Hosted by MediaWorks - Lunch with Heather Deacon of Callaghan Innovation

Heather joined Callaghan Innovation in March 2018 as the General Manager of the Research and Technical Services Operations based in Wellington, New Zealand and was formerly the Director of NZ Operations at Airbus. She migrated to New Zealand with her family in 2006 from the UK where she had spent the previous 13 years working on aviation support contracts in the defence industry. 

A Masters Graduate from Cranfield University, Heather started her career as a Flying Instructor, which culminated in her training military pilots from each of the three British Armed Services. She has worked for multi-national Defence Primes including Babcock, BAE Systems, Leonardo and Airbus, and has led both military and commercial projects working with Primes and Sub-Contractors across the globe.

Whilst in the UK, Heather ran the Defence Elementary Flying Training School, a turnkey contract delivering ab initio pilot training with a fleet of contractor owned aircraft. She later managed the commercial aspects of Through Life Support Contracts with the UK MOD within the Integrated Project Teams set up jointly between Industry and Defence.

In NZ, Heather took leadership of Safe Air and led its transformation from an Air NZ company to one owned by Airbus and now rebranded with that name. Heather is also an Executive Director on the NZ Defence Industry Association Board. She has a passion for innovation and creative thinking that generates novel solutions to meet the rapidly changing environment we all operate within both at work and at home. She is an advocate for a partnered approach working with syndicates or alliances to provide the optimum solutions for all parties but most importantly for the customer.

When:  Friday, 5th July, 2019, 12.00pm-1.30pm
Where:  Lower Hutt Events Centre, Laings Road, Lower Hutt
Fee:  Members $45 +GST  Non-Members $65 +GST
RSVP:  Click on register word above