Keriana Brooking appointed as Hawke’s Bay’s Interim Recovery Manager
Keriana Brooking, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and former CE of Hawke’s Bay DHB, has been shoulder-tapped to be interim Recover Manager for Hawke’s Bay.
Hawke’s Bay Ministerial Lead for Recovery Stuart Nash, Mayors, Chairs and Iwi Leaders announced a Regional Recovery Framework for Hawke’s Bay and the appointment of Brooking.
Nash says Brooking has the capability, experience and relationships across the public and private sectors of Hawke’s Bay to stand up the Regional Recovery Office swiftly, as it is critical “to seeing the regional approach to recovery move with pace”.
“The scale and consequences of Cyclone Gabrielle, and the complexities of the recovery ahead require the immediate appointment of a trusted and highly capable leader to establish the recovery approach and functions.”
“Ms Brooking has the support of government, iwi and local government leaders to lead our region through the immediate transition period from response to recovery,” Nash said.
Brooking’s immediate focus as the Interim Recovery Manager will be to support the transition of the response to date successfully into a short and long-term approach to recovery, while also establishing a regional recovery office to support the critical work required.
An Oversight Board, made up of up to six locally appointed directors and an independent Chair appointed by Government will also be established for the region, to ensure that a strong and coordinated approach to the region's recovery can be achieved.
Regional Leaders will be working with Nash with pace on the selection and appointment of a group of strong, diverse and skills-based directors and capable and reputable Chair for the Oversight Board.
Further details on the regional recovery framework and Oversight Board appointments will be announced in the coming week.
“This progress is a result of collaboration between our region’s local government and iwi leaders and Government, demonstrating the power of partnership that our region’s recovery depends on,” Nash says.
Alex Walker, Mayor of Central Hawke’s Bay and co-chair of Te Matau a Māui Hawke’s Bay Matariki Governance Group says: “It is clear that the recovery task ahead is bigger than all of us, and that regional coordination and additional resourcing is needed to back-up the work of local communities, mana whenua and councils.
“To achieve this, we have built the framework for a recovery that will be locally led, regionally coordinated and government supported, so that we can move forward on the big issues for our region,” says Mayor Walker.
Leon Symes, Chair of Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa, and Co-chair of Te Matau a Māui Hawke’s Bay Matariki Governance Group says the regional recovery will be built from a local level, with councils and mana whenua working in partnership with communities to understand and plan their short and long term needs and to reimagine what it means to be resilient in their homes and businesses.
Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Controller Ian Macdonald says “We will be working closely with Keriana as we begin the move into recovery. There is still a lot of work ahead of us, but these are important milestones in the Hawke’s Bay response, and they signal a step towards getting life back to normal.”
