SpaceOps NZ is the trading name of Space Operations New Zealand Limited. It is a council-controlled trading organisation under the Local Government Act 2002, being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southland Regional Development Agency Limited.
We are the implementing agency on the New Zealand side under the 2007 Arrangement between the European Space Agency and the Government of New Zealand.
Our People
John Yaldwyn
ChairmanJohn Yaldwyn is Chief Technology Officer and founder of global telecommunications company 4RF. John focuses on the security and technical considerations of radio technology for critical infrastructure applications. Previously, he worked at MAS Technology at the time the company became the first New Zealand technology company to list on the NASDAQ. He is a member of the Victoria University of Wellington Engineering Faculty Advisory Board.
Robin McNeill MNZM
Chief Executive OfficerRobin heads Space Operations New Zealand. He has designed and built ground stations in Antarctica, Tokelau and in Southland, NZ. Prior to joining Space Operations New Zealand he worked in Great South (formerly Venture Southland), New Zealand Post Office, Telecom New Zealand and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). He co-founded Thermocell, a start-up thermodynamics research and development company, and managed it through to sale in 2010. Robin has an honours degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the University of Canterbury, and is a member of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, senior member of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and Fellow of Engineering New Zealand. He was presented the Rabone Award for Engineering Excellence in 2016 and was appointed Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2017.
Peter Heenan
Board MemberPeter Heenan, is the Executive Director of Finance at HW Richardson Group. During his tenure, he has been a part of the significant growth in the Group including several key acquisitions. Peter is a Fellow Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. He is a Director of Great South, Southland Regional Development Agency.
Chami Abeysinghe
Board MemberChami is the Chief Executive of Great South, Southland Regional Development Agency, the Council controlled organisation that wholly owns Space Operations NZ. She is an international marketer by profession and after growing up in London, Chami worked in Sri Lanka and Dubai before moving to New Zealand as a post-graduate student. Her prior role was as International Director and Marketing Manager at the Southern Institute of Technology in Invercargill.
Work for us
Join our Invercargill team
Invercargill has three national parks, four nearby ski-fields and an outdoors culture that can’t be beaten. The tourist mecca of Queenstown is just up the road, and there are daily direct flights to Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. There is a vibrant arts and culture community, and the schools are as good as the best to be found anywhere else in New Zealand.
Vacancies: We don’t have any openings at the moment, but feel free to send us your CV if you are interested in joining us and have 1-3 years’ engineering experience working with radio frequency systems.