Here at Wellington, we all have one thing in common—we are driven by our passion for technology and shared learning, and the desire to achieve the greatest outcomes for our customers, staff, and partners.
Our dedicated team is based all around the world, from Auckland, New Zealand to countries like Australia, Turkey, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, USA, Canada, Guatemala, Argentina, and Singapore.
CEO
Greg Balla was appointed CEO of Wellington in May 2021. He comes with over 18 years’ of strong leadership experience in large complex organizations including technology and manufacturing across a range of sectors including industrial, healthcare technology, mining, pharmaceuticals and electrical products. Greg’s extensive commercial skills spans government contracts, large supplier agreements, distribution management, pricing and contract negotiation. He also possesses extensive change management experience in multiple sectors as well as in depth experience in implementing management operating systems to drive strategic deployment and organization visibility. Greg’s most recent role was as Chief Operating Officer for Orion Health, a global health technology company.
Senior Vice President Commercial
Steve Hodgson joined Wellington in 2008 as Head of Strategy and following that as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer. He was appointed Senior Vice President Commercial in 2014. Steve is responsible for the Company’s commercial strategy and corporate development: he also leads global sales and marketing, including the regional growth teams, and alongside the CTO helps to seek out and secure new growth partnerships in key sectors of the business.
Chief Financial Officer
| Howard Milliner was appointed as CFO in November 2012. He oversees all financial and administrative operations and helps to shape the overall strategy and direction for the Company. He holds a BCom from the University of Auckland and is a chartered accountant, with accounting experience gained working for Ernst & Young London. For 14 years he held both CFO and CEO roles for NZ-listed engineering business, Mercer Group (now MHM Automation). Howard has extensive experience in managing financial operations and business acquisitions and divestments. |
Chief Technical Officer
| David is currently Chief Technology Officer and has a strategic technology leadership role that includes conception of the technology plan, taking a lead role in technology and partnership acquisition, and exploring and implementing new technology models. David joined Wellington as Engineering Manager in 1999. He has previously worked in new product development roles for Rover Group (UK), Fisher and Paykel Healthcare Corporation Ltd and Tru-Test Ltd. He is listed as inventor on 14 families of international patent applications, including several of Wellington’s core motor patents. |
Vice President, Supply Chain, Operations and GM Engineering
| Marc is responsible for Wellington’s day-to-day leadership, supply chain and operations, as well as delivery of all hardware, software and development programs. He joined Wellington in 2013 as Programme Manager for sustaining engineering, was promoted to Head of Manufacturing in 2015 then Vice President, Supply Chain and Operations in January 2019 and in November 2020 his job responsibilities were also extended to engineering. Prior to Wellington, he worked as a Project Manager for Electrix, managing multiple projects, budgets and multidisciplinary teams. Marc was also employed by internationally accredited safety testing laboratories in Auckland and London for 13 years. |
Global Head of Products
| Beatriz Mibach joined Wellington in March 2020 as Global Head of Products, where she leads the product management process from concept through to customer delivery. Beatriz has 15 years’ experience across research, engineering, product management and innovation for leading global companies. She has previously held vice president roles for engineering and sales at Lancer Corporation and worked as the equipment development manager at Coca-Cola in Europe. |
Vice President, Group Marketing and IoT Products
| David Burden joined Wellington in 2018 as part of the iProximity acquisition. He is an Australian entrepreneur with 30 years of experience leading start-ups and successful technology businesses. He founded and led what became Australia’s largest and best-recognised interactive and mobile services company, Legion Interactive. In 2008, he joined the ASX-listed digital media company Webfirm Group (now Adslot) as group CEO. Within three years he took it from a valuation of A$2m to a peak of A$120m. In December 2013, David and Rohan Lean established an exciting new IoT company, iProximity, with a focus on proximity marketing and digital information services. iProximity was acquired by Wellington in July 2018. |
Global Quality Manager
