Invited Speakers

Hon Maurice Williamson

Minsiter of Land Information

Mr Williamson has been the Member of Parliament for Pakuranga since 1987. He is currently the Minister for Building & Construction, Minister for Customs, Minister for Statistics and Minister for Land Information.

M Williamson full biography - New Zealand Parliament website

Jamie Fitzgerald

Jamie is a popular and inspiring speaker - highly engaging with wide appeal, very professional and a pleasure to work with as well.
Jamie is an achiever and an adventurer who has rowed across the Atlantic and walked across the South Pole and also has business “cred”. The humorous and motivating way in which he shares his business and adventure experiences makes him a very well received speaker with all types of audiences and he has great visuals too. Jamie draws on his sporting success, his Atlantic and Arctic adventures and his business experience (fencing contractor through to bank manager, consultant/trainer with a change management consultancy, Project Leader for the recent RWC managing the design and delivery of training to the large volunteer workforce and currently consulting to NZ Trade & Enterprise ) to deliver inspirational messages about setting goals, planning, teamwork , change and challenges. Late last year he, along with his expedition partner Kevin, filmed a TV series (adventure with a NZ history slant) which screened on TV1 “First Crossings” - so his profile is on the up and up. A second series has been commissioned and they have already commenced filming for this.

Professor Giselle Byrnes

Darwin University

Professor Byrne's research has centred on settler-indigenous histories, cross-cultural settlement histories, and the relationship between past histories and present realities. Her PhD from the University of Auckland was titled, “Inventing New Zealand: Surveying, Science and the Construction of Cultural Space, 1840s – 1890s”. She received the 2006 Fulbright Visiting Professor in New Zealand Studies Award, which allowed her to  spend six months at Georgetown University, Washington DC. Professor Byrnes has also served as National President of the New Zealand Historical Association. She has written extensively on colonial surveyors – important book “Boundary Markers: Land Surveying and the Colonisation of New Zealand” 2001.

Tony Sewell

Ngai Tahu Property Chief Executive

Tony joined Ngāi Tahu Property Limited in 1994 and has had a major role in establishing the company as a property investor and property developer. Prior to this, Tony was National Operations Manager, Landcorp Property. He has extensive experience in the property industry in the areas of construction, industrial and commercial property development, residential subdivision, shopping centre development, property management, property investment and company management. Tony is a member of the Property Institute of New Zealand and in 2004 was recognised by his peers in receiving the New Zealand Property Institutes Industry Award. He is also a member of the Institute of Directors and a board member of the Property Council of New Zealand and the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Brian Ballantyne

Senior Advisor Land Tenure amnd Boundaries, Natural Resources Canada

Dr Ballantyne is a lawyer and surveyor with a PhD from School of Surveying Otago. He was a lecturer at the School of Surveying between 1992 and 1996. He is now lives in Edmonton, Canada and is the Senior Advisor: Land Tenure and Boundaries to the Surveyor General, Canada Centre for Cadastral Management, Natural Resources Canada. He addresses issues pertaining to the International Boundary Commission, inter-provincial and inter-territorial boundaries, boundaries of Indian Reserves, Treaty areas, comprehensive and litigation claim parcels, and the offshore.

Professor George Benwell

Dean (School of Business) and Pro-Vice-Chancellor,  University of Otago.

After working as a surveyor, consultant and University of Melbourne academic, Professor Benwell joined Otago's Information Science Department as a senior lecturer in 1990. He led the Department from 2001-2006 and served as the School's Dean of Research. Between 1996 and 1999, he was the University's Academic Director of Research. In 2007, Professor Benwell was appointed Dean of the School.

Professor Benwell's research and teaching are mainly focused on spatial information processing and analysis, and land and health-related information systems. He currently holds a Bachelor of Surveying from the University of Melbourne, an MPhil from City University, London and a PhD from Melbourne.

In 2001, he received the GJ Thornton-Smith Memorial Medal as a distinguished graduate of Melbourne University's School of Engineering Department of Geomatics.

Professor Nick Chrisman

RMIT

Professor Chrisman has been working in the domain of geographic information for 40 years, developing innovative techniques to analyze and display information about the earth and the people who inhabit it. He has some long term themes in his personal work: addressing data quality, dealing with time and change, and examining institutional and social settings of technology. In the past thirty years, the geospatial community has made huge strides opening this information to a much larger public, however, the potential is still not entirely realised.

For the past 8 years, he has managed the GEOIDE Network - a network of researchers and user communities across Canada. He has found it a privilege to lead the Network and a great opportunity to spark a spirit of cooperation and attention to community needs across Canada.  The GEOIDE Network is coming to a close as its main funding source comes to the expected 14 year end.

As of January 2013, Professor Chiman has taken on a new challenge as Discipline Head, Geospatial Sciences at RMIT University in Melbourne Australia. He is looking forward to new collaborations at RMIT and around Australia, as well as maintaining contacts in the Northern hemisphere.

Specialties include: Geographic information analysis, geospatial sciences, geomatics, data quality investigations, network of scientists, collaboration, research and innovation networks. 

FIG President CheeHai Teo

FIG

CheeHai is a Licensed and Chartered Surveyor in the private practice with key experience in the area of planning, implementation and management of surveying projects that encompassed a variety of inter-related activities and tasks as well as interaction with allied professionals.

Born in Batu Pahat, Johor in southern Peninsular Malaysia, he had his primary and secondary education there before completing his basic degree in surveying with distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia in 1980 (Bachelor of Applied Science (Surveying)). Some two decades later, he pursued and completed his Masters of Science (Land Administration and Development) with University of Technology Malaysia in 2004. Shortly after completing his tertiary education, he accepted a job offer from a surveying organization with regional affiliations and has been with the organization since.

He is a Fellow of the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (ISM) and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), a member of the Association of Authorised Land Surveyors Malaysia (AALSM) and the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute, Australia (SSSI).

Currently, he is a Council Member of AALSM and the ASEAN Federation of Land Surveying and Geomatics (ASEAN FLAG); a member of the RICS Malaysia and RICS Asia Education and Standards Board.

He is a Past Honorary Secretary General of ASEAN FLAG; a Past President, a Past Secretary General and a Past Council Member of ISM; a past Chair of RICS Malaysia; a past member of RICS Asia Board; a past Vice President, a past Secretary General and a past Treasurer of AALSM.

He was appointed by the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister of Malaysia in 1999 to the Second National Economic Consultative Council (NECC II) (1999/2000), the output of the Council then helped shaped Malaysia’s ensuing ten-year development programme. In 2002, he was appointed by the Hon. Minister of Finance Malaysia to the inaugural Board of Directors of Professional Services Development Corporation Pte. Ltd. (PSDC) for a term of two years and in 2006 was appointed by the Hon. Minister of Works Malaysia to the PSDC Consultative Panel and was on the Panel until 2010. In 2003, he was appointed by the Hon. Minister of Land and Cooperative Development Malaysia to the Land Surveyors Board and this appointment extended for a further two years by the Hon. Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Malaysia in June 2005 and again in June 2007. In 2000, he was asked by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry Malaysia to join Malaysia’s Delegation to the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Services (CCS) and subsequently to other trade negotiating forums representing the Surveying Profession. He played a key role in realizing the ASEAN Framework Arrangement on the Mutual Recognition of Surveying Qualifications that was concluded in 2007.

His past involvement in FIG included being a Vice President 2009-2010 and a Member of the Task Force on Governance (2005 – 2006), Nomination Review Group (2003 – 2006) and Task Force on Mutual Recognition of Qualification (1999 - 2002). He was the national delegate from AALSM to FIG between 1999 and 2008.