Directors

Gerard O'Connor
Managing Director
Rodney Lucas
Engineering Director - EU and the Americas
Steve Lowe
Engineering Director - Asia PacificGerard O'Connor

Managing Director
Gerard is a chartered engineer with a Chemical and Materials Engineering degree from Auckland University. As a graduate engineer, he worked for a specialty chemical manufacturing and supply company in NZ. He then spent 3 years working in the UK as a project and process engineer for large scale API manufacturing pharmaceutical plants in Bristol and Grimsby.
Gerard joined PDV in 1996 where he has worked as a project engineer, process engineer, design engineer, engineering manager, and is now the managing director. Gerard successfully designed and managed many of PDV’s large scale projects in New Zealand and overseas, and has played a vital part in growing PDV Consultants into the highly successful company they have become today.
He is passionate about engineering and splits his work life between managing the company and carrying out engineering projects which he is still heavily involved in. He sees one of the most important and rewarding jobs is transferring knowledge and engineering skills to the next generation of engineers working at PDV Consultants.
Rodney Lucas

Engineering Director - EU and the Americas
Rodney graduated from Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland with a First Class Masters in Chemical Engineering. Rodney joined the PDV team as a student placement in 2003. He has since returned to the UK to manage the European office for PDV since 2008, serving both Europe and North America.
Rodney's knowledge base is across the entire dairy unit operations and Rodney has managed and engineered several large projects in NZ and Europe.
Steve Lowe

Engineering Director - Asia Pacific
Steve began his career in architectural design and quantity surveying with Telecom NZ prior to travelling and working for a number of engineering consultancies in the UK.
Steve joined PDV as a contract CAD designer in 1997. His ability to design, draft, supervise site staff and project manage installation works led Steve to join the company staff in 2002. He has been involved in design engineering either as a lead or as a supervisor for most of the work undertaken by PDV.
Business Team

Krystal Lee
Assistant Accountant
Sarah Morton-Johnson
Human Resources ConsultantKrystal Lee

Assistant Accountant
Krystal joined PDV in 2019 as Assistant Accountant, after working in the early childhood sector as an Administration Co-ordinator. She attended Massey University where she attained a Bachelor of Business Studies, double majoring in Marketing Management and Human Resources.
Krystal has returned to Massey as a distance student and is currently studying Accounting, with the aim to become a Chartered Accountant.
Outside work Krystal has two young children that keep her on her toes. She also enjoys kick boxing and gardening.
Sarah Morton-Johnson

Human Resources Consultant
Sarah is passionate about supporting people and organisations to realise their potential and perform at their best. She’s all about doing things right and doing the right things. With a background as a human resources generalist across the manufacturing and services sectors in Australia and New Zealand, Sarah enjoys working with the PDV Consultants team to engineer a strong team that delivers great results for clients and is fun to be a part of.
Sarah wears many other hats, including school trustee, Chairman of a not for profit, tea lady for a senior’s craft group, parent/taxi service to two primary-aged children and wife to a busy entrepreneur. When she’s not wearing one of these hats, you can find her planning a cruise holiday or reading a trashy novel!
Engineering Staff

Chris Murphy
Principal Engineer
Trevor Lowes
Principal Engineer
Jonas Hoffmann-Vocke
Principal Engineer
Chris Stainton
Principal Engineer
Andrew Boulton
Senior Process Project Engineer
Jacus Kruger
Senior Engineer
Declan Callery
Senior Engineer
Dan C. Hela
Process Project Engineer
Hannah van Niekerk
Process Project Engineer
Emma Cunneen
Process Project Engineer
Chris Lee
Process Project Engineer
Ashleigh Weir
Process Project Engineer
Robyn Mayne
Process Project Engineer
Michael Sutton
Process Project Engineer
Michael Ferris
Process Project Engineer
Catherine Muldoon
Process Support Engineer
Ray Benson
Senior Mechanical Designer
Josh Sun
Mechanical Design Engineer
Arron Craig
Mechanical Design Engineer
Jashneel Chandra
Mechanical Projects Engineer
Edward Gines
Mechanical Design Engineer
Kuljeet Singh
Mechanical Design EngineerChris Murphy

Principal Engineer
Chris joined PDV as Principal Engineer in 2018, and has over 25 years Engineering and Project Management experience across a range of industries. Prior to joining PDV, Chris spent 12 years in the Capital Projects team at Fonterra, successfully implementing projects across a number of sites. Chris is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, and obtained a First Class Honours degree from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
In his spare time, Chris enjoys running his lifestyle block at Karapiro with his wife.
Trevor Lowes

