Shane is an economist with nearly 20 years of experience advising local and central governments in both New Zealand and the United States. He has advised across numerous areas including urban economics, land and housing markets, transport economics, cost-benefit analysis, and policy guidance. He has a PhD in Public Economics and Transportation. Selected past work includes modelling Auckland’s housing and land markets, helping prepare Housing and Business Capacity Assessments across New Zealand, examining land-use regulation changes, estimating freight and traveller demand, value of travel time, pedestrian movements, and the economic impacts of government policy decisions. Shane has produced several refereed publications and proceedings as well as numerous technical reports, quarterly economic publications, and monthly insights into economic issues facing Auckland and New Zealand.

Gemma is passionate about people-centric design and shaping urban spaces that are healthy, resilient, and well-connected by safe, efficient, multi-modal transport. As Principal Advisor for Transport at Christchurch City Council, Gemma specializes in planning and designing for active modes and public transport movements and has a key interest in safe streets and places. She has a leading role in promoting safe outcomes for all road users on the network regardless of age and ability. Gemma chairs the Transport Planning Society Aotearoa NZ and sits on the Transportation Group’s Safety Sub-group.

Simon is the Transport safety Team Lead at Hamilton City Council where he has been for the last 14 years. Simon has a total of 30 years experience in road safety engineering ranging from design and construction of physical safety improvements to crash investigation, data analysis and causation research. In his time Simon has worked in several Local Government organizations in New Zealand as well as the NZ Transport Agency, Opus (now WSP) and at TRL Ltd in the UK.

Craig is a Principal Transport Planner in Beca’s Transport Advisory business with over 18 years’ experience across New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. He works with public and private sector clients on business cases, structure planning, plan changes and integrated transport assessments, with strong capability across public transport, walking and cycling, and transport modelling. Craig was the lead transport planner for the Urban Form and Transport Initiative Programme Business Case and subsequently led the Western Bay of Plenty Transport System Plan. He has delivered a range of significant projects in the Waikato, including the Cambridge structure plans, third bridge study, Hautapu and Kihikihi structure plans, and the Waikato school bus review. Through this work, Craig brings a deep understanding of the Waikato transport and policy context and the requirements for robust, evidence based transport and land use business cases.

Dean was born in Papakura in 1964 and is a third-generation Pakehā New Zealander with ancestors from Ireland, England, Germany and a trace of Welsh. He is a chartered professional engineer specialising in the traffic engineering associated with resource management consents and traffic safety management. Dean has assisted with resource management applications for subdivision and land-use projects, including land-use consents, plan changes and designations, with values up to $100 million covering both urban and rural settings and numbering well into the hundreds. He often carries out primary research to evaluate the traffic effects of projects. With projects that have required council and/or court hearings, Dean’s clients have been successful in more than 98% of cases he has been involved with. Dean also embraces and effectively harnesses relevant and appropriate technology to assist with his work. This includes monitoring using digital video, computer-based intersection capacity analysis and design using specialist terrain modelling and alignment design and vehicle tracking software.

Katherine Simpson is a Senior Transport Planner at Waikato Regional Council, where she leads strategic planning initiatives focused on improving public transport connectivity and resilience across the region. Since entering the transport planning field in 2023, Katherine has championed community-led approaches, reviewing networks to identify opportunities for improvement, and delivering on the RPTP and Hamilton-Waikato Metro Spatial Plan aspirations. Originally from South Africa, Katherine moved to Aotearoa New Zealand to complete her Master’s in Environment and Society at the University of Waikato. Her thesis explored sustainable community development frameworks through the lens of the Peacocke development in Hamilton. She was awarded membership in the Golden Key International Honour Society for academic excellence. Katherine’s professional journey includes roles as a Planner at Waikato District Council and a Research Assistant at the University of Waikato, where she contributed to national research on the ‘20-Minute City’ concept. This work was presented at the WPSC-APSA Congress in Bali as part of the G20 Indonesia programme. Prior to relocating, she worked as an Environmental Site Officer on a $1 billion industrial and logistics park development in South Africa. Katherine focuses on designing transport networks that reflect community needs and support long-term regional resilience.

Jack Chipperfield is a transport engineer with experience across engineering consultancies, public sector organisations, and alliances. Jack's experience spans road safety, transport planning, design, modelling, and operations. Jack recently worked within the TREC alliance as a Network Operations Engineer. Using construction and maintenance programme data, Jack predicted, monitored, and reported journey time delays on the TREC network.

I joined WTAU with a background in Transportation Engineering and specialised in Aimsun modelling, along with knowledge in transportation design and traffic impact assessments. As an Analyst/Modeller, I am involved in all aspects of traffic modelling, data analysis and presentation by using various tools. I enjoy the process that converts the complicated data cells to visual showcases that would help the investment decisions made on the transportation network.

Tobie is an experienced infrastructure project manager (PMP)® and professional transport planner with 26 years in the built environment, specialising in the planning, development, and delivery of projects. He brings a structured, outcomes focused approach to guiding projects from early concept through to implementation.

Lewis is a principal public transport planning with 15 years of experience in New Zealand and the USA. He has been the programme manager for Auckland's Climate Action Transport Targeted Rate (CATTR) bus service improvements since 2023. His background includes leading bus network redesigns, inputs to multimodal business cases and research projects for NZTA Waka Kotahi.