Vital

Story

Vital
Beginnings

We have been providing Vital communications for over 25 years. From a dream to build the best telco in New Zealand, a company that keeps its promises, delivers great service and provides investors with strong returns, the Vital story began.

The company, then called TeamTalk evolved through the 90’s building on its early successes in delivering nationwide radio communications. At the same time another vision was beginning at CityLink where a revolution established the capital as one of the world’s best-connected cities by attaching fibre-optic cable to the city’s trolley bus wires and power poles.

Both companies continued to grow. In 2001, we acquired the FleetLink assets from Telecom and launched a data storage service followed in 2002 with CafeNET: the first to launch Wi-Fi zones in New Zealand. In 2004 the company listed on the NZX and over the next few years a number of acquisitions occured which diversified the business.

Now under one brand we are a provider of fundamental nationwide infrastructure which is Vital to New Zealand. We own and operate fibre infrastructure in Auckland and Wellington and are well positioned to take advantage of growing data consumption. Our current investment we are making into our fibre will ensure a more resilient network scaled to meet future customer requirements.

We are the largest commercial provider of nationwide radio in New Zealand and also provide linking radio services through microwave to some of the remotest parts of New Zealand. We are well positioned to take advantage of the transition of our network to digital and the additional services this provides. We serve many customers across different sectors including; Government, Civil Defence, Emergency Services, Health, Utilities, Public Transport, Education, Logistics & Freight, Agriculture and Channel partners.

We look forward to providing Vital services for another 25 years.

Vital
Values

Vitality.

Act with Vitality every single second.

Our new name is no accident. It has been chosen to reflect our critical role in the world. Vital describes both our role and the way we want to live each day at work. Working, acting and interacting with true vitality is a critical differentiator for our  team. Having the energy, the optimism and the momentum to innovate, to fix, to deliver and to attack problems and solve them is what will be the vital difference between our business and the rest.

Insight.

Use insight to optimise today and innovate tomorrow.

To have a vital role in the lives of New Zealanders is to understand the way they live, the challenges they face and the things they need to do in their day. To keep Kiwis in touch in new, more robust and more flexible ways, we need to use the insight that we gain from our deep history, our hands on experience and real commitment to keeping everything running 24/7 as well as surprising people with things they didn’t expect of us.

Togetherness.

Have each others back every day.

This takes team work to the next level. We’re promising New Zealand the benefit of the most connected, seamless and integrated network ever. So it stands to reason that we have to be even more connected as a team. This isn’t just the way we communicate and collaborate. It’s about our culture and having each other’s backs, so that when we face challenges, cope with a crisis or go out on a limb with a new idea, we know we have the real support of everyone around us – which is vital to growing an innovative and famous company.

Ambition.

Always show up with your ambition.

Keeping things moving, keeping the lines open and minimising downtime is just the beginning. Every great business has a moment in their history where they make a giant leap and this is ours. Keeping ahead of the world around us, striking out into new territory and following our noses when we smell a new opportunity is vital to remaining relevant. We want you to be proud of the work you do at Vital and see the work you do here as a fundamental stepping stone to building a world class career.

Love.

Love what you do at Vital, Vital will love you back.

In a business like ours, a word like love is rarely used but in order to do anything truly great we have to love what we do. When you love your job and you love the company you work for – magical things can happen. Loving your job means putting in 110% and it also means expecting 110% back. It means caring about absolutely everything and leaving nothing to chance. It means taking full responsibility not out of obligation but out of pride.

Vital
Team

Leadership Team

Jason Bull

Jason Bull

Acting Chief Executive Officer

Jason is a successful commercially minded finance leader who has held a number of senior positions across the telecommunications and logistics sectors including 11 years at Alcatel-Lucent NZ where he held the roles of Chief Financial Officer and GM Business Operations and Transformation. More recently before taking on the CFO role at Vital in 2016, Jason was the Finance & Business Operations Manager at Lockheed Martin NZ. Jason is a firm believer on the linkage between employee engagement and company results and advocates effective leadership driving engagement. Jason is also a director of Vital Data Limited.

Mark Finnigin

Mark Finnigan

Head of Human Resources and Safety

Mark has over 20 years experience in Human Resources and Safety nationally and internationally. Mark started his Human Resources career with Fletcher Challenge Energy before moving to England and working in the banking, and oil and gas industries. Returning to New Zealand in 2001, Mark worked in HR management functions in both the private and public sector, including 10 years at Transpower New Zealand. In November 2016 Mark was
appointed Head of Human Resources and Safety for the Vital Group.