Principal Engineer
Trevor joined PDV as Principal Engineer in 2018, and has over 20 years Engineering and Production/ Process Improvement experience across the food manufacturing industry. Prior to joining PDV, Trevor spent 5 years as the Lead Technologist (Powders/ Lactose) at Fonterra, providing technical expertise across the business and successfully implementing a number of process improvement projects.
Trevor completed a B.Tech (Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering) at Massey University and brings a unique sense of humour as well as enjoyment of cycling and fishing to the PDV Consultants team.
Jonas Hoffmann-Vocke

Principal Engineer
Jonas has a Bachelors and Doctorate in Materials and Process Engineering from the University of Waikato. He initially worked in the field of mechanical design and development before working in industrial energy efficiency research and implementation focused on the dairy industry. He joined PDV in 2012.
Jonas is a Chartered member of IChemE and has completed design and management roles across a variety of projects throughout New Zealand and overseas. He has a strong passion for engineering, and likes to work on home projects and a spot of fishing when he gets a chance.
Jonas is based in Hamilton with his wife and young daughter.
Chris Stainton

Principal Engineer
Chris joined PDV as Principal Engineer in January 2020, with over 25 years’ experience in a range of engineering, technical and management roles within the dairy industry. Immediately prior to joining PDV, Chris spent 7 years at Fonterra as Lead Technologist and then Process Design Team Lead, applying new processing technologies to dairy manufacturing processes. Prior to that he worked for engineering supply companies in process engineering, project management and portfolio management.
Chris has a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical and Materials, from the University of Auckland. He is based in Hamilton NZ, and enjoys hiking and spending time with his wife and three teenage children.
Andrew Boulton

Senior Process Project Engineer
Andrew joined PDV in 2019 and has worked predominantly within the dairy industry for over 30 years, beginning in sheet metal construction of process vessels and specialised equipment. This hands-on start to his career has proved pivotal to his success in project engineering and project management roles. He has been involved with many different projects from inception, detail design, through to final commissioning and client handover.
Andrew enjoys spending time with family & friends and pursues his passion of four-wheel driving with enthusiasm.
Jacus Kruger

Senior Engineer
Jacus completed a Bachelor of Engineering in Food Engineering and a Master of Engineering in Bioprocess Engineering at Massey University.
After a previous engineering role, Jacus joined PDV in 2012 as a process engineer and is now a senior engineer. He is also a Chartered member of IChemE. He has worked on various dairy industry projects throughout New Zealand and overseas.
Outside of work, Jacus enjoys exploring the outdoors.
Declan Callery

Senior Engineer
Declan joined the PDV team in our Belfast office as a process project engineer in early 2013 before relocating to the New Zealand office in early 2017. Declan has worked on a large variety of projects including the installation and commissioning of membrane plants, CIP kitchens, dryer safety projects and site wide services projects in Ireland, the UK and NZ. Prior to joining PDV, Declan has held senior design engineering roles and mechanical project engineering roles in a diverse range of industries.
Outside of work Declan is a keen sports fan, with Gaelic Football, hurling and rugby of particular interest.
Dan C. Hela

Process Project Engineer
Dan earned his bachelor's degree with honours at the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He previously worked overseas as a project engineer in composites manufacturing and shipbuilding for an Australian OEM company based in China prior to returning home to NZ in 2015. He joined PDV as a process project engineer where he has been continuously involved in various construction projects, installing and commissioning processing facilities.
For Dan, there are five secrets to happiness: fried chicken, pastry, burgers, good wine, and good coffee. Well actually, there's chocolates, too. So, make that six.
Hannah van Niekerk

Process Project Engineer
Hannah graduated with a BE(Hons) in Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering from Massey University in 2015, and joined PDV in October 2017 after two years with Beca as a process engineer. She has since been involved in managing and commissioning a variety of process projects across New Zealand.
Hannah is passionate about sustainability, which includes hassling colleagues about re-usable coffee cups and the benefits of composting. On weekends, you will find her out mountain biking or tramping if the weather is good, otherwise, knitting or curled up with a good book.
Emma Cunneen

Process Project Engineer
Emma joined the PDV team in 2014 as an engineering graduate from the University of Waikato. While in NZ, she gained valuable experience working with the PDV team on a large variety of projects. In 2017 Emma was seconded to a client for 1 year in Wales, UK to provide process engineering, project management & commissioning support across their dairy sites. Emma is now based in Belfast working for the PDV UK branch.
In her spare time she enjoys exploring Ireland in her campervan with her dog and partner.
Chris Lee

