I grew up in Auckland in the North Island of New Zealand and attended the University of Auckland in the 1980’s. My post graduate research was on the ecology of two sympatric species of Cyanoramphus parakeets/kakariki (C. novaezelandiae & C. auriceps) on Little Barrier Island/Hauturu in the outer Hauraki Gulf. This provided a wonderful apprenticeship in practical field ecology, threatened species (seabirds, reptiles, kakapo, etc.) and translocations as our ability to rid our smaller islands of rodents using aerially applied toxins increased. I was extremely fortunate to be involved in the very first of these aerial rat eradication operations and have been thrilled to see how these operations have progressed in scale as well as how the techniques have been successfully exported around the world. Since the mid 1990’s I have been a scientist with the New Zealand Department of Conservation with much of my time spent working with threatened species on the two main islands of New Zealand. Of note was the coordination of a national research programme on kaka (Nestor meridionalis) – a species I have been catching, banding, radio/GPS tagging and monitoring since 1994 and for which there have since been significant conservation gains (kaka are now a much loved feature of our capital city, Wellington). Along the way I have picked up skills in the application of long-term population monitoring methods for bird populations at both local and national scales and am currently exploring how remote sensing techniques (including acoustic monitoring) can contribute to species and habitat conservation. Along the way I have been very fortunate to work on a variety of parrots overseas (e.g. Eclectus parrots, Fiji shining parrots, Ouvea Horned parrots) as well as a variety of Cyanoramphus species on New Zealand’s outlying islands including the Kermadec Island group, Chatham Islands and Anipodes Islands. I currently serve on the NZ recovery groups for orange-fronted parakeets (C. malherbi) and kea (Nestor notabilis) and am part of the steering team for the IOU Parrot Researchers Group. I am looking forward to contributing to the IUCN Wild Parrot Specialist Group as the convener for the Australasia/Oceania region.