| Peter Barnes is currently Global Quality Manager, responsible for product quality, quality improvement and all Company processes and procedures. Peter joined Wellington in 2003 as a senior electronic design engineer. He held many positions within the engineering team before changing his career direction and moving into quality management. Prior to starting at Wellington, Peter worked at a start-up company as a design engineer, developing various water temperature control valves for domestic and industrial applications. |
Vice President, Global Business Development
| Gerardo Gonzalez was hired in 2013 as VP/GM of Intelligent Control Solutions, with primary responsibility to create and deliver an IoT product and business solution that the beverage market would purchase in volume, and cement Wellington as a leader in this new space. He is a business-minded, strategic executive and has extensive process and global sales experience. With an MBA, BS in economics and decision analysis, he has broad market experience, particularly in the IoT, CPG and cold commercial equipment industries. He is delivering multimillion-dollar enterprise business account capture and growth in diverse regions around the globe. Prior to Wellington, Gerardo held multiple international sales (EMEA, NA) and global account strategy roles for global companies like Grupo Bimbo, Coca Cola ARCA and Elstat Electronics UK. |
Regional Director, North America
| Michael Young is the Regional Director for North America. Located in Atlanta, he is responsible for revenue generation, customer success, branding, media and trade relations, marketing, and sales enablement. Before joining Wellington in February 2020, he spent nearly 20 years leading sales and marketing teams with Emerson, Siemens, a Berkshire Hathaway company, and a successful start-up. Michael brings broad market experience, ranging from retail and distribution to manufacturing, railroads, oil and gas, power generation, and software. He holds a degree in electrical engineering from Colorado State University and a Master’s in Business Administration with honors from Emory University. |
Sales and Customer Manager, Europe
| Roberto Doval started at Wellington in November 2019 and is located in Spain. His responsibilities include leading the development and implementation of a growth plan for customers, revenue and margin objectives in Europe, and promoting Wellington´s brand reputation in Europe by developing relationships and marketing strategies with targeted food and retail brands. He is also helping develop Wellington’s IoT and motor businesses and manage key account relationships. Roberto has worked in the automotive and commercial refrigeration sector, leading international business development and marketing strategies in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He is an experienced manager having previously worked for several important automotive and OEM´s in Switzerland, Spain and Turkey. |
Sales Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa
| Based in the Istanbul office, Ali Karahasanoglu leads the sales activities of the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. His key responsibilities include customer relationship management, business development, commercial, logistics and financial activities within the region. In recent years he has helped spearhead the successful entry into the European market with display cases for commercial refrigeration and supermarkets, with the help of our new series of fan motor solutions. The aim is to continue progressing in this area, with a focus on the IoT segment and proximity marketing solutions. He is one of the longest serving members of the team and has witnessed the journey from the early technology concept days to now leading our industry with commercial products and servicing the world’s biggest brands and manufacturers. |
Sales and Customer Manager, North LATAM
| Jorge Civeira has been Sales and Customer Manager for Latin America since January 2020. Starting at Wellington in April 2017, he has 12 years of experience in commercial refrigeration, working with leading carbonated drinks, beer, dairy, ice-cream, and meat brands throughout Latin America. After working for several years in Central America and the Caribbean as Regional Commercial Manager for a refrigeration OEM, Jorge took over the leadership of the commercial area with teams in Mexico and Colombia in 2013. He also had revenue and forecast responsibility for one of the biggest industrial conglomerates in south Mexico. |
Sales and Customer Manager, South LATAM
| Cheryl Camargo joined Wellington in September 2018 as Commercial Manager for Brazil, and in May 2021 promoted to the role of Sales and Customer Manager, South LATAM. Based in Brazil, Cheryl is responsible for developing the South LATAM market. She has over 15 years’ experience across engineering, sales, business development and innovation gained across 30 countries. She is fluent in Portuguese, English and Spanish. |
