Our Management

Christine has been with us since 2003. She leads a highly capable team that takes care of the money side of our business. This includes making sure our expenses run within agreed budgets, money comes in as it should and our customers and staff get paid correctly and on time. Christine also helps us with our mergers and acquisitions across the country, as well as preparing financial reports for senior managers and Inland Revenue.

Working with numbers is clearly something Christine loves. She also enjoys the people here and the ever-changing challenges of working in a growing company.

Away from work, Christine likes spending time with family and friends, travelling and watching sport; occasionally combining all three at once. You’ll often find her unwinding at a beach somewhere. One of her favourites is the six kilometres of white sand and clear blue ocean at Whangamata on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Dwayne started earning money from computer sales and training when he was just 13 years old. He wanted a good education and it was the only way he could afford to attend private schools in Masterton. With the young business steadily growing and a successful school career in its final year, Dwayne decided it was time to focus solely on the business. He left school and drove non-stop to Auckland.

Before long he’d built a nationwide company called Horizon Pacific. It provided IT support and internet services to business customers, including most of New Zealand’s real estate companies. To make the most of the ultra-fast broadband roll-out Dwayne created One, a new internet service provider for business. One was the first to connect a business customer to the new fibre network.

Recognising that talented IT people with their own businesses were often bogged down by back office administration, in 2011 Dwayne created the umbrella organisation New Zealand Technology Group. It provides businesses within the group with proven administrative systems and economies of scale for growth.

“I like finding talented IT people who are passionate about what they’re doing, but can’t seem to get their business to that critical mass required for significant growth. We plug them into our admin systems which really work and free them up to focus on what they love doing. It’s very rewarding to see their before and afters, and watch them grow,” explains Dwayne.

Dwayne puts a lot of his success down to staying in close contact with customers and not losing sight of what’s happening on the street and at the coal face.

“I’m onsite with customers every day. That way you see opportunities as they’re emerging, so you can get the right people in place with the right product at the right price before anyone else,” he explains.

The other skill he brings to business is getting to the root cause of problems and adjusting systems and procedures to put things right.

“If something’s not going right, I believe in working out exactly where the issue lies, then adjusting the way things are done,” says Dwayne. “It’s vital to communicate the reasons behind the changes with the people involved in order to win their support.”

“I love what I do, I love being busy and I’m genuinely excited about the talent and growth we’re unlocking through New Zealand Technology Group.”

Mike started his own IT business, MM Computing, in 1999. He trained for a year as a technician and completed a series of Microsoft certifications. His contracts included Carter Holt Harvey for a period of time, when they had around 900 applications across 18,000 users, and a range of smaller companies. In 2005 Horizon Pacific approached Mike with the offer of a job, but wanting to remain self-employed, he took on a franchise for Horizon Pacific in Rodney instead.

“I’ve always run my own business, so even back when I was painting it was my own company with sub-contractors. It runs in my family, we all either own a business or we’re running one as a senior manager,” explains Mike. “My father was a third generation cheese maker and managed the Tui Cheese Factory.”

Horizon Pacific Rodney grew well and remained profitable, even during the recession when so many businesses struggled to stay afloat. In 2009 Mike decided to join New Zealand Technology Group, which had grown out of the original Horizon Pacific Group.

Account management is Mike’s greatest strength and over the years he has rarely lost a customer. He’s always had a social conscience and makes a point of helping others to succeed. Mike is dedicating a lot of his time to KidSafe, an organisation that provides practical support to help parents keep their children safe online.