RMLA Executive Team: Update
RMLA is pleased to announce that its new executive was appointed at the RMLA conference last week. The new President is Mary Hill, the Secretary is Sally Gepp and the Treasurer is Ben Farrell.
RMLA is an association for all practitioners in the resource management field across the country, and this is well reflected in the new executive’s professional and regional diversity.
Mary Hill is a litigator specialising in resource management, planning and local government law. Her 19-year career also spans competition, consumer, intellectual property, information and privacy law and she appears regularly at all levels of the court system. Having spent four years on RMLA’s Bay of Plenty Branch Committee and three years on the National Committee (the past two as Secretary), Ms Hill’s input and leadership are greatly valued and will be an asset to the RMLA Executive. Based in Tauranga, Mary is particularly interested in strengthening relationships between the National Committee and the Regional Branch Committees.
On accepting her appointment, Ms Hill said: “I’m excited about the opportunity to guide the organisation through what promises to be the biggest period of change since the Resource Management Act was introduced in 1991.”
Sally Gepp has recently moved to the independent legal bar as a barrister specialising in environmental and public law. She previously worked for the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society and in that role appeared regularly in the Environment and High Court on a range of precedent-setting cases. She is also also involved in the development of resource management policy including the draft National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity. Sally has been on the RMLA committee since 2017, and lives in Nelson.
Ben Farrell is a passionate environmental planner with a breadth of resource management experience across New Zealand. Ben has worked for all tiers of Government and numerous corporate, private and non-profitable organisations. A long-time supporter of RMLA, Ben has also represented the New Zealand Planning Institute at various levels for 19 years and has been on the Editorial Panel of Planning Quarterly for six years. Ben resides in Queenstown and has been on the RMLA committee since 2017.
The RMLA warmly congratulates Ms Hill, Ms Gepp and Mr Farrell on their appointments.
—ENDS—
About RMLA:
Founded in 1992, the Association for Resource Management Practitioners (RMLA) is a multi-disciplinary membership organisation with over 1100 members including lawyers, planners, environmental managers, scientists, engineers, architects, local authority and central government officers. The RMLA seeks to promote within New Zealand an understanding of resource management law and its implementation; excellence in resource management policy and practice; resource management processes which are legally sound, effective and efficient; and which produce high-quality environmental outcomes.