Stuart MacIntyre

Chief Technology Officer

Stuart joined Vital in May 2021, with 21 years of International Telecommunications executive experience, he championed the introduction of new technology to transform large and complex organisations. Specifically at British Telecom, Broadband, BT Mobility, BT Sport, and Smart Cities. Most recently at Optus/SingTel launching 4G and then preparing 5G and
the Internet of Things. Prior to joining Vital, Stuart was CTO of Optus Enterprise and Chair of the Australian Mobile Telephony Association.

Marc Farrelly

Head of Field Force

Marc joined Vital in 2020 as Head of Field Force. He brings the practical experience of managing teams deploying large, high-profile networks on international and national projects. His experience in critical networks has helped Vital and our partners take the next step towards providing unequalled service to our customers, as we continue to expand New Zealand’s most resilient commercial radio, microwave and fibre networks.

Richard Hille

Head of Delivery

Richard is a senior programme and delivery professional with experience in both the private and public
sectors in the Telecommunications and ICT industries. Having led delivery programmes on both the vendor and client sides with a proven record of accomplishment delivering critical and strategic programmes of work. Richard is committed and dedicated to exploring opportunities to achieve delivery efficiencies, to maximising quality value add customer outcomes. In August 2019 Richard was appointed Head of Delivery for Vital.

Board Members

Roger Sowry.

Roger Sowry

Chairman

Roger became Vital’s Chair in August 2014. He also chairs Homecare Medical, Healthcare NZ and Primary IT and is a director of Healthcare Holdings.
Roger is a partner of Saunders Unsworth and was a Member of Parliament
from 1990 where he held a number of ministerial positions. Roger retired from Parliament in 2005, moving to become the Chief Executive of Arthritis New Zealand.

Reg Barrett

Reg Barrett

Independent Director

Reg is a Wellington based company director with assignments in both the commercial and government sector in New Zealand and overseas. He is a former CEO of three organisations with Central and Regional government spanning 13 years, a military engineer career spanning 21 years and over 10 years executive experience with Vodafone. He has had over 25 years governance experience as both a Chairman and Director of commercial enterprises and specialist knowledge in civil engineering projects, telecommunications, supply chain, land transport and use of technologies as enablers for enterprises.

Susan Freeman Greene

Susan Freeman-Greene

Independent Director

Susan is the Chief Executive of Local Government NZ,. Prior to this she spent nearly six years as Chief Executive of Engineering New Zealand (formerly IPENZ). There she led a transformation agenda to bring engineering to life to grow the influence, credibility and recognition of the profession. Prior to this Susan was Chief Executive of the Broadcasting Standards Authority. She has had over 25 years’ experience across the public and private sector as a lawyer and a mediator. Susan is also a Board member of Tāwhiri, the creative force behind the NZ Festival of the Arts.

James Sclater

James Sclater

Independent Director

James is a professional company director and trustee acting for a number of companies and investment trusts, including Homecare Medical and Damar Industries. James is a chartered accountant and a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and the New Zealand Institute of Directors. Prior to 2009, James was chairman of Grant Thornton Auckland, where he was a business advisory services director for 18 years, specialising in small-to-medium enterprise accounting, taxation and management advice.

Rod Snodgrass

Independent Director

Rod has extensive experience in corporate strategy, business and product innovation, digital growth, transformation and disruption in the New Zealand communications, media and energy sectors. Most recently Rod was Chief Customer Officer of Vector and before that Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Spark Ventures. Prior to that Rod was Spark’s Chief Product Officer and before that Chief Strategy Officer and a member of the Spark Executive team for almost 10 years. He is a Founder and Director of strategic advisory consultancy The Exponential Agency and a Director of Forsyth Barr, SMX, WilliamsWarn, ilabb and start-
ups Woolaid, Supergenerous and Compostic and is also the Chair of Geo. He has previously been a Board member of numerous onshore and offshore organisations including 3 in Australia, Southern Cross cables in Bermuda and Mobile World Capital in Barcelona.

Nathan York

Nathan York

Independent Director

Nathan has held a number of senior management and governance positions, primarily in the Maori and property sectors, and is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Bluehaven Group and Chair of the Ahu Whenua Trust, Whaiti Kuranui 2D4 Sec1B. He has extensive portfolio management and property development experience, having delivered a number of nationally recognised projects during his prior involvement at Tainui Group Holdings. Nathan has tribal affiliations to Ngapuhi, Ngati Raukawa/Tainui and Ngati Tuwharetoa.