Jane Nees is now in her third term with Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
Jane Nees came to the Bay of Plenty almost two decades ago for a change of lifestyle and a new job running the Tauranga City Libraries.
But it was a term as chief executive of the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce that sparked her interest in local economic development and prompted her to campaign for election to the BOP Regional Council.
Ms Nees is now in her third term and is deputy chairwoman of the council, chairwoman of the Regional Transport Committee, a director of Quayside Holdings and Grow Rotorua, a trustee of the Acorn Foundation, and takes a keen interest in the family business International Merchants.
"I've morphed from being a businesswoman to a politician, but I'm not a political animal," she said. "For me, public service is a privilege. My focus is on the community and getting the job done."
TECT chairman and Holland Beckett Lawyers partner Bill Holland, who got to know Ms Nees initially at Sunrise Rotary, where she served a term as president, said she had made a positive impact on the region.
"She's very intelligent and has a very good heart and you put that together and it's a good combination in the areas she's become involved in," he said. "It's wonderful that she uses her business and people skills for organisations in the region."
Born in Wellington, Ms Nees completed a degree in geology at Victoria University and went to work for the Forestry, and Works and Development ministries. That fuelled a long-time commitment to the environment, and she served as secretary of the Soil Conservation and Rivers Council and as an administrator at the National Water Authority.
Married to Craig, her high school sweetheart, she left the workforce to become a stay-at-home mum for eight years and help raise their three daughters and a son. But in the mid-1980s, she began to work for the Ministry of the Environment, while completing postgraduate diplomas in librarianship and information systems.
"I realised the world was changing and IT was going to be the way of the future," she said.
Her husband - a member of the Nees Hardware family - had by then set up International Merchants, which manufactures and distributes DIY hardware. She went back to work full-time and moved into management, securing a role managing information services for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.
When the opportunity came to move to Tauranga in 1996, she took it. Her husband commuted from Wellington over the next year as he relocated the business to Tauranga.
Ms Nees began managing the libraries, then moved up to become the TCC's group manager: city information. After eight years with the council, she was looking for a new challenge and found it as chief executive of the Tauranga chamber.
"The chamber was where I really started getting involved with economic development," said Ms Nees. "I could see the way councils were getting involved in the region's development, and my old love of the environment came to the fore."
After two years as chief executive, she decided to go for the Bay of Plenty Regional Council slot and "to my surprise" got elected in 2007, so resigned from the chamber role.
She is a strong advocate of SmartGrowth and of extending the spatial planning approach to the rest of the Bay of Plenty.
Ms Nees is a council director of Quayside Holdings, the regional council's investment arm.
She's a member of the Chartered Professional Engineer's Council, and a member of the Institute of Directors, where she has played a mentoring role for women in business.
She has also been a director of council-controlled economic agency GrowRotorua since its inception three years ago.
"My GrowRotorua involvement came about because of my interest in economic development and my background as CEO of the chamber," she said.
"We're very lucky to be living where we are. The BOP is a great place with huge potential that is on the way to being realised. And part of the reason for that is the way we work together.
"We're well-connected and we have very good networks across the region."
Ms Nees noted the way the region's philanthropic organisations were beginning to collaborate, and major local trusts were talking to Quayside Holdings about how they could support the local business community by investing via the new private equity fund which is being developed.
"We're using the assets we have to leverage what is available and create more growth," she said.
Jane Nees says going back to work fulltime when her husband set up his own business two decades ago was a pivotal moment.
"That was really what started me down this career path," she said.
"I suddenly had to get serious about earning. And you realise later it was a really productive thing to have happened. We're now living in a fabulous place. We decided we wanted the lifestyle here. And because I became so passionate about it I just got more and more involved."
The couple has four children, and a total of nine grandchildren, with two of their married daughters living in Tauranga.
She enjoys walking and yoga, but because of the need to juggle professional commitments, family and friends take up most of her spare time.
Roles - deputy chair, BOP Regional Council, chair of the Regional Transport Committee
Born - Wellington, New Zealand
Age - 62
First job - clerk at Ministry of Forestry
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