoration of the Great Hall and Clock Tower buildings.

In late 2015, Mr Lovatt was appointed chair-designate of the newly formed Regenerate Christchurch, an organisation created in partnership between the Crown and the Christchurch City Council to undertake the planning of significant regeneration projects. Since the establishment of the organisation in April 2016, Regenerate Christchurch has undertaken a number of major planning projects, including the recent release of 10 possible combinations of land uses for the 602-hectare Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor Regeneration Area and initial development concepts for Cathedral Square.

Mr Lovatt has also been a member of the Christchurch International Airport Board of Directors since 2014.

André Lovatt says while he will be sad to leave his hometown, the major projects he has been involved in are now well-advanced, allowing him the opportunity to take up a new challenge.

“I have been extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to make a contribution to the rebuild of Christchurch,” says André Lovatt.

“Working alongside some amazingly talented and dedicated people, I feel honoured to have been part of what has been an incredible process, which despite all the challenges, stresses and disruptions we’ve all suffered in our community, will leave us with a city that celebrates its past while focusing on the future.”

“I would particularly like to thank Ministers Woods, Wagner and Brownlee and Mayor Dalziel for their support throughout the establishment and development of a wholly new entity in Regenerate Christchurch, the Board of Regenerate Christchurch for their passion and commitment to making Christchurch becomes an amazing place, and the Board of the Arts Centre for their unfailing commitment to the protection and restoration of the amazing collection of heritage buildings that make up the Arts Centre.”

Mr Lovatt will take up his new role at Auckland Airport in late February 2018.
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