Stephen is a Mining Engineer, qualified Coal and Quarry Manager and holds an Site Senior Executive Certificate of Competence. He has had over 40 years' experience mainly in the coal mining industry in New Zealand both Underground and Opencast. He has worked in, and managed mines in nearly every major coalfield in New Zealand and has had some experience in Australia and West Virginia. He has held roles with Solid Energy New Zealand from Mine Manager to both North and South Island Operations Manager, including Chief Mining Engineer. He was a founding member of the NZ Mines Rescue Board of Trustees and held a position on the Board for 23 years. He was a trained member of Mines Rescue for 16 years and is at present a member of, and examiner for the NZ Board of Examiners for Extractive certificates of competence. Since 2017 he has been employed by Fulton Hogan as the Health and Safety Manager for the NCTIR Alliance which was set up to recover the transport links between the North and South Islands following the devastating 7.5 level Kaikoura Earthquake in November 2016. NCTIR recently became the first project in the Southern Hemisphere to win the International Civil Engineering (ICE) People's choice awards for which he is a member of the Alliance Leadership Team.