Roger Estall
For over 40 years, Roger has worked in or with a wide range of organisations in the public, private and NFP sectors in New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere to help them deal with uncertainty and so better realise their purpose.
He held senior management and governance roles for over 20 years in a multi-national company and was appointed by the NZ Government to chair the New Zealand Fire Service Commission and National Rural Fire Authority. His task was to devise and implement wide-ranging reforms to improve efficiency and effectiveness and these led to a significant and rapid reduction in fire deaths annually.
Throughout his career, Roger has fulfilled numerous technical roles which required him to gain a detailed understanding of the operations and processes of many types of industry in many countries as well as in several parts of the public sector. As the Chief Technical Officer of a national approving authority for all automatic fire protection systems he was responsible for formal engineering determinations. He also undertook numerous forensic investigations, provided expert witness testimony in support of litigation and undertook official inquiries on behalf of governments as an input to policy development.
He has always enjoyed sharing his experience through speaking at conferences, training, presentation of the prestigious annual Hopkins Lecture and participation in organisations with a worthwhile cause. Over 37 years, he was either a member or chair of 25 national and international standards-writing committees dealing with fire engineering, building controls, ambulance & paramedical services, aviation firefighting and ‘risk management’. Roger was the founding Chairman of the NZ Society for Risk Management Inc; and served as President of the New Zealand Branch of the Institution of Fire Engineers and vice President of the New Zealand Ski Association.
In 2005 Roger established his own, successful consulting company with clients in several countries.
Grant Purdy
While he has had many titles over the last 40+ years, they all seems to come down to assisting decision makers to have effective and efficient conversations about whether the decisions they are making, and have made previously, are providing sufficient certainty that intended outcomes will be achieved.
Through most of Grant’s career this has been labelled risk management. However, despite his best efforts, this is still widely perceived as being concerned with failure rather than with success.
Nowadays, he mentors, trains, supports and generally helps organisations and the people who lead them make more-soundly based decisions – so their organisation can realise its purpose.
Grant has worked in over 25 countries and in numerous types of industry and organisation. He’s had over 100 articles and papers published, spoken probably too often and also written quite a few books and handbooks, always with others.
Grant has started five companies, held executive positions in four multi-national companies, has sat on several boards and committees and currently chairs the Boards of two not-for-profit organisations.