CILT warmly congratulates Dame Jo Brosnahan for her recent Honour

BY MURRAY KING

IN THE RECENT King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours List, Jo was made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. CILT welcomes this recognition of her extensive contribution to transport and the wider community in New Zealand, and warmly congratulates her on the honour.

Jo is a Chartered Fellow of CILT, and has been a member of CILT and its predecessor the Chartered Institute of Transport for many years. She was our first woman member. She was President (of CIT) between 2001 and 2003, Vice President before that, and Past President after. She later became an International Vice President of CILT, where she was particularly involved with the development of younger leaders and women.

In addition, Jo’s leadership initiative, Leaders for the Future, was presented collaboratively with CILT, enabling leadership training for a number of emerging leaders in the transport industry. She was also the founder of Leadership New Zealand, which has over 18 years produced around 700 alumni from across the diversity of NZ leaders, including business, iwi, community and social services nationally, contributing to a connected culture of leadership in New Zealand.

As a Harkness Fellow, sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund of New York, Jo spent a year in the US in 1995/1996, undertaking a mid-career fellowship in leadership. She has subsequently been an international guest speaker and lecturer on leadership; including working with South African public sector leaders in association with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the University of Capetown; addressing an OECD seminar in Paris on leadership in the public sector; addressing the Global Leadership Forum in Istanbul in 2005; and addressing the CILT conference in Malta in 2010.

Jo’s involvement with transport goes right back to her first job out of university, with New Zealand Railways, working for her mentor Euan McQueen, also a prominent CIT member. Even then, her focus was on how to improve the country and its institutions. She recalls our long conversations at the time about how to bring about change in the railway system. The theme of change has infused all the roles she has had since. From Railways, she went on to be the Commercial Manager of the Northland Harbour Board, where she was involved with the selection and development of the cargo terminal at Marsden Point. Many years later, one of her current roles is Chair of Maritime New Zealand, the national regulatory and compliance organisation responsible for the safety, security and environmental protection of coastal and inland waterways.

In the meantime, Jo was in the thick of transport issues, amongst others, as Chair of the Northland Regional Development Council, as a Northland Regional Councillor, and later as CEO of Northland Regional Council, and then CEO of the Auckland Regional Council. In that position, she played a major role in planning and beginning implementation of the new public transport and rail and roading systems that are such a significant part of Auckland’s future. In 2006, she was appointed on to the four-person Ministerial Advisory Group on road costs, with the subsequent report and recommendations paving the way for reformation of the way that New Zealand’s transport systems are governed and managed.

But of course, Jo has used her talents in sectors beyond transport. She is in telecommunications, as chair of Northpower Fibre. She has experience in property, as a past board member of Housing New Zealand, and the Hobsonville Land Company, agriculture and research as past chair of Landcare Research, engineering and design as current chair of Harrison Grierson, climate, as a past board member of NIWA, and resource management as chair of an irrigation feasibility company.

She has not neglected more social enterprises either, as founder and until recently chair of the Taitokerau Education Trust (promoting digital learning in low decile schools), as an Advisory Board member for the Centre for Brain Research, a past board member of Netball North Harbour, and formerly a trustee for the EEO Trust, which promotes equal employment opportunities in business.

CILTNZ is proud to have Jo as a member, and deeply values her contribution to the transport industry and wider pubic service. We offer our sincere congratulations on the recognition of her contribution with her Royal Honour.