The post-earthquake disaster recovery of the University of Canterbury required a keen focus on business fundamentals while simultaneously undergoing a period of rapid organisation transformation.

Alex was responsible for establishing a programme of works to be delivered in an operating campus and for upscaling new and existing resources to meet recovery demands. The programme was designed to meet strategic recovery objectives while spreading the disruptive impact across the University’s Colleges to minimise interruption to teaching and research. The University set the ambitious target to achieve the recovery within a 10 year period at a cost of $1.2bn.

Recovery requires a significant shift in workloads and methods in order to scale programme delivery.

 The University had previously delivered $50m annually of capital works and this had to be grown to over $200m annually. This required a new leadership team and restructured delivery teams capable of adapting and scaling operations and to deliver initiaitves and a cultural change programme to align staff with new recovery imperatives.

Organisational recovery is work that occurs on top of ‘business as usual’, and requires new work methods, so disparate planning processes were re-engineered to complete works to deliver on strategic goals.

Prior to her time as University of Canterbury Executive Director, Alex spent 20 years in a variety of roles working in and around tertiary education. These include roles covering; strategic business planning and finance, procurement and

contracting, policy, research, master planning and land management.

Alex also brings an interest in disruptive technology and considerable experience in technological transformation,  infrastructure reform and change management.

Outside of property and tertiary education, Alex has served on the Boards of the Child Cancer Foundation, NZ Green Building Council and the Tertiary Education Facilities Management Association.

She graduated with a degree in Political Science from the University of New South Wales and is an Resolution Institute Accredited Mediator with memberships the Arbitrators and Mediator’s Institute of New Zealand, and the New Zealand Institute of Company Directors.