Profiles

Peter Griffiths

Board Chair

After a career in the energy industry, Peter is now a professional director. His last executive position was as Managing Director of BP Oil New Zealand, retiring in 2009.

He has previously served on a number of boards including Z Energy, Metro Performance Glass, Marsden Maritime Holdings, The New Zealand Refining Company, New Zealand Oil & Gas, Liquigas, Wanganui Gas, Bitumix and the Civil Aviation Authority.

He was until late 2024 Chair of the New Zealand Business and Parliament Trust, and has private interests in general aviation. Peter holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree from Victoria University of Wellington.

Rhys Jones
Director

Rhys is Chairman and formerly CEO of ASX listed Vulcan Steel. He has held senior operating roles with Carter Holt Harvey (COO Pulp & Paper) and Fletcher Challenge (CEO Steel), and held directorships of listed manufacturing/ distribution/ building products concerns.

He holds a BSc from Victoria University, BBS (Hons) from Massey University and an MBA from Massey University.

Andrew Knight

Director & CEO

Andrew joined the ResWax Board in late 2022 on completion of the capital raise. He brings to the role extensive experience in resources based industry including strong perspectives on hazardous facilities operation, capital project execution and financial management.

He was Chief Executive of Gas Industry Co until September 2025 when he took over from Simon Aimer as CEO of ResWax.

He is Chair of Tai Hekenga, Chair of Taranaki Iwi Holdings Limited and a Director of Te Puia Tapapa. His prior experience includes Managing Director and Chief Executive of New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZOG). He was on the Gas Industry Co Board from 2012 to 2016.

He has also previously held executive management roles with Vector Limited, the NGC Holdings Limited Group of Companies, The Australian Gas Light Company and Fletcher Challenge Energy. Mr Knight’s early career was spent as an auditor with Coopers & Lybrand. He is a Chartered Accountant and he holds a BMS (Hons) in Accountancy and Finance from the University of Waikato.

John Cunningham
Technical Director – advisor to Board and Management

John drove ResWax in the years leading up to the late 2022 capital raise and remains actively engaged as Technical Director – undertaking numerous projects and providing input to the board and full time team.

John is experienced as a company director and has managed company and product developments as well as operations in senior executive roles in corporates. This has given him experience in commercialising products, raising capital, and completing strategic alliance deals. He holds a BE (Chem & Mat), Dip BIA and a ME (Environmental) from the University of Auckland.

John is also a member of the following professional associations FIChemE, FEngNZ, MIOD, MRSNZ, and is CEng(UK) and CSc.

Nigel Butler

CFO/ GM Commercial

Nigel started his career with EY in London working in Corporate Finance and Advisory Services then moving to a Manager role in Corporate Finance and Advisory with Deloitte in New Zealand. He then worked with TVNZ in group finance and as Manager Commercial Affairs and before moving to the ViaLactia Biosciences subsidiary of newly formed Fonterra as Head of Commercial Operations.

Nigel handles treasury, financial management and reporting and company secretary responsibilities while also providing senior support and advice to the CEO and Chair in areas of business development, HR and commercial administration.

Nigel is a Chartered Accountant, holding a BCom from the University of Auckland. He is also a graduate of the Institute of Strategic Leadership and of the Harvard Business School Agribusiness Executive Programme.

Mike O’Sullivan
GM Development

Mike has an immense wealth of experience in establishing mining and processing industries under some challenging environments spanning Africa, Asia and Australasia. Prior to joining ResWax full time he was Co-founder of Geo40. In the 1980s a younger Mike lead the resource lifting operations of an earlier venture to profit from the Kauri resource. Experience that has already seen ResWax succeed where the prior attempt foundered.

Having assisted with the establishment of the Development Plant operations Mike’s focus is leading the work to optimise the time, cost and performance of bringing the Commercial Plant and related resource sourcing and reinstatement into production. In doing this he leads an experienced team comprising Process, Mechanical and Project Engineers and our Drawing Office, and Procurement and Assets focussed work.

Mike has a degree in mining and mineral technology from the University of Otago and is recognised as a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Ian Jackson
GM Operations

Ian is a UK qualified Chemical Engineer. His experience spans Commissioning, Operations, Health/ Safety/ Environment, Plant performance Improvement and Project Management in the Oil and Gas, Renwables and Mining sectors. He has worked extensively across Asia, Africa, Australiasia, Europe, North America and the Middle East.
 

Dave Debney
Commercail Manager

Dave started his career as an electrical apprentice, then served in the RNZN as a Weapons Engineering Officer in engineering and asset management roles before moving to managing a range of infrastructure, construction and technology projects and taking up national operations roles in engineering manufacturing and construction technology companies.

Dave’s prior experience includes Auckland Transport, Schindler, Milmeq, and Worley Parsons. Having joined ResWax in 2022 Dave was central to establishing the business at an operations and capital works level. His current focus is leading our procurement and major elements of our logistics and future assets management work.

His qualifications include an NZCE (Electronics and Computer technology) from AIT, and a Grad.Dip.Bus (Engineering Management), and an MBA (International Business Strategy) both from the University of Auckland.

Abdel El Karamany
Senior Process Engineer

Abdel is a process engineer with operating experience in the food and energy industries. He joined RESWAX in 2016, where he was instrumental in commissioning and operating the pilot plant. Since then he has developed a deep knowledge of the resource and our extraction processes.

Abdel has a BE (Hons) in Chemical and Materials Engineering from the University of Auckland and is IChemE accredited (AMIChemE). He is currently completing an ME from the University of Auckland show casing aspects of his expertise in specialist resin and wax extraction.

Jack Whitfield
Operations Process Engineer

Jack is a Chemical Engineer with experience in the chemicals industries. Prior to joining ResWax in mid 2020, Jack spent over 3 years working in an engineering capacity with IXOM, bringing chemical industry experience to the team. He has demonstrated skills in chemical handling, Process & Chemical Engineering and supply chain. Jack has a BE (Hons) in Chemical and Materials Engineering from the University of Auckland.

Vitor da Silva
Process Engineer

Vitor is a Chemical Engineer with an additional Post Grad degree in offshore Machinery Engineering. Originally from Brazil, Vitor’s prior experience includes technical and quality roles in a range of process, oil & gas refining and manufacturing concerns in New Zealand, Ireland and Brazil.

Operator Maintainers, Lab Techs, Drawing Office, Close Associates

Not featured here are our dedicated and skilled crew of Operator Maintainers: Haumia, Ihaka, Tane, Tiki, Gary, Ihaka and others, our Lab Tech, or our “close associates”. ResWax has very close relationships with consultant Process Engineers and Electrical and Mechanical/ Mechatronic Engineers who, while not on our full time pay roll are very much part of the team.