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Click on a team member to view their expertise and history
Craig MacLeod
Managing Director
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Nick Winter
Director
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Chris Goodger
Director
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Scott Bermingham
Principal
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Andrew Coyle
Principal
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Simon Yorker
Principal
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Michael Gibson
Senior Analyst
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Thomas Liddle
Development Manager
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Russell Stewart
Analyst
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Robert Haar
Senior Analyst
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Nic Croad
Senior Developer
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Ben Wong-Lee
Analyst
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Craig MacLeod
Craig MacLeod has over thirty years of experience in the solution of complex problems using management science and computing-based techniques. He has considerable industry experience in the areas of logistics, electricity markets, and fisheries.
Mr MacLeod has developed intelligent planning systems for companies such as Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Kraft and ConAgra. He has developed logistics, electricity scheduling, market strategy, competition analysis, and environmental models all over the world. Mr MacLeod specialises in the integration of such models with existing corporate database and planning tools.
In addition to designing and building models, Mr MacLeod has undertaken studies into the creation, operation, and likely effects of electricity markets in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Singapore, and Canada. These studies have included functional specifications of required software, market surveillance, the effects of market rules, participant behaviour, price forecasts, and asset valuations.
He is a member of the Institute of Directors and the Operational Research Society.
B.Sc with Honours in Operations Research from the University of Canterbury
2000 – Present Managing Director, Orbit Systems
1997 – 2000 Wellington Office Director, PHB Hagler Bailly
1994 – 1997 Principal, Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett
1990 – 1994 Principal, CORE Management Systems
Nick Winter
Nick Winter has been extensively involved in the electricity sector over the last 30 years, with a particular focus on strategic/tactical modelling and risk management. His professional background includes managing a team of modellers within the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand as well as extensive consulting experience.
Nick manages the team that develops Orbit Systems’ electricity model incorporating gaming, risk aversion, transmission and reservoir optimisation. He advises electricity market participants and government organisations on market power, mergers, risk and environmental issues. He also conducts price forecasts within New Zealand and overseas.
Nick has developed production planning, plant scheduling and transportation models for the industrial sector, has designed corporate-level models in the gas and electricity sectors, and was a major contributor to the conceptual and development team for an organisational costing and transfer pricing modelling and budgeting system used for both the telecommunications and health sectors.
M.Sc in Operations Research from the University of Canterbury
2000 - Present Director, Orbit Systems
Chris Goodger
Chris Goodger has 30 years of experience in developing sophisticated mathematical and computer models that support businesses in decision-making in the electricity, fishing, warehousing and advertising industries. He has extensive knowledge of the design, development and implementation of database systems in both mainframe and desktop environments, and has extensive experience in project management.
In recent times, Chris has designed and built tools to create market offers, monitor and offer wind farms, and graphically view market-related data. Chris built the interim New Zealand electricity market solver and has worked on projects for electricity markets around the globe.
Chris is also part of Orbit Systems’ logistics team, and designs, builds and maintains a number of IT planning systems for companies such as Procter & Gamble.
B.Sc in Computer Science from the University of Otago
Postgraduate Diploma in Science from the University of Otago
2000 – Present Director, Orbit Systems
1997 – 2000 Associate, PHB Hagler Bailly
1994 – 1997 Associate, Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett
1992 – 1994 Associate, CORE Management Systems
Scott Bermingham
Scott Bermingham has 30 years’ of experience in providing business solutions ranging from strategic advice to the development of modelling tools. His academic background and commercial experience give him considerable strength in the design and application of mathematical models and optimisation techniques to business problems.
Scott has experience in a range of industries including manufacturing, finance, retail, commercial fisheries, energy, health, telecommunications and forestry. Areas of specialised professional competence include problem solving, modelling systems, systems analysis and development, the application of mathematical models and project management.
B.Sc in Computer Science from the University of Canterbury
M.Com with Honours in Operations Research from the University of Canterbury
2000 – Present Principal, Orbit Systems
1994 – 2000 Principal, PHB Hagler Bailly
1991 – 1994 OR Analyst, CORE Management Systems
Andrew Coyle
Andrew Coyle has worked for over 15 years developing and operating mathematical models and analytical tools, which are used by business to provide operational guidance or to support complex decision making.
He has worked for some of the largest New Zealand and top Fortune 500 companies, and has worked across a wide range of industries including logistics, energy, telecommunications, local, forestry, and warehousing.
He spends considerable time working in the electricity sector, designing and running models for price and generation forecasts, corporate asset valuations, market and market rules analysis, environmental policy evaluation, and reliability studies. He has also been instrumental in the development of many of Orbit Systems’ intelligent trailer loading tools for such companies as Procter & Gamble, Kraft and Nestlé.
B.Science from the University of Auckland
B.Commerce from the University of Auckland
M.Operations Research (1st class) from the University of Auckland
2000 – Present Principal, Orbit Systems
1999 – 2000 Analyst, PHB Hagler Bailly
Simon Yorker
Simon Yorker has over 20 years of experience developing complex computer applications to assist clients with decision-making and the management of their business. He has a strong academic background combined with exceptional computing skills. He specialises in computer simulation, but is also interested in network optimisation, forecasting and data analysis.
Simon leads our logistics planning team, and has developed systems to do such things as plan shipments, consolidate warehouse space and co-ordinate the arrival of packing materials for production lines. He has built systems to plan the size and configuration of things as diverse as a fertilizer blending plant, and an inter-island ferry. Most recently Simon has developed a system to track LPG inventories and shipping between multiple depots, allocating the shipments to customers and calculating their entitlements.
