Board Members
Gavin Cormack (Board Chairman)
Gavin Cormack has been a director of Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner Ltd since 1970 and was appointed Executive Chairman in 1995 and Executive Chairman of Beca Group Ltd 2000 to 2007. Beca has grown from 80 to over 2,200 employees and is now the largest New Zealand owned professional services company and operates in 41 countries.
He is a civil engineering graduate from the University of Canterbury. He holds a Doctor of Engineering (h.c.), University of Canterbury and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Institution of Professional Engineers of New Zealand. He has specialised in the design and administration of construction of major and award winning engineering projects in many parts of the world.
His non executive board appointments have included the New Zealand Trade Development Board, the Ports of Auckland Ltd, the Centre for Advanced Engineering.
Rob Gill
Rob Gill has experience from a 25+ year business career working for many leading International companies. Rob spent his early years as a Navigator in the mercantile marine, whilst attaining his professional qualifications and diploma in Nautical Science. He re-trained as a Systems Analyst at Auckland Unitech in 1984 and held sales and sales management roles for Systems Integrator McDonnell Douglas, followed by spells with IBM and Compaq in the late 80s and early 90s, gaining further experience in sales management, channel management and marketing.
In 1993 he became the first Managing Director for Nokia in NZ, and three years later was promoted to Director Sales and Marketing for Nokia fixed networks business in the UK and member of the Nokia European executive board. Whilst in Europe he studied at INSEAD France on their Executive Management Programme. In 1998 he moved to Australia as Managing Director and Area General Manager for Nokia Networks Pacific region, and was a member of the Nokia Asia executive board.
In 2000 Rob returned to NZ becoming Sales and Marketing Director Asia Pacific for Nokia Broadband Networks. For the last 5 years, he has run his own consulting business working with a number of clients world-wide, and added a new challenge as professional director. He is a director of several private companies in NZ including Tait Electronics and Mobile Mentor.
Denis O'Shea (CEO & Founder)
Prior to founding Mobile Mentor Denis spent 15 years with Nokia in a variety of management positions worldwide. His career spanned product development in Finland, project management in Sweden, account management in New Zealand, and General Management in Switzerland. His final role was as a Director of Nokia New Zealand. Whilst at Nokia Denis built long-term partnerships with the leading mobile operators including Vodafone and Orange to position Nokia as the sole supplier for GSM and 3G networks and associated professional services.
Denis has a proven ability to develop sound strategies, then build and lead high-performance teams across different cultures. He has successfully built and managed large business units with annual sales over Euro 100 million and has a strong operational focus to ensure that results are achieved.
He was educated first in Ireland obtaining a 1st Class Honours Degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Limerick, then a Master's Degree in Telecommunications Systems from the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland and in 2003 he took a sabbatical and completed an Executive MBA from IMD in Switzerland. Denis also speaks Finnish and French.
Chris Sattler
Prior to joining the Board of Mobile Mentor, Chris spent more than 20 years with German and Swiss Banks in Germany, Singapore, Tokyo and London. Before moving to New Zealand Chris was the COO and General Manager of a major German bank in London. His previous roles included derivative trading, global business development, structured finance, new product development and strategy and regulatory matters in a number of management positions.
Chris has multiplied the size and profitability of businesses over several years and arranged financing transactions of up to US $1B. In an increasingly complex environment, he was in charge of managing regulatory and wider governance aspects over multiple jurisdictions.
Chris holds a First Class B.A. Honours in European Business Studies from Middlesex University, UK, as well as the equivalent degree from a German University and an MBA from IMD, Switzerland. Chris speaks German, English, Japanese, French and Spanish
Richard Palmer
Richard has 18 years experience in private equity, strategy and M&A roles both in New Zealand and offshore, and has worked extensively in the telecommunications industry and in growth business over this time.
Currently, Richard is responsible for a NZ$40 million venture capital fund that invests into early stage businesses in New Zealand. Prior to his current role he had a brief career in Financial services and has held a number of senior corporate strategy, product management and venturing capital roles at Orange SA in Europe.
Richard is co founder of a privately owned NZ company Triplejump, that provides life insurance advisory services throughout New Zealand. In addition to his professional career, Richard has developed significant governance experience both reporting to Boards and serving on them directly. He is currently a Non Executive Director of the Mentum Group, Triplejump Limited and Mobile Mentor Limited.
Richard holds a law degree from Victoria University, New Zealand and MBA (Hons) in International Business from Bristol University, UK.
