Key Personnel

Ken Stevens is Chairman of Glidepath, the company he started 39 years ago and still owns.

From 1972 when Ken founded Glidepath he opened offices and facilities in New Zealand, Australia, China, India, UAE, Canada, USA, Mexico, Peru and Chile concentrating on baggage handling equipment and projects.

Ken's expertise was initially in product design and then in Glidepath's market development where he has built strong relationships in a great many North American, Asian and Pacific countries.

His role today is to lead the internationalisation of the company to spearhead the next era of growth, working with the growing team of Glidepath people from many different countries and cultures and network of valued customers, colleagues, friends, partners and agents where the Glidepath brand is well known and respected.

Ken will continue to play a key role in a range of organisations and activities to promote New Zealand business and international co-operation including as a Board Member and Trustee of the Asia-New Zealand Foundation and as Chairman of Export New Zealand.

Neil joined Glidepath in 2011, bringing to the position experience both as a director in the public sector and as a senior executive in commercial construction.  

He was a director of Waitakere Properties (2006 – 2010) and Mighty River Power (2006 – 2009).

Prior to that Neil held the position of Chief Executive of Mainzeal Property and Construction (200-2006) and was General Manager of Fletcher Development and Construction (1988 – 1992). During his career at Fletcher Neil was responsible for development of the company’s costing systems and moved on into management, variously as Contracts Manager, Construction Manager and Regional Manager in the Wellington operation. 

He was involved in a number of commercial projects at project control group level, including the National Library in Wellington, Park Royal Hotel in Wellington and ASB in Auckland for Fletcher; also the Ngawha Prison and the Springhill Corrections Facility for Mainzeal.

While with Fletcher he was involved also in organizational set-up for the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Neil has also spent some time as a consultant for residential project development and for business management in the fishing industry. 

John has worked within the baggage handling industry for 15 years. He started as a software engineer working on the Auckland International Airport BHS in 1996. Since then he has been involved in all major baggage sortation projects for Glidepath.

John's roles included programming, commissioning management, project management and system design. John has been involved in the automation industry since 1989 in numerous roles including PCB design, production automation, application engineering and sales & marketing. 

Wayne joined Glidepath in 2002 bringing extensive financial experience at an international level to the Group.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Auckland and is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Wayne’s experience prior to joining Glidepath has been focused on the primary sector where he has held senior financial positions with New Zealand kiwifruit exporter, Zespri International, US listed forestry multinational Rayonier, Carter Holt Harvey and financial services provider KPMG.

Ed brings to Glidepath extensive management experience of multi-disciplinary construction businesses at an executive level. Ed has a civil engineering background, and, prior to joining Glidepath in 2004, has spent 35 years in the construction industry involved in major capital works projects.

After graduating from Auckland University with a Bachelor of Engineering degree, Ed was involved in NZ in both the development of the Tongariro Hydro Power Scheme and later the construction of Motunui Gas to Gasoline project.

Ed also has a wealth of international experience. With Downer he set up and developed a construction business in Paua NewGuinea and later moved to Hong Kong as an executive director where the company was involved in major infrastructure works for the new Hong Kong airport.

Ed also managed the business interests of a large German construction company in the Philippines, and on contract completion in 2002 returned to NZ as a business consultant, working mainly with construction related businesses.

David joined Glidepath New Zealand in 1998 as a Controls/Commissioning engineer working on BHS Sortation projects. David relocated to Glidepath Canada in 2000 and served as the Controls Project Manager for many prominent projects at the Vancouver International Airport. He subsequently was named General Manager of Glidepath’s Canadian Operations. In 2005, David moved to the North American headquarters in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas and assumed responsibility for all Sales & Marketing. Since that time our North American business has enjoyed exceptionally strong growth necessitating a doubled manufacturing capacity and increased our corporate resources and capability to meet demand and emerging customer requirements.

David has hands – on experience in design and commissioning of automated sortation systems for Baggage Handling Systems. Prior to joining Glidepath, David spent 20 years in the Design and Construction industry, including major materials handling projects and design of leading-edge control systems.

Dave relocated from Canada to New Zealand to join Glidepath in June 2007 after a lengthy career in the aviation business. He worked on the airline side of the fence for 16 years with Air Canada and on the airport side of the fence for 17 years working at Terminal 3 at Toronto Pearson International Airport. His latest position was General Manager Terminal 3 with responsibility for the operation and maintenance of all aspects (airside and terminal) of Terminal 3, which handled 40+ airlines and 10+ million passengers. 

Dave holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto. He became an accredited member of the International Association of Airport Executives (IAAE) and served as a member of the Board of Examiners.

Dave brings vast airline and airport knowledge better enabling Glidepath to meet the needs of the aviation community and build on potential synergies with other services outside the baggage system.

Ingrid started her career in the certification of value chain productivity process within the aquaculture/food industry and brings with her expertise from over 10 years experience in innovation technologies for Chilean development. Here she gained strong expertise working within networks of national and international alliances for new business fields. Positioning niche products and opening new markets for these products.

Ingrid's multilingual knowledge adds to her international expertise, further assisted by carrying out specialist studies in Italy on international projects for local business developments, focused on productivity and competitive ability.

Ingrid joined Glidepath in May of 2006, as Operations and Maintenance Contract Manager, based in our Santiago, Chile regional office. Her current role as Regioanl Sales Manager for the Latin America region ensures Glidepath provide our clients with the local integrated solutions and support necessary to continue to grow business in the region.

Rajesh joined Glidepath in Oct 2005 as an estimator and through his commitment and experience in the Indian sub-continent was appointed as Regional Sales Manager - India

After graduating from Bangalore University in India with a Bachelor of Engineering degree, Rajesh was involved in various large size pharmaceuticals and chemical projects.

Rajesh brings with him over 15 years of experience in technical sales of large size projects.

In New Zealand, Rajesh has held roles in sales and business development in the retail and engineering industries.

Matthew joined Glidepath in 2011 as the General Manager Sales – China after a career in Material Handling Systems.  He brings with him a true understanding of China market and good record of sales performance.

He started his career as mechanical engineer for material handling systems and gradually moved to sales roles in various companies including two years in airport baggage handling systems, Okura for conveyor and robotic palletizing systems, and Swisslog for automated high bay warehouse and distribution center. The customers he served covered a wide range of industries such as FedEx and UPS for courier business, China’s Urumqi and Zhengzhou Airports for BHS and Coca-cola and Tsingtao Beer for automated HBW and DC.

Matthew is in charge of the sales and administration for Glidepath in the China market.