Tom Donnelly
Lower Hutt,New Zealand
Summary
With 5+ years of experience at Kāinga Ora, I possess a diverse skill set spanning QA design, Development Manager, and current role as a Project Manager with the Retrofit Team. Collaborating closely with the place-based team, I deliver high-quality retrofitted properties. As a former Development Manager in the Construction and Innovation team, I approved project briefs, prepared business cases, and managed budgets throughout the project lifecycle. I also played a crucial role in procuring consultants and building/civils contractors to ensure compliance with Kāinga Ora and NZ building standards. Leveraging my extensive architectural background, I successfully produced yield plans and provided valuable assistance to our internal Urban design managers and planners in creating cost-effective and practical solutions. Additionally, I organize and chair Design Team meetings to ensure timely achievement of project milestones.
Overview
32
32
years of professional experience
Work History
Project Manager
Kainga Ora (Housing New Zealand)
11.2024 - Current
- Managing retrofit projects from start to finish
- Being responsible for meeting budgets and program through build phase
- Liaising with the Asset managers and Mousing support managers to make tenants are moved out in to Temporary accommodation then returning to there original property
- Meet with the external (Consultants and Contractors) and internal stakeholders ( to make sure projects meet both Kāinga Ora and NZ building standards and are delivered efficiently
Development Manager
Kainga Ora (Housing New Zealand)
11.2021 - 11.2024
- Approving project briefs and preparing business cases
- Programming projects and being responsible for the budgets throughout the build phase
- Procuring demo and Build/ Civils contractors through the construction phase
- Meet with the numerous external (Consultants and Contractors) and internal stakeholders to make sure projects meet both Kāinga Ora and NZ building standards and are delivered efficiently
- In the process of delivering 4 x Apartment projects (68 units total)
- 4 x Standard residential project (18 units total)
- Iwi engagement project (12 units)
Quality Assurance Design assessor and Homestar 6 assessor
Kainga Ora (Housing New Zealand)
11.2020 - 12.2021
- QA assessing at 30%,60% and 90% stages for all projects including Apartments, Duplexes and Standalone housing, are assessed to the very high Kainga Ora standard documents M-255 and M134 performance standards along with Security / accessibility and landscaping standards
- Homestar 6 assessor to ensuring our customers have healthy well-insulated and warm homes
- Making sure consultants provide a Healthy Homes calculator information
- Epuni Project which included 113 units of various typology which included apartment blocks, Duplexes, and standalone units along with a community centre
- I assessed these blocks using my experience with large scale projects
Design Manager / Project Design Lead
Summerset Group Limited
01.2015 - 12.2019
- Leading a team up to 6 people to produce drawings for Developed design, Detailed Design, Tender and construction phases in accordance with the CIC guidelines
- Design Lead for documentation for a 32-million-dollar 6 storey 75No Apartments (2 levels of under croft car parks)
- Area :15,000m2 in total
- Working on a Village Recreating centre and swimming pools
- Reviewing shop drawings through the construction phase and resolving issues that arise
- Working well with Site teams and Stakeholders and answering all RFI’s
- Chairing Design team meetings with consultants to highlight the progress of projects and resolving any issues
- Used Aconex and MS project (Construction management program)
- Design Managing for a Six storey apartment block which is the first Summerset commercial multi-storey apartment block with very few Architectural RFI’s
Senior Architectural Revit/ CAD Technician
Stephenson & Turner Architects Ltd
01.2013 - 01.2015
- Preparing Resource Consent & Building Consent Drawings for commercial (Schools and Correctional facilities, industrial and residential buildings
- Organizing meetings with Consultants – Engineers, Surveyors, traffic design consultants
- Large scale Apartment and residential developments
- Ministry of Education projects
Store Designer
Foodstuffs Wellington Co-operative Society Ltd
01.2003 - 01.2013
- Manage the design process that goes into building a new Supermarkets
- Using my experienced master planning schemes for proposed Stores
- Seeing that all the stores are designed, built and completed to a high standard
Senior Architectural CAD Manager
Archaus Architects
01.1995 - 01.1999
- Preparing Resource Consent & Building Consent Drawings
- Large scale QBA Apartments Web Street, Wellington
Senior Architectural CAD Manager
Debmanor Design & Build Limited
05.1993 - 03.1995
- Preparing Resource Consent & Building Consent Drawings for Multimillion pound Residential buildings and Natwest bank projects
Education
Diploma in Architecture -
Wellington Polytechnic
01.2026
Registered Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP 3) -
Architectural Design
01.2026
Homestar Certified Assessor -
01.2023
Skills
- QA design
- Development Management
- Project Management
- Budget Management
- Consultant Procurement
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Architectural Experience
- Urban Design
- Design Team Management
- Architectural Leadership
- Construction Documentation
- RFI Management
- Site Liaison
- QA Reviews
- Shop Drawing Review
- Resource Consent Preparation
- Building Consent Preparation
- AutoCAD
- Revit
- SketchUp
- Specification Writing
- Process Management
- Decision Making
- CAD Management
- Problem Resolution
- Interpersonal Skills
- Mentoring
- Health and Safety Management
- Safety in Design Reporting
Hobbies and Interests
- Family
- Golf
- Rugby
- Hockey
Timeline
Project Manager
Kainga Ora (Housing New Zealand)
11.2024 - Current
Development Manager
Kainga Ora (Housing New Zealand)
11.2021 - 11.2024
Quality Assurance Design assessor and Homestar 6 assessor
Kainga Ora (Housing New Zealand)
11.2020 - 12.2021
Design Manager / Project Design Lead
Summerset Group Limited
01.2015 - 12.2019
Senior Architectural Revit/ CAD Technician
Stephenson & Turner Architects Ltd
01.2013 - 01.2015
Store Designer
Foodstuffs Wellington Co-operative Society Ltd
01.2003 - 01.2013
Senior Architectural CAD Manager
Archaus Architects
01.1995 - 01.1999
Senior Architectural CAD Manager
Debmanor Design & Build Limited
05.1993 - 03.1995
Registered Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP 3) -
Architectural Design
Homestar Certified Assessor -
Diploma in Architecture -
Wellington Polytechnic
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