Our people

Richard Maloney

Technical advisor

Richard is DOC’s Principal Technical Advisor and has provided advice and shared his expertise from the very start of Te Manahuna Aoraki Project.

Growing up on the West Coast around Okarito and Harihari, he started work in Westland National Park at the age of 18, building huts and tracks as a summer holiday job. He stayed on, working for what was then the Wildlife Service in Takapō/Tekapo for three years. During that time he was a field assistant to Ray Pierce who was doing a PhD on kakī. The pair live-captured feral cats and stoats, then followed their movements with radio transmitters. It was some of the first research of this kind done in a drylands area.

Richard then went on to do an MSc in zoology at Canterbury University. Next came a job working as an ecologist with Project River Recovery in Twizel before he took up a position in Saudi Arabia working with houbara bustards and completing a PhD. This experience gave him a greater understanding of managing populations of rare birds that was to be very useful when he returned to Twizel as a scientist for DOC’s Kakī Recovery Programme.

Richard has a passion for braided rivers and since 2005 has had a national role with DOC, putting a national perspective on the recovery of threatened species and landscapes.

Our board

Dr Jan Wright
Chair
Devon McLean
Director
John Henry
John Henry
Rūnaka Director
Julia Mackenzie
Julia Mackenzie
Director
Jo McPherson
Department of Conservation senior liaison officer
James Holborow
James Holborow
LINZ representative
Rynee de Garnham
Rynee de Garnham
Rūnaka observer
Stephen Phillipson
NZ Defence Force representative