7 minute read
Interview with Commander Julie Simpkins
Command and collaboration:
Navy’s local lead By Heather Barker Vermeer
Commander Julie Simpkins.
Julie with niece, Taylor, who is also serving in the RNZN. Commander Simpkins is black and blue. Lifting the sleeve of her uniform, the Commanding Officer of HMNZS Philomel reveals a spread of deep bruises that decorate her arms from her elbows up to her shoulders. They’re all over her legs too, she says.
The Head of the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Devonport Naval Base has just returned from a punishing experience; thrust out of her comfort zone and down into ‘Middle Earth’ – a deep cave system in the upper South Island. “It was one of the most confronting experiences I’ve ever had,” says the Commanding Officer who took over the helm in March this year.
Having just returned from a week spent navigating a complex cave system in Takaka with a small team of military, other Government agency and humanitarian organisation personnel as part of a strategic leadership programme, Julie Simpkins is well placed to talk about comfort zones.
“Spending over nine hours down a marble cave, abseiling 45 metres down narrow openings, crawling through tight gaps and ascending out of there with a team of people you’d only just met, was an experience I’ll never forget,” she explains. “I am covered in bruises! I can’t say I enjoyed it all at the time, and I’m still in recovery mode. But, on reflection, it was an amazing experience and I know it will have taught me a lot about myself along with gaining a new leadership cohort thought that shared experience. I know it’s always worthwhile getting out of your comfort zone.”
Pushing beyond her comfort zone is something Julie Simpkins is used to. Born in the Hutt Valley and growing up in land locked Feilding, Julie’s ascent to the rank of Commander in the Royal New Zealand Navy is an unlikely story.
It began with a chance encounter at a nearby military airforce base Ohakea during a high school trip in Manawatu that sparked a career idea.
“Initially, I just saw it as a way to get out of the small town where I’d grown up, to be honest,” she smiles. With Julie, what you see is what you get; honest, down to earth, humble. She openly shares her tale of applying for all three services and plumping for the Navy, which was recruiting soonest.
Starting out as a 19 year-old new recruit at a time when females in the Navy were just beginning to no longer be restricted to land duties, Julie has seen - and been a part of - enormous change.
“I was in the one of the first intakes where females joined as sea-going,” she says. “From 1988, they began trialling women at sea. I entered the Navy at a very monumental time. At first there were only very small numbers of women present on board ship, among hundreds of men. I remember firefighting training, where the smallest boot size they had was a size 9. When you’re a size 5, that added difficulty to the job!”
She describes how sailors’ uniforms were only designed for men, without pleats or shaping to fit female builds and how having no separate showering facilities for female officers on board some of older frigates which led to some interesting encounters. “We had to stick a velcro sign on the front of the cubicle when we went in, to say it was a woman showering – which was effective way of dealing with the situation at that time. One time, I forgot to take the sign down
and this led to a queue of men complaining, jokingly, about how long this woman was taking in the shower!”
Julie is fascinated by, and has long studied, ‘how people tick’. “I have a real interest in human factors,” she says. “People’s behaviour really interests me, especially in terms of change management.” In line with this, she completed a Master’s degree in Advanced Leadership Practice in 2019, through Massey University in Albany, choosing to learn locally.
“I always try to keep things on the Shore whenever I can,” she says. There’s plenty of proof of this: Julie has lived in Belmont for over 15 years, and previously lived in Devonport, Castor Bay and Milford. Husband Grant is well-known at North Shore Rugby Club as a past player and coach, who now heads up Takapuna Grammar School’s international department, following his own Navy career. Julie’s parents both worked at North Shore Hospital until their retirement to Settler’s Lifestyle Village in Albany. Her 15 year-old son, Aidan goes to Takapuna Grammar School and, like mum and dad, enjoys cricket. All the family plays at North Shore Cricket Club in various guises, ‘some of us more socially than others,’ says Julie, who enjoys low-key summer ‘tonk’ at Devonport Domain. She also likes expressing her creative side on home-based art projects and in the garden when time allows.
“I think it was good luck that I ended up in the Navy,” she says. “It could so easily have been the Army or Air Force. After coming from a small, inland town, I have developed a real love of the sea and living near it. I can’t see myself ever living far from the seaside again.”
It’s just as well; Julie is in charge of a large geographical area and which includes a large number of Navy personnel and other stakeholders. She oversees Navy facilities from its Whangaparaoa training base, across to its ammunition depot at Kauri Point in Birkenhead, and over to its Narrow Neck accommodation and training area, as well as all facilities at the Devonport Naval Base itself. She is also effectively the CEO of the port. The Navy is a bigger part of the North Shore, beyond Devonport, than most people realise, says Julie, who strongly believes in the value it brings to the area.
“I’m very conscious that the community is interested in what the Navy is doing in the area. It’s a key employer and a neighbour. I recognise that it is unusual; Devonport base is situated in the heart of small, residential community. But I’m looking forward to working in a collaborative way between the Navy and the communities it is a part of. And that’s about communication and understanding.”
Developing open dialogue is important to Julie. She is pleased to have attended the inaugural ceremony of the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board where she met the elected councillors, board members and the new chair of Devonport-Takapuna Local Board, Toni van Tonder.
“A lot of my job is about collaboration and communication and that is a continuous process. I strongly believe that dialogue doesn’t simply mean ‘having a chat’; it means really understanding and respecting different perspectives.”
Julie is proud that her 23 year-old niece who has followed in her footsteps and is now a Navy Officer, currently serving onboard the HMNZS Manawanui specialist dive and hydrographic vessel. “I’m really pleased that some of the challenges that I would have had in a different era, she won’t have to face any more. It’s kind of great that we - the Navy and women - have come so far.”
An overarching responsibility to maintain safety and security for the Navy in the region comes with a wide remit for Julie; a multitude of stakeholder relations, discipline, strategic and people management oversight are part of her job as Commanding Officer.
“It’s a wide-reaching role. In every role I’ve had, however, I have had a real focus on improvement. I want to leave a job having made a positive impact and to have left it better than I found it.
“There’s always an opportunity to look for, and to create, positive change - whatever your role and whatever organisation you work for. You have to think, ‘where are the opportunities to be a positive influence?’ In doing that, you can make a job, or a process, or a place better.”
And, as Julie knows, that sometimes means picking up a few bruises along the way.
