Hon Steven Joyce
Minister of Finance
Hon Simon Bridges
Minister of Transport
7 July 2017
City Rail Link Limited Board appointed
Finance Minister Steven Joyce and Transport Minister Simon Bridges, in conjunction with Auckland Council, today
announced appointments to the Board of City Rail Link Limited, the new company jointly owned by the Crown and Auckland
Council with responsibility for delivering Auckland’s City Rail Link project.
Sir Brian Roche was appointed as Chair at the establishment of the company. The Board members are Russell Black, Brian
Harrison, Karen Jordan and Anne Urlwin.
“I welcome the valuable knowledge and experience that these people will bring into their new roles,” Mr Joyce says.
“Under the leadership of Sir Brian Roche as Chair, CRLL will drive delivery of this complex project.”
“The appointees bring considerable experience in major project management, procurement in rail projects and other large
infrastructure projects, and expertise in finance, accounting and audit and risk,” Mr Bridges says. “I’m confident they
are the right group to oversee this hugely important transport project.”
Biographies:
Russell Black is a consultant who is a Civil Engineer by training, and has significant experience in senior management
of large transport infrastructure companies and project managing large infrastructure projects, such as the London
Underground’s Jubilee Line extension. He was Project Director for the Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTR) in Hong
Kong and consulted to Metro Trains, Melbourne and Sydney Metro. He was previously a member of EQC, and he has been a
director of Northpower Ltd since 2011.
Brian Harrison is a lawyer who specialises in infrastructure funding, procurement, PPPs and contracts. Some of the
projects that he has been involved in include: acting for project finance lenders to the Arlanda express rail link,
Stockholm; negotiation and delivery of the private finance portion of the funding for the construction of the Jubilee
Line, London; adviser to the Strategic Rail Authority (UK) on the capitalisation and debt structuring of rail
infrastructure assets.
Karen Jordan immigrated to New Zealand in late 2015 from the UK where her last role was with the Ministry of Defence as
Director Contract Management, where she was responsible for improving capability across a multi-billion pound
procurement and investment programme. Prior to that, she spent the majority of her career in British Gas or National
Grid Plc.
Anne Urlwin is a Wanaka-based professional director, chartered accountant and business consultant with a wide range of
directorship experience. Ms Urlwin is currently the Chair of Naylor Love Enterprises (to step down in October), a
director of Chorus, Southern Response Earthquake Services, OnePath Life, Steel & Tube Holdings and Summerset Group Holdings. She has experience of both central and local government and has served on
numerous Crown boards and two local government CCOs.
ends