New Zealand Country Lead

New Zealand Country Lead

Craig West (Ngāti Apakura) is a leading member of Australasia’s transport and infrastructure industry who began his career as an engineering cadet at Downer New Zealand.

Craig has progressed through the company to reach his current dual roles, New Zealand Country Lead, and Executive General Manager (EGM) for Transport and Infrastructure New Zealand. As a Māori leader, Craig is also the Chair of the Downer NZ Māori Development Advisory Board, Te Korowai. 

Craig provides strategic direction as EGM to Downer’s Transport and Infrastructure team, proactively promoting a collaborative working environment to achieve excellent outcomes for the 3,600 full-time employees who form his team and the business’s wide-ranging client base. A 22% reduction in the number of injuries sustained and 95% retention of key talent are evidence of his priorities. 

Craig is passionate about moving the wider industry toward building and maintaining infrastructure in a more collaborative way and, notably, is New Zealand’s first accredited ‘Senior Executive Responsible’ for the ISO:44001 Collaborative Business Relationship Management System. 

Resilient infrastructure is one of Craig’s core focuses, as he has led his team through the challenges of multiple extreme weather and natural disaster recoveries, including the formation of the East Coast Alliance in response to 2023’s Cyclone Gabrielle.