What keeps infrastructure leaders awake at night?
A Global Women x WIN Southern event proudly sponsored by Stantec
Thursday 29 October, 5.30pm-7.30pm (Please arrive at 5.15pm)
Stantec, Level 10 Otago House, 477 Moray Place, Dunedin 9016
What does good leadership look like when every decision involves a trade-off?
Ageing assets. Climate resilience. Affordability and limited resources. Rising community expectations. Competing priorities. Limited resources. No easy answers. New Zealand’s infrastructure leaders are navigating increasingly complex choices, often without an easy answer.
Wāhine shaping Aotearoa New Zealand’s biggest infrastructure decisions share what’s on their minds, and what they’re doing about it! Our panel will bring together experienced leaders from across infrastructure, governance, and business to share candid insights into the realities of leadership, the difficult decisions they face, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Whether you work in infrastructure, governance, finance, business, or are simply interested in leadership, this event offers a unique opportunity to hear from women leading through complexity and helping shape the future of New Zealand’s communities. We’ll explore:
- The biggest infrastructure challenges facing New Zealand
- How leaders make difficult decisions in uncertain environments
- Balancing affordability, resilience, growth, and service expectations
- The future skills and capabilities needed for leadership
- Career insights and advice for emerging leaders
After the panel, stay to network and connect with professionals from across the infrastructure, business, and governance sectors.
Featured panellists:
Kelly Blackie, Principal Transport Planner, NZTA
Kelly is a Principal Transport Planner with over 20 years experience and currently works for the NZ Transport Agency. Her career started in surveying, road design and construction monitoring before moving into transport planning and project development. She has experience working as a consultant and for the NZ government, leading the development of transport projects across New Zealand. Kelly is a business case author and particularly enjoys collaborating across teams and organisations to ensure decision making balances competing demands, is evidence based and that the response is fit for the scale of the identified problem or opportunity.
Lianne Moller, Network Planning Manager, Aurora Energy
Lianne Moller is Network Planning Manager at Aurora Energy, where she leads the planning of Otago’s electricity distribution network. Her work covers long-term demand forecasting, capacity planning and investment strategy, including Powering Southern Lakes, Aurora’s programme to support rapid growth in Queenstown and Central Otago. She is also building Aurora’s planning capability in network resilience, hosting capacity and the use of smart meter data, and exploring how batteries and local energy resources can support remote communities. Lianne has more than 20 years’ experience in the electricity industry. Before joining Aurora she held senior leadership roles at Ausgrid, which operates the electricity network serving Sydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter region. There she led work preparing the network for electrification. She holds degrees in Electrical Engineering, Physics and Business, and moved to Dunedin from Sydney in 2025.
Tanya Syddall, Chief Property & Development Officer, University of Otago
Tanya Syddall is the Chief Property and Development Officer at the University of Otago, where she leads the strategic planning, development, and management of the University’s property portfolio across New Zealand. With 28 years’ experience in the property, engineering, and construction sectors, Tanya has led complex property portfolios and major capital programmes across the health and education sectors in New Zealand and Australia. Passionate about the role of place in enabling organisational success and creating a legacy that benefits future generations, Tanya is known for bringing together strategy, stakeholder engagement, and delivery to create lasting value for institutions and communities.
Teresa Wooding, Market Leader – Water Advisory, Stantec
Drawing on more than two decades of experience, Teresa develops and leads our New Zealand Water Advisory group. She manages relationships with clients throughout the country and builds our teams’ capability. Her role includes business improvements and optimisation, asset management planning, business case development, transformation activities, and programme consulting. Through every project, Teresa helps to improve our teams’ core design and delivery work. Having led strategic work programmes within councils and central government, Teresa’s valuable insights help clients find solutions to their complex challenges. Prior to joining us, she spent seven years working in a variety of roles at Christchurch City Council (CCC) including programme manager for water reform. She developed CCC’s climate change programme and supported both water and transport teams through reviews to optimise service delivery. Away from serving in her leadership role, Teresa loves living near the beach in Christchurch with her family—on weekends, you might catch them exploring the local native forests or indoor bouldering.
Katie Bhreatnach, Chief Executive Officer, Global Women
Katie is a dynamic business leader and mum to three daughters, driven by a commitment to being a good ancestor and shaping a prosperous future for Aotearoa. Her executive experience spans diverse industries, including financial services, technology, FMCG, and aviation, alongside governance roles across the commercial and not-for-profit sectors. Of Ngāti Whakaue descent, Katie has a longstanding relationship with Global Women, where she has been a member, active contributor and board member. Through her career, she has championed the advancement of wahine in leadership, embodying her passion for empowering others and ensuring intergenerational progress.
Trish Oakley, Chancellor, University of Otago and Global Women Regional Members Lead – Dunedin – Panel MC
Trish has spent over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. Trish is Chancellor of and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Otago University. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors (IoD), Otago-Southland Branch committee member and President of the IoD’s National Council. She is also a member of the New Zealand Lotteries Commission.
We’re grateful to collaborate with Infrastructure New Zealand’s Women in Infrastructure Network Southern on this event and would like to acknowledge our event sponsors and hosts Stantec.
