Meet The Team

Our team are passionate about bringing connectivity to rural New Zealand.

Ian Hooker

Chief Executive Officer

With a 30-year career in the telecommunication industry and having held senior leadership roles at One NZ, Head of Design at RCG, and more recently the position of Acting CEO at RCG, Ian has proven his ability to lead in the complex and fast-paced world of digital technology and project delivery and was the natural and logical choice to become RCG CEO.

Ian’s passion, dedication, and commitment have been instrumental in RCG delivering the government funded RBI2 and Mobile Blackspot Fund Programme to rural Aotearoa with over 450 cell sites live, and with Ian’s guidance and drive, RCG will build on the overwhelming success of the RBI2 and MBSF programs, delivering essential telecommunications infrastructure to our rural communities.

Rosemary Chung

Chief Financial Officer 

Rosemary brings to RCG extensive international financial management experience having led commercial and financial teams across Infrastructure and Construction, Healthcare, and the Shared Services sector.

Having held Chief Financial Officer roles at Healthvision, a national home and community healthcare provider, United Group (NZ) Ltd, and Business Planning and Development Manager for Natural Gas Corporation, Rosemary brings to RCG a deep understanding of financial strategy, risk mitigation plans, commercial transactions and excellence in financial management.

A fellow of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand and Australia, as well as sitting on the Chartered Accountants Advisory Group, and having held an active role in education and governance for the profession, Rosemary’s passion for all aspects of the financial world is clear.

As RCG’s Chief Financial Officer, Rosemary’s breadth of governance experience and business acumen will drive financial best practice, improving efficiencies and reducing costs across the business to successfully deliver on RCG’s financial targets for the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI2) and Mobile Black Spot Fund (MBSF) programmes.

Paul Hallowes

Head of Delivery and Build

Paul’s illustrious career in the telecommunication industry spans over 30 years and he brings to the RCG an unrivalled understanding of mobile network deployment.

Paul joins the RCG from Spark where he held various senior roles focused on deployment of the Radio Access Network (RAN) including site acquisition, design and build, through to operational handover. Most recently Paul led the implementation of the next generation of technology.

As RCG’s Head of Delivery (Build) Paul is responsible for driving efficiencies into the build of our new rural network, ensuring our infrastructure is fit for purpose and deployed cost effectively and on time. Working closely with RCG’s build partners, Paul will ensure the ambitious build programme nationwide delivers rural New Zealand quality wireless broadband and mobile service.

Andrea Vins

Head of Network Operations

Andrea sits at the centre of the Rural Connectivity Group’s RBI2 rollout programme connecting the various in-house technical teams, RCG’s Network Operations Centre and the MNO operations teams, to ensure top class performance of the live RCG network.

After holding a range of engineering, critical service management, and project management roles, both here and overseas, Andrea spent several years in the USA and Europe helping large telecommunications organisations build their wireless technologies up for the future – including developing one of the world’s first 4G networks. Closer to home, she led Spark’s world-class customer experience, overseeing a daily cross-functional forum dedicated to faultless mobile service.