NRC Team

meet the team

Justin Tighe-Umbers

Chief Executive Officer

Justin is Chief Executive of National Road Carriers, joining the team in August 2022.

Prior to joining NRC, Justin was Executive Director at the Board of Airline Representatives NZ, where he helped steer the airline industry through the international border closure during the pandemic, and the jet fuel pipeline outage in 2017. He has extensive experience working on infrastructure of national significance at the government-private sector interface. Before joining the transport industry Justin worked in senior management roles in the telecommunications industry for 13 years, including working on the Telecom demerger and the Chorus ultra-fast broadband project.

Justin is a post-graduate from the University of Auckland business school with a master’s degree in International Business.

James Smith

GM Policy & Advocacy

James started his career in transport as a management cadet for New Zealand Government Railways in 1982 and spent until 1995 working in a variety of roles within their freight division through the transition to State Owned Enterprise and Privatisation in 1993.

Departing Rail in 1995 James moved into Road Transport. First joining the NRC team in 1998 until leaving in 2011 to take up leadership rolls at Toll and Halls.

James returned to NRC in 2021 and is tasked with improving the Policy and Regulatory settings for our industry.

James Perrin

Chief Operating Officer

Based in Auckland James leads our focus on future customer growth and creating greater value for our members.

James has over 20 years of experience developing large fully integrated, product, marketing and partnership strategies that build strong engagement and offer continued value across the customer lifecycle

He has built experience across a broad range of highly competitive industries, including Finance, Insurance, Telecommunications and Technology, from early-stage startups to billion-dollar enterprises.

Paula Rogers

Commercial Transport Specialist

Based in Kumeu Auckland Paula is a point of contact for Northland, North West Auckland, Taranaki, Manawatu & Wellington Regions.

Paula has extensive experience in the Transport Industry from being one of the first women specialising in truck part sales, driving trucks then into the Association sector.

In her 16th year with NRC Paula strongly advocates on behalf of members and looks after all enquiries relating to the Industry. Whilst Kenworth’s are her favorite she also very much admires the older gear due to their history. Her passion is trucks and the people behind them, she is a trustee of the Mercer Truck Museum which endeavor’s to preserve the trucks in the North Island. Her other passion is classic cars.

Stephen Woodward

Commercial Transport Specialist

Based in Auckland Stephen is a point of contact for the Auckland Region.

Experienced Operations Manager with a demonstrated history of working in Rail, Sea and the Road Transport Industry. Skilled in Negotiation, Operations Management, Freight, Team Building, and Warehouse Operations.

Chris Metcalf

Membership Coordinator

Based in Auckland Chris has strong customer service skills and helps with everything membership related including helping members link up to our commercial partners and specialist advice.

Shakthi Jeyashankar

Financial Controller

Antoinette Laird

Communications Advisor

Amanda Henton

Membership Relationship specialist

Erwin Ricketts

Principle advisor

Based at our Wellington office.

Erwin brings extensive experience in both the public and private sector, having worked in the Ministry of Transport, Treasury, Ministry of Primary Industries, among others, as well as for internationally renowned strategic advisory firm Castalia.

Minneke Kang

Administration Coordinator

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