ITSNZ president stepping down

Stephen Hewett will step down as president of ITSNZ and its board at the ITSNZ AGM on November 24.

Transport minister Michael Wood is a special guest for the virtual ITSNZ AGM and will be announcing the Waka Kotahi (NZTA) Innovation Fund as well as providing an update on the Government’s transport priorities, recent achievements and project milestones.

A member vote will be taken at the AGM to appoint a board of directors for a two-year term, Hewett having served nine years on the ITSNZ board.

As business director of transport advisory at Beca with a focus on technology, Hewett has been president for the past two years, with specific international responsibilities including being New Zealand’s representative on the board of ITS Asia-Pacific and the ITS World Congress.

“It has been an honour to contribute to the evolution of ITSNZ over the last nine years and even more so in representing ITSNZ globally in my role as president,” Hewett says.

“I have enjoyed working with the board to develop a business plan that has seen the creation our successful T-Tech conference format, bringing youth and academia onto the board, and the creation of the Young Transport Professionals (YTP) initiative,” he says, adding he looks forward to seeing ITSNZ continue to grow and to be actively involved in the changing transport technology landscape.

Recognising Hewett’s contributions, ITSNZ chairperson Mike Rudge says: “Stephen has invested a phenomenal amount of time and passion to ITSNZ over the past nine years.

“As president, Stephen has contributed hugely to the success of T-Tech as well as leading our engagement with ITS Asia-Pacific and the international ITS community.”

ITSNZ was launched in 2004 but remained volunteer-led at the time and in 2013 hosted the ITS Asia-Pacific Forum conference, attracting some 500 participants from across the world.

The event’s success coincided with rapid technology advancement and technology-led disruption creating a much bigger need for a national transport body with a technology focus. 

Following a membership structure change in 2017, Beca became one of the inaugural ITSNZ Gold Members. This change and increase in membership funding enabled major expansion of events activity, especially the annual conference.

The inaugural T-Tech conference was held in 2018 and doubled the size of earlier annual summit events, Hewett playing a major role in both the inaugural and 2019 conferences.

He led the development of the professional papers and presentations component of the conference, co-ordinating submissions, judging and awards. 

Also stepping down from the board are youth and diversity ambassador and YTP co-founder Amy Strang, and Helen Fitt who is a postdoctoral fellow at Lincoln University focussed on social science and emerging transport solutions – co-opted to the board as an academia representative.