Process Project Engineer
Chris joined PDV in March 2020. He completed a Bachelor of Engineering degree with Honors in Chemical and Materials at the University of Auckland. Prior to joining PDV, Chris worked in various roles within the New Zealand dairy industry including process improvement and project management.
Outside of work, Chris enjoys driving to Auckland to spend time with his family on weekends.
Ashleigh Weir

Process Project Engineer
Ashleigh graduated with BFoodTech (Hons) in Food Process Engineering from Massey University and joined PDV in June 2020. During her time at university, Ashleigh spent a semester at the University of Limerick in Ireland where she got to experience the Irish culture and explore some more of the world outside of New Zealand.
Growing up on a dairy farm in Taranaki, she is passionate about developing creative solutions in the dairy industry. She enjoys playing hockey and spending time with friends and family in her spare time.
Robyn Mayne

Process Project Engineer
Robyn started as a graduate process engineer with PDV Consultants at the end of 2019 after completing a BE(Hons) in Materials and Process Engineering at the University of Waikato.
In her spare time, Robyn enjoys spending time with her family and friends and getting outdoors by running, tramping and camping.
Michael Sutton

Process Project Engineer
Michael Ferris

Process Project Engineer
Catherine Muldoon

Process Support Engineer
Catherine graduated with a BE(Hons) in Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of Canterbury. After previous engineering and production roles in the papermaking and dairy industries, she joined PDV in 2016.
Catherine is busy with two teenagers at home, but when she does get some free time you might find her out with her camera, or in the sun with a good book.
Ray Benson

Senior Mechanical Designer
Ray has worked with PDV since 2002 as a contract mechanical CAD designer. Earlier in his career, he was an HVAC tradesman with the Ministry of Works, where he achieved his Advanced trade Certificate. Then furthering his mechanical training, he attended Waikato Polytech to earn a NZCE.
After years of freelance draughting in the Waikato he widened his life skills on volunteer building programs in Papua New Guinea and Myanmar for several years with his wife, before returning to PDV as a staff member in 2013.
Josh Sun

Mechanical Design Engineer
Josh completed a Bachelor of Engineering degree with First Class Honours in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waikato. He joined PDV in 2016 as a fourth-year intern and started working full time in early 2017.
He has been involved in the design and commissioning of various projects through-out New Zealand and providing engineering supports to the UK office as required.
Arron Craig

Mechanical Design Engineer
Arron began his career in Australia’s mining and oil and gas industries as a boiler maker/welder in 2006 before eventually upskilling into Mechanical Engineering and moving to New Zealand.
He joined PDV Consultants in early 2018 as a Mechanical Design Engineer and has been involved in numerous projects throughout New Zealand and the UK.
Arron enjoys spending his free time the warmer months hiking and traveling with his wife or at home spending his time 3D printing and tinkering with electronics projects.
Jashneel Chandra

Mechanical Projects Engineer
Jashneel joined PDV Consultants in 2018 as part of his summer internship program. He attended Waikato University where he gained a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with First Class Honors and was part of the Formula SAE team as part of his 4th year project. Upon completion of his required papers and internship, Jashneel was delighted to be a permanent member of PDV in his role as a Mechanical Project Engineer.
During his down time Jashneel likes surfing, fishing, diving and spending time with friends and family.
Edward Gines

Mechanical Design Engineer
Edward is a graduate of BS in Mechanical Engineering. Before joining PDV, Edward has worked for various multinational EPC companies in Singapore and has over 20 years of engineering experience for Oil & Gas, Water, Pharmaceutical & Energy industries across Asia and New Zealand.
He was recently responsible for overall plant design and modelling of the high-tech water treatment plant in Pahiatua.
Since obtaining his residency, Edward has been enjoying driving around New Zealand to explore the scenery and check out the occasional fishing spot.
Kuljeet Singh

Mechanical Design Engineer
Kuljeet worked at PDV Consultants in 2017 as part of a summer internship program. He studied a BE(Hons) in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waikato and graduated with first class honours. Since then he has been working as a dairy farm manager on a family farm, and in 2019 has joined the team at PDV Consultants as a mechanical design engineer (part-time).
Kuljeet enjoys living a rural lifestyle and often spends time working on projects at his farm workshop in Whitikahu.