B.Sc with Honours (1st Class) in Statistics and Operations Research from Victoria University of Wellington
M.Sc with Distinction in Statistics and Operations Research from Victoria University of Wellington
2000 – Present Principal, Orbit Systems
1997 – 2000 Senior Associate, PHB Hagler Bailly
1994 – 1997 Senior Analyst, Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett
1992 – 1994 Analyst, CORE Management Systems
Michael Gibson
Michael Gibson has 25 years of experience in the IT industry, both in New Zealand and in Europe. He has designed and developed a number of products, many of which are in the financial sector.
Most recently, Michael designed and developed systems for TradeWeb, which has become the leading fixed-income bond trading platform for US Treasury and European government and corporate bonds. During this time, he became Vice-President of European Support, taking charge of supporting the European trading system, as well as being team leader for development of the architecture of the trading system.
Earlier, Mr Gibson has been Director of Linkworks, a company that developed a system for the control of satellite-based networks. This system provides services such as node management and satellite bandwidth allocation on demand.
NZCE in Electronics and Computer Technology from the University of Wellington
Technicians Certificate in Electronics from the University of Wellington
2005 – Present Senior Analyst, Orbit Systems
2001 – 2005 Vice President of Support, TradeWeb, London
2000 – 2001 Analyst Programmer, Reuters London
Thomas Liddle
Thomas Liddle has over 10 years of experience in software development and consulting using Java technologies.
He has developed the ATMO software suite for the management and automation of GE MAPS - a major electricity market model used in the USA. ATMO encompasses the lifecycle of the model: maintenance of the model inputs and building of scenarios, the automation and parallelization of running the model, and visualization and reporting of the results it produces.
Thomas has also been extensively involved in many consulting projects in the electricity sector in the USA, using this software to analyse the potential effect of company mergers, emission reduction schemes, the installation of new power plants and retirement of old ones.
Outside of the US electricity sector, he has been involved in the development of software for Meridian Energy to aid in the risk assessment of electricity generation contracts.
Presently, Thomas is working on leading DNA forensic science software for the interpretation of complex DNA mixtures.
In addition, Thomas is interested in heuristic-based search algorithms and the development of user interfaces for software applications.
He is a member of the Operational Research Society of NZ.
B.Sc with Honours (1st Class) in Statistics and Operations Research from Victoria University of Wellington
B.Sc in Operations Research and Computer Science from Victoria University of Wellington
B.Music in Jazz from the New Zealand School of Music
2018 – Present Development Manager, Orbit Systems
2010 – 2018 Analyst, Orbit Systems
Russell Stewart
Russell has a wide range of experience from photography and design to teaching and more recently engineering. He has undertaken studies into the technology related to electric buses and the development of micro-oxygenation devices for the wine industry.
Since joining Orbit Systems, Russell has worked mostly on our logistics products such as AutoO2, AutoScheduler and AutoCDO. In AutoO2, Russell has re-engineered the basic loading algorithm that builds the trailer layouts to make it more efficient and find more feasible solutions. In AutoScheduler and AutoCDO, Russell has created an allocation algorithm for items that are in short supply that uses demand priorities and the ongoing time sequence to come up with a suggested pattern of shipments.
Bachelor of Design with Honours, Massey University
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) / BSc Conjoint Degree, University of Auckland
2000 – Present Consultant, Orbit Systems
2016 - 2018 Electric bus technology study, MRCagney and Callaghan Innovation
2016 - 2016 Data visualisation, Wine Grenade
Robert Haar
Robert has 40 years’ experience in software development, both in New Zealand and the USA. This experience has been gained in academic, technical and commercial environments and covers a wide range of subject matter areas, including telecommunications, medical practice management, graphics development, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), natural resource modelling, and decision support systems for natural resource management. Areas of specialized professional competence include problem solving, modelling systems, systems analysis and development.
B.Sc with Honours in Mathematics from the University of Washington
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Nic Croad
Nic Croad has over fifteen years of experience in a wide range of computing roles. After starting his career with the game development company Sidhe, he spent considerable time developing the weather graphics we see regularly on the TV, as well as weather modelling.
While with the Metservice, Nic undertook such projects as data procurement for live forecasts, performance improvements, implementing real-time and high-quality visualisations for users and weather modelling and statistical post-processing.
No matter the particular project, Nic has shown a long-running commitment to automated testing, having implemented this at Metservice and also writing technical papers on the subject.
Nic represents New Zealand at Chess and is also a keen soccer player.
B.Sc with Honours in Computer Science from Victoria University of Wellington.
2019 – Present Senior Developer, Orbit Systems
2014 – 2019 ?, Metservice
2010 – 2014 Customer Engineer, Metservice UK
2008 – 2010 Software Developer (AMPS), Metservice
2005 – 2008 Software Developer (Media), Metservice
2003 – 2005 Games developer, Sidhe Interactive
Ben Wong-Lee
Ben joined Orbit Systems as an intern for the 2017-2018 university break. He joined us full time at the conclusion of his studies.
Since joining Orbit Systems, Ben has worked on a number of Java-related projects. He has worked on such things as an advanced search algorithm for a DNA profiling product, internationalisation of software products, and the build and release process for a number of our Java-based tools.
Bachelor of Software Engineering (Hons), Victoria University of Wellington
2018 - Present Orbit Systems
2012 - 2014 Caregiver, Rita Angus Retirement Village
