Leadership Team

Ken Rivers - Chief Executive Officer

Ken Rivers was appointed CEO of New Zealand Refining Company Ltd on 16th August 2007. A chemical engineer by training and a graduate of Cambridge University, Ken has held a wide variety of leadership, technical, strategy and supply roles within Shell over the last 30 years , including the UK, the Netherlands and the Far East. His previous assignment was General Manager of Shell's Stanlow refinery & petrochemical complex in the UK. Ken has also been a past President of UK Petroleum Industry Association, Chairman of Eastham Refinery Ltd ( Shell/Nynas joint venture ), Council member of the Institute of Petroleum , and has latterly chaired the joint industry/regulator Buncefield Standards Task Group defining industry action to prevent another Buncefield type incident. A Yorkshire man and proud of it, Ken is married with two daughters. His interests include music, travel, horse riding and being an avid supporter of Leeds United, as well as playing football when time permits.

Denise Jensen - Chief Financial Officer

Denise has enjoyed a long association with the Company, having been the manager responsible for the external audit of NZRC whilst previously employed by one of the big four chartered accounting firms. She joined NZRC in 2005 as Internal Auditor, before taking overt the role of Accounting Manager (on a job-share basis). In 2009 Denise was appointed to the role of Chief Financial Officer and in 2010, Company Secretary. Denise is married with three children and spends most of her free time supporting her family in their varied sporting interests.

Jack Ariel - Refining Manager

Jack joined Shell in 1979 and covered since then a variety of jobs in Manufacturing (various maintenance jobs, Engineering Manager and Production Manager Buenos Aires Refinery), Project Management (The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Buenos Aires), Fuels Distribution (Southern Latin America) and Supply Chain Management (Latin America). Before joining Shell he worked for the Argentine Navy. Prior to joining NZRC in April 2006, he was the General Manager for the Lubricants Supply Chain in Latin America (that job made him earn in 3 years almost 1,000,000 frequent flyer miles). He is married to Adriana for 28 years now; they have two children (a scientist son –in USA, and an actress daughter -in Auckland) and enjoy living in New Zealand. Jack is Argentinean and as such he loves meat, Malbec wine, football (that thing we call soccer in New Zealand) and started to love rugby very much as well…in particular after the last RWC. In the free time he likes golfing and travelling.

Joined NZRC in 2006 and was appointed Human Resources Manager in 2007. Anna has previously held senior human resources and organisation development roles with Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited and Air New Zealand. Anna’s early career included a period in project management roles with a local authority, as well as a brief stint in information technology. Anna and her husband farm a 30 acre property on the Kaipara coast

Vaughan Wykes - Engineering Manager

Vaughan joined NZRC in August 2008. Vaughan and his family returned to Northland after 10 years in expatriate positions in the Middle East and Azerbaijan. Vaughan has worked across a wide career spectrum, having held senior leadership roles in projects, engineering and maintenance; working for such companies as Northland Dairy (Fonterra), Methanex, ExxonMobil (RasGas) and BP.

Peter Gubb - Quality, Health, Safety and Environment Manager

Peter joined NZRC in 1985 as an Operator during the major expansion project. Hailing originally from the Waikato, his previous process experience had been in the dairy industry. After six years in Operations, Peter transferred through the IT team, Process Control and Process Services before returning to Operations as the Asset Manager of the process units in early 2002 and has only recently moved into the QHSE Manager role. Out of work Peter gets to as many Northland “Taniwha” home games as possible and also enjoys getting out on the water for a spot of fishing.