Our staff

Isaac Construction has earned a reputation for excellence. Achieving quality goes so much further than hiring the best talent, it means making sure that our people feel valued and supported, selecting people that share our passion for the environment, and equipping them with the tools they need to do great work. The Isaac Construction Limited Board of Directors have a wealth of experience across many sectors of business over many years and together form a strong team that governs the business. The directors are also trustees of The Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust and as such ensure a consistent set of values and aligned strategy are present across both the company and the trust.

Board of directors

Rob Clarke
Chairman of Directors

Rob Clarke is a director of all the companies within the Isaac Group. A chartered accountant, he was a partner in Ernst & Young and associated partnerships from 1975 until 2004.

Rob Clarke has been a director with Isaac Construction since 2001 and was co-director alongside Lady Isaac until her death in November 2012. Rob is heavily involved in the running of Isaac Construction and a valuable member of our leadership team.

William (Bill) Luff
Director

Bill was appointed a director of Isaac Construction in 2012. His past directorships include Silver Fern Farms and the Lyttelton Port Company and Bill is currently a Director of the Christchurch City Council company Enable Networks Services Limited and Chairman of Directors J. Ballantyne and Company Limited.

Bill is also a Trustee for the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra Trust and the Lighthouse Vision Trust. Prior to this Bill has spent more than 30 years in government and business roles, predominately with British Petroleum.

Alister McDonald
Director

Alister was appointed a Director in 2013 after the passing of Lady Isaac. Alister is a partner in Chapman Tripp, a New Zealand national firm of Solicitors and has been associated with the Trust and the wider Isaac Group, as a solicitor since 1990.

Leadership team

Jeremy Dixon
Chief Executive Officer

I have been working in the industry for over 20 years, 14 of them within Isaac, in various roles .

The Civil Construction industry is a great one for providing people with some drive and passion with the opportunity to build a successful career and a life for themselves and their families, no matter where they start from.

At Isaac we believe in giving people an opportunity to be the best they can be. We invest heavily in our staff and our company culture, as we believe that every dollar we invest will ultimately come back to us through better outcomes. Better outcomes from higher engagement levels and better decision making from our staff, both in their work lives and personal lives. We have ambitions to continue to give our staff opportunities to grow and develop themselves and their careers, as this is what will ensure our company endures. To achieve this our business needs to continue to grow and succeed.

We have a proud history as a company, and we are excited about building a great future for Isaac, its people, and the communities in which we work.

Jeremy Dixon

Arlee Folkers
Group Chief Financial Officer

My career has traversed diverse commercial environments and industry sectors that include public and private sector resulting in a comprehensive understanding of the business environment.

Today my focus as a senior executive is to provide strategic leadership at, management and operational levels within business, whilst modelling the values and building the wider team to achieve the strategic objectives.

My philosophy is simple, contribute as a strategic business partner where I can add value and make a difference to the success of the business.

Arlee Folkers

John McDonald
Group Support Services Manager

John leads the majority of the Support Services functions across the Isaac Group, including; Health and Safety and Wellbeing, Environmental / Sustainability, Systems, Learning and Development, and Human Resources. With a high focus being on ensuring the Support Services Technical Managers provide a cohesive, efficient, and highly competent support function for the wider Isaac Group as we continue to develop and grow.

John brings to the role a wealth of experience in building and leading teams that empower people to undertake their roles knowing they are supported and have the tools to succeed.

Jeff Collins
General Manager - Industries

Since joining Isaac in 2017, Jeff has been involved in managing the quarry, engineering and laboratory teams. He gets a real pleasure out of seeing the company put so much back into the local environments through the Isaac Wildlife & Conservation Trust, as well as our strong training and development programmes nurturing our staff into future industry leaders.

Responsible for leadership and management of quarries, laboratory and production operations, Jeff plays a pivotal role in the success of Isaac Construction projects. His ability to forward plan and lead production of the correct quantity and quality of materials is key to ensuring client specifications are fully met.

