Hamish Manson swapped helicopters for vessels in his new role as CFO at Port Nelson. After 13 years as CFO for PHI International New Zealand Ltd and prior as Finance Manager for Solid Energy New Zealand, Hamish comes to the Port with a strong commercial focus and an extensive background across maintenance and capital-intensive projects, customer and supplier contracts, and import and export businesses.  

As a strategic leader, Hamish’s role at the Port includes providing finance and risk-related intelligence, insights, and influence for the Port to deliver on its objectives. Hamish says that he is looking forward to taking ownership of the Port’s financial performance and highlighted the variety of the role managing financial planning, reporting, risk, and compliance.  

Hamish explained that a strong motivator for him to join the Port was to keep living in the region and join the exciting Port industry. " This team offered elements of a new industry interlaced with my previous experience. I am hoping that with my financial and commercial skills, I’m able to enhance an already fantastic team throughout the business.” 

Hamish adds that he enjoys fast-paced environments with multiple projects operating simultaneously. “Port Nelson is a dynamic organisation that seems to always have multiple projects running at the same time. I’m particularly looking forward to being involved in two exciting projects: the replacement of the existing cranes and the development of the Marlborough Inland Port.” 

In the short term, Hamish is taking the time to understand the complex nature of the business and preparing the upcoming annual budget. “My focus right now is to learn how all the different operations fit together, which is especially important when compiling annual budgets.” 

Looking ahead, Hamish has highlighted his aspirations to continue supporting and providing guidance to the wider team, “Looking at the business through a new lens, I hope to be able to drive further success and profitability.