Nicole Brewer says she will be looking to build on the airport's existing strategy. Photo/Ben Fraser
Rotorua Airport's new chief executive has spent her career in the tourism and aviation sectors dating back to her first job where she worked as a hotel room attendant while studying at Auckland University.
And relocating to the Bay of Plenty after she and her partner took over his family's farm in Te Puke last year was also a homecoming of sorts for Nicole Brewer, who spent her primary school holidays at Lake Rotoiti.
"I've always had a soft spot for the Bay," she said.
Ms Brewer was born in and grew up in Auckland, and after completing a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and Management, went to work for the Regent Hotel (now the Stamford Plaza).
She spent five years learning the hotel business, then left for Europe, where her four years OE included working for Emirates Airlines on customer relations, running a backpackers hostel in Italy and working in a ski-shop in Switzerland.
When she returned to New Zealand in 2002, she initially worked briefly for Air New Zealand in its contact centre, but soon realised it wasn't going to provide the foot in the door she needed to get into the airline industry.
Instead, she joined tourist operator certifying group Qualmart, where she moved up from account manager to heading its client services team and working with the industry to review and develop new assessment criteria, including the exclusive category granted to Bay of Plenty operations such as Huka Lodge and Treetops.
After that she returned to Air New Zealand, this time in the networks division, working on the capacity side of the business in areas such as routing and planning for aircraft allocation.
"We worked closely with the commercial team," said Ms Brewer, who helped set up the integrated Air New Zealand-Virgin Australia network, then went on to manage the overall network relationship, before moving on to a similar role in helping develop the network with Singapore Airlines.
When she relocated to the Bay last September, she initially took a job with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in its strategy team.
Then the Rotorua Airport job came up and she was appointed to the role, taking up the position at the start of July.
"My passion and experience is in aviation so I was really keen to get back into it," she said.
Airport chairman Peter Stubbs said Ms Brewer had the experience, contacts and passion to capitalise on the work achieved under the leadership of the previous chief executive Alastair Rhodes, and acting chief executive Wayne Wootton.
"The airport has seen a significant number of major changes, including the cessation of the transTasman service to Sydney, the ending of the departure levy, improved relations with the local community and key client Air New Zealand," he said.
Rotorua Lakes Council would also shortly consider transferring ownership of the airport assets to the company.
"Nicole's appointment adds to this work and we are excited about having her on board to help drive this new phase of development and growth."
Ms Brewer said she would be looking to build on and evolve the existing strategy.
"I'm working closely with the team to see where the opportunities are and exactly what challenges we need to face," she said.
"The thing about running an airport is the diversity and the range of things you need to cover.
"To me, that's what's exciting."
Nicole Brewer relocated to the Bay of Plenty to join her partner Gerben-Haije Muntendam and the couple set about trying to find a lifestyle block that would meet both their needs.
"He needed a big shed for his solar water heating and central heating business, and I wanted views," said Ms Brewer.
The couple couldn't find anything that suited them. However, Mr Muntendam's parents had a 70 hectare farm in Te Puke that was on the market.
"We'd always said it was too big and that we wouldn't have the time to manage it," she said.
"But then we realised it would be a cool thing to take on."
Because they have a manager who takes care of the sheep on half of the land, they see it as more of a lifestyle block.
However, the other half of the farm is native bush recognised as of high value ecologically by the BOP Regional Council.
"There are lots of projects there to keep us busy," she said. "We want to protect that bush."
When not working on the farm, Ms Brewer is a keen traveller and loves to ski.
Role - Chief executive, Rotorua Airport
Born - Auckland
Age - 40
First job - Hotel room attendant
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