Executive Appointment and Remuneration, Technology and Innovation, Audit and Risk
Executive Director
Chairman
Appointed December 2013
| Gottfried Pausch is an independent director of McKay Ltd (Whangarei) and Blackhawk Tracking Systems Ltd (Auckland) and in June 2020 was appointed Chairman at Invert Robotics Group Ltd in Ireland. Until the end of December 2019, Gottfried was also the Executive Chairman at AuCom Electronics Ltd (Christchurch). Gottfried holds an electrical engineering degree from Austria and a Master’s in Business Administration from Duke University in the USA. He is a director for one of the National Science Challenges, an initiative of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Gottfried was the former CEO at Actronic Technologies and an executive in residence at The Icehouse. This follows a 22-year career with German engineering and electronics conglomerate Siemens, one of the world’s leading suppliers of products, solutions and services in the field of technology. During this period, he held the positions of CEO Siemens Energy Services Ltd and managing director of Siemens New Zealand. |
Director
Appointed October 2020
| The previous CEO of Wellington, Greg Allen has worked around the world leading business development, supply chain and tech manufacturing for over 30 years. He steered Wellington through a significant and successful financial turnaround: under his leadership the Company pivoted to IoT hardware and software solutions, grew its business with the world’s leading beverage brands, and recorded record revenue and profit growth. Based in Vancouver Canada, Greg provides Wellington with the benefit of his international expertize as the Company continues to focus on providing the best IoT and EC motor solutions for the global food and beverage market. Greg holds an MBA from Napier University, Edinburgh and gained his education in radio and electronics in the New Zealand Army. Greg is currently serving on two additional advisory boards in Canada: the Richmond City Economic Advisory Committee and a Canadian fabless semiconductor start-up, focused on productizing unique wireless technology for IoT sensors. |
Audit and Risk (Chair), Technology and Innovation
Non-executive
Independent Director
Appointed October 2014
| John McMahon has over 25 years’ experience in the Australasian equity markets, predominantly as an equity analyst covering the telecommunications, media, gaming, transport and industrials sectors. Previous roles include Head of Research and Head of Equities for ABN AMRO NZ and Managing Director of ASB Securities. John is based in Sydney and manages his own investment portfolio. He is a director of two other NZX-listed companies: Solution Dynamics Ltd (SDL), and NZX Ltd (NZX), and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours), an MBA and is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charter holder. |
Technology and Innovation (Chair)
Non-executive
Independent Director
Appointed February 2019
| John Scott is CEO for Invenco, a world leader in payments and forecourt solutions in the petroleum space. He is also a non-executive director for Navico, a marine electronics specialist company. He has previously had a range of c-suite roles across sales, marketing, operations and product management with Navico, Brunswick and Navman. John also had business development engineering and project engineering roles with Ericsson/Volex (communications). He graduated from the University of Auckland in 1997 with a Bachelor of Engineering (BE Mech). John has 20 years of global experience in managing large multilocation go-to-market, operations and design teams – with deep pricing experience across all channels and markets. He has been actively involved in multiple acquisition events and fundraising activities. John has an in-depth knowledge of the rapidly developing dynamics of global electronics supply, big data and IoT growth opportunities, and has operating experience in the Asia, European and North American markets. |
Executive Appointment and Remuneration (Chair), Audit and Risk
Non-executive
Independent Director
Appointed March 2019
| Keith Oliver was appointed Director at Wellington in March 2019. He is also an Independent Director at Rakon Limited and Chairman of Blackhawk Tracking Limited. He has over 20 years’ experience in CEO, director and chairman roles, and has extensive experience expanding technology businesses in USA, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Keith was Chairman of Actronic Technologies for 10 years, and Chairman of Compac Sorting Equipment Limited, where he also held leadership and board director roles. He has Crown company governance experience in science and health, having worked as a Director of New Zealand’s Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited (ESR). Prior to his governance roles, Keith had a 20-year career in telecommunications, broadcasting, strategic planning and private equity investment in New Zealand, Australia and Europe. |
