Our People

Rob Potts

Rob Potts is a Director of Glasson Potts Fowler Limited with qualifications in Civil and Agricultural Engineering, Hydrology and Hydrogeology. Rob has over twenty-five years experience as an Engineer, working for Central Government, local authorities, and in private consulting.

Rob’s areas of special competence are in assessing the effects of take and discharge activities on the environment and then designing mitigation measures or options to reduce these effects in order that the activities can gain resource consent. Rob is also nationally recognised in the areas of land treatment of wastes and irrigation engineering.

He has been involved in a very wide range of both very large and small projects, mostly requiring resource consents, in the following areas:

• rural and residential subdivision sewage, stormwater and water servicing conceptual design, consenting and detailed design;
• water requirements and water resource studies;
• irrigation and water supply scheme feasibility assessments;
• floodplain management, and in particular stormwater/flooding mitigation design;
• solid waste management land fill option assessments, leachate treatment and disposal system design, site stormwater system assessment and design, and assessment of effects and consenting;
• contaminated site assessment; and
• option assessment, feasibility studies and consent applications for “green fields” industrial developments, including chemical processing, concrete manufacture, fertiliser manufacture, meat works and chicken processing, feedlots, vegetable processing, timber processing (milling, treatment, MDF), wine production and many others.

Graham Fowler

Graham is a director of Glasson Potts Fowler Limited. He commenced survey work with the Lands and Survey Department in 1970 and registered as a surveyor in 1972. In 1973 Graham joined T E Miles and Associates and in 1978 became a partner. He remained in that partnership, known as Miles Fowler and Fear, until the merger of that company with Glasson Potts Group to form Glasson Potts Fowler Ltd in 2000.

While specialising in industrial and rural subdivision, Graham has had significant involvement in residential development and has developed an understanding in engineering matters involving design and supervision of roading and infrastructural services. He has experience in obtaining resource consent to discretionary and non-complying rural development.

Graham is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors and a member of Consulting Surveyors of New Zealand.

Graham’s key technical skills are in the following areas:

• Subdivisional design
• Resource consent applications
• Project Management
• Engineering Design
• Contract administration and supervision

Hamish Lowe

Hamish is a Principal with GPF and is based in the Palmerston North office. He is a specialist Environmental Scientist/Engineer with considerable wider experience in the resource investigation, preparation and processing of resource consent applications, strategic planning and project management. He has over twelve years experience in the following key areas:

• soil, surface and groundwater investigation and characterisation
• wastewater treatment and disposal, especially land treatment of wastes;
• conceptual engineering design and environmental effects;
• design and evaluation of small community and onsite systems;
• supervision of wastewater treatment options assessments;
• aquifer testing and water supply options;
• resource consent procurement relating to engineering projects;
• resource consent applications and assessment of environmental effects;
• feasibility studies for developing industry;
• site selection studies;
• consultation programs;
• organising and running public meetings
• project management
• Regional Council consent processing and resource management

Scott Williams

Scott is a Senior Registered Surveyor and Principal of GPF with 15 years experience in surveying in New Zealand. Scott’s areas of expertise include: subdivision consents, resource consents, boundary definition, GPS surveys, industrial/building setout, precision surveys and project management.

Scott has spent most of his time in the South Island having completed his Bachelor of Surveying degree at Otago in 1990. This was followed by a brief stint in the North Island for his “OE” where he completed his Registration before returning to the South Island and Christchurch. Scott’s experience is varied, ranging from small urban and rural subdivisions to the control and management of large multi-lot developments. He has been involved in the surveying of large building and development projects and is used to working as part of a large multi-disciplinary team.

This experience has given him a broad understanding of the planning, surveying, engineering, legal and practical aspects of a job, and the ability to quickly identify any problems and achieve our client’s goals.

Scott’s key areas of technical skills are as follows:

• Cadastral surveying (boundary definition)
• Global positioning system (GPS) surveying
• Topographical surveying
• Subdivision design/layout
• Engineering design (civil)

Scott is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors and past Secretary of the Canterbury Branch of the NZIS. Away from work Scott enjoys camping with his wife and daughters, skiing, tramping and mountain biking.

John Lavery

John Lavery is the latest addition to the Glasson Potts Fowler Management Team. A Canadian by birth, John obtained a Bachelor of Science (Honours), majoring in Biology and minoring in Physical Geography from Bishop’s University in Quebec (yes he’s fluently bilingual), and a Masters of Science degree in Forest Ecology and Biogeochemistry from the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver. Not content with having spanned the reaches of North America, John came to New Zealand to work as a scientist in soils and tree nutrition at Forest Research (now Scion/ Ensis) a Crown Research Institute. John has developed a strong reputation in land treatment, and was the Technical Manager for the New Zealand Land Treatment Collective for four years prior to coming to Glasson Potts Fowler.

John is a specialist environmental scientist with specific experience in the re-use of wastes and their impacts on the environment and the surrounding biota. His training and experience includes the following subject areas:

• Land Treatment of domestic, municipal, and agro-industrial effluents
• The land application and reuse of solid residuals from sewage (biosolids).
• Land application and reuse of primary industry wastes.
• Wastewater and greywater re-use and efficiency.
• Plantation production for bioenergy
• Soil health and tree nutrition in plantations and land treatment schemes.
• Nutrient budgets.
• Assessments of environmental effects.
• Resource investigation
• Resource consent applications in sensitive environmental areas.
• Effects of nutrients on water quality, and mitigation measures in sensitive catchments.
• Biological remediation of contaminated sites.

Away from work, John enjoys a sporting lifestyle including long distance triathlons, skiing, cycling, and the occasional trip back home to see family and friends.