Leadership Team
Robbie and Michelle Gale
Born and bred in Hawkes Bay, Robbie and Michelle are the fiercely compassionate and innovative leaders who steer the dynamic ship that is - Russell Roads.
Having run the largely successful concreting business ‘CPM’, in 2015 the pair decided to partner and merge their company with Russell Roads. Their vision was to become a ‘full service’ civil construction company who delivered high-quality outcomes for its clients and its people.
Over the last five years, they invested, built, developed and significantly improved the perception and capabilities of Russell Roads by recruiting and securing highly skilled and experienced people, investing into industry-leading technology, plant and machinery and diversifying Russell Roads’ offering to the market to allow them to compete and secure work on both a local and national level. A part of this ‘step-change’ was the acquisition and founding of both the Asphalt Plant and Operational Quarries that are strategically scattered across the East Cape of the North Island.
In November 2019, Robbie and Michelle purchased Russell Roads outright. The completion of this purchase meant that they could begin mobilising the greater vision that they had for the company and its people.
‘For The Road Ahead’ is the governing statement that outlines their intention for the profits and success that this business generates. Robbie and Michelle see Russell Roads as a vehicle to pave the way for the people of this company; fruitful careers, health and well-being, prosperity for Whānau and a safe and enjoyable workplace are all targets that they invest a portion of the profits into to ensure the Russell Roads Community will flourish for years to come.
Stuart McKinnon
Stuart’s background is 35 years in Banking, leading people, matching future needs of customers through innovation and implementing cool ideas.
His last three years have been supporting SBS Bank in their approach to being good for members, and different to the big banks. The 10 years before that he spent driving productivity and creating capacity in CBA and ASB by creating smarter processes to improve service, and lower operating costs in the Contact Centre, Digital space. Before that, he spent 10 years running a contact centre in NZ in Banking and Finance whilst also leading BankDirect for two years.
Stu’s passion to look after the greater good of the people and the planet is something that strongly aligned with Michelle and Robbie’s overall vision for Russell Roads. Stu is striving to find and develop the right balance and sustainability of our business across our people, planet and profits.
Andrew Shannon
A professional, organised and talented civil engineer, Andrew is experienced in managing large scale and complex civil projects both locally and abroad. Having completed numerous high profile multi-million dollar projects Andrew is a detailed planner with sound time management skills and a proven ability to deliver projects on time, on budget and to client expectation.
Andrew leads our construction team, in which he sets exceedingly high standards for, and has an exceptional ability to understand and interpret contract requirements and specifications in all aspects of the work that we tender for and win.
Our Contract Managers are developed and mentored by Andrew on a daily basis. He is responsible for their performance and the performance of the contracts that they work on.
Andrew is an ‘overachiever’ in many arenas. He’s ‘not too bad’ with a hockey stick, playing at premier level in Hawke’s Bay and is the super-coach of two of his children’s primary school teams.
