Last Friday, HERA celebrated our 40 year anniversary as the metals-based industry’s research association. Also officially thanking outgoing Director Dr Wolfgang Scholz for his many contributions. It was a momentous occasion, well attended by over 100 people made up of our Executive Board, current and former staff, members and key stakeholders coming from across New…
Recent news headlines around Trump’s stance on steel tariffs has likely got our members thinking about what it means for our New Zealand metal-based industry. And rightly so. It’s important to note, that the details of Trump’s plans to apply the proposed steel (25%) and aluminium (10%) tariffs are not yet clear. So with this…
The Coalition’s Wood First Policy when introduced under the current proposal tilts the level playing field for industry innovation. Adding value to our New Zealand grown trees through local business and high value jobs makes lots of sense. As does using government procurement as lead user innovation. But not when it effectively picks winners likely…
I’m very excited to have just finished my first week in the role of HERA CEO and can report that I’m loving it so far! It’s clear that the team is very energetic and enthusiastic about serving our members and have many great ideas they’re keen to implement in 2018. And, I’m really looking forward…
Dr Troy Coyle joins the HERA team as its new CEO from the beginning of next year. Troy comes to us with extensive experience in innovation, research management and product development, most recently as Head of Innovation and Product Development & Pacific Islands Export Manager at New Zealand Steel. She has also held numerous positions…
When she isn’t at HERA as a representative on our Executive Board, Troy is busy being the Manager of Innovation and Product Development & Pacific Islands Export Manager at Bluescope Steel. This role that sees her cross across many fields – including engineering. With a career journey spanning 16 years, she has had the opportunity…
In May, I wrote an article ‘Preparing Our Industry for Disruption’. Going one step further – what are the specific opportunities for our industry to not just respond to disruption but to initiate disruption and reap the benefits ourselves? I recently read an External Research Report by BRANZ titled When Did Disruption Become a Good…
We work in an industry based on well-established and traditional materials. Metals have been fabricated for millennia. Applications have historically ranged from warfare, tooling, building and construction and are now evolving into emerging applications such as geothermal energy extraction and biomedical technologies. Metals, such as steel, are known for their high strength, ductility, and formability.…
We have an image problem. In experimental evolution, Drosophila (the humble fruit fly) is often used to demonstrate evolutionary processes. It is used because genetic changes for the fruit fly can be observed very quickly in response to natural selection. In business, the equivalent of the fruit fly is the IT or information technology company,…