As a highly-skilled operations manager, Jeff achieves results by combining operational excellence with strong leadership of the staff in Isaac’s quarry, lab, asphalt and bitumen plants. All activities are focused on achieving high levels of service – for both internal customers (i.e. Isaac’s roading and construction divisions) and on-time, on-budget and on-quality delivery for Isaac Construction clients.

With responsibilities that include management of key customer relationships, Jeff’s ability to innovate and develop solutions is highly sought after by clients in the roading construction sector.

Jeff firmly believes in our Isaac core values, especially as we work in an ever changing high risk environment. Getting our teams home safely to their loved ones each night is top priority.

Jeff Collins

Scott Ford
General Manager - Contracting

Scott joined Isaac Construction, having 24 years of industry experience. As a degree-qualified engineer, Scott has a solid grounding in the industry with extensive experience in business and project governance and general management. Prior to joining Isaac Construction Scott was General Manager for the Downer South Island Network Maintenance and Civil Construction business for over six years.

Scott has a consistent record of high performance and achievement, which has earned him a well-deserved reputation as an efficient and effective manager and leader.

As an experienced leader, he is adept in risk analysis, financial management, budget accountability, people leadership and meeting reporting requirements. Scott maintains up-to-date knowledge of innovative construction and maintenance methodologies and techniques through continued training and collaboration with his peers. He promotes a collaborative environment and has a strong focus on health and safety, resulting in strong relationships and excellent business outcomes.

Scott has operationally run Road Maintenance contracts in the past and has also acted in an official governance capacity across several local authority Surfacing and Maintenance contracts as well as Waka Kotahi Network Maintenance contracts.

Having served for seven years as an independent director on the Tasman Rugby Board Scott is now Chair of the board, he is also in his fourth year in serving on the Crusaders Rugby Board. Scott has contributed significantly into both organisations’ strategic directions including monitoring of their overall performance. Scott spearheaded the review and amendment of the TRU board’s governance and charter documents in collaboration with the other board members, facilitated developing HSE Charters for both organisations, and drove a high focus on HSE performance.

Scott understands from his diverse perspectives that he has been able to develop, what is required from the operational leadership to satisfy that the organisation is performing well, is fit and ready for the future. The operational leadership needs to demonstrate that there is a robust financial forecast, a strong balance sheet, risks are identified, and mitigation strategies are developed and tested. They also need to ensure opportunities are identified with options presented and likely outcomes forecast.

Rob Kinney
General Manager - Special Projects & Land

Rob joined Isaac Construction in 2019. As part of the executive team at Isaacs Rob is the GM of Special Projects and Landholdings and oversees the Liddell’s Division.

Rob brings over 28 years of experience in the mining, quarrying and heavy civil construction experience. Rob is a highly knowledgeable and competent manager with strong leadership skills.

Rob is part of the executive and senior leadership teams at Isaacs and is involved in strategic direction, mentoring junior project managers, and is involved in acquisitions, new business streams, estimating and tendering, project delivery, management of staff and subcontractors, liaison with clients, Councils, developers and other stakeholders, coordination of resources and programming.

He has a B.Sc Hons in geology and holds an A Grade Quarry Managers Certificate of Competency. He was recently CEO of a medium-sized civil contractor specialising in the subdivision, deep drainage, and drilling and piling works.

A strong and supportive leader, Rob builds, leads and contributes to strong and efficient teams. He is competent in the management of complex projects. Rob’s strong leadership and management background are complemented by his expert knowledge of piling and foundation work, planning, surveying, deep drainage, earthworks, pavements, and surfacing. He draws on this regularly to offer solutions to technically complex construction issues as they arise.

Rob has acted as the Contractor’s Representative for the West Coast Contracts and has a full overview of each project, ensuring that works are executed to the full expectations and requirements of the Client and Engineer, and also Isaac Construction’s own Safety, Quality and Environmental standards and policies, to deliver an incident-free project, on time and to budget.