Our team are highly skilled, knowledgeable and passionate people with a diverse range of industry experience. Backed by real-life experience, our team enjoy educating people about safety and creating relevant and engaging learning experiences for students.
Meet The Team
Kyle Hall
General Manager
Starting out life on various dairy farms and attending Opunake High School, Kyle knows Taranaki well. Having completed a trade apprenticeship as a Machinist Toolmaker at Howard Wright Limited in New Plymouth and spending the next 13 years in manufacturing and maintenance across various industries. Starting in 2011 at the Western Institute of Technology - Taranaki now known as WITT-Te Pūkenga as a tutor for the engineering trades school. Kyle has held various roles within the organisation from Head of Department, General Manager of NZIHT and Director of NZIHT – NZ School of Engineering, Energy and Infrastructure as well as a member of the executive leadership team. Throughout 2021 and 2022 while working fulltime he completed a Executive Masters of Business Administration through Massey University graduating in May 2023. Outside of work Kyle enjoys spending time with family and friends, DIY, staying fit and healthy with the latest past time including training for triathlons.
Julia Faselt
Operations Manager
With some previous background in the hospitality industry, Julia joined Wood Training in 2014 and instantly became an integral part of the team. Over the years she has built strong, long lasting relationships with her clients. As our Sales and Marketing leader, Julia has a single focus – making our business stand out against our competitors, by going above and beyond clients’ expectations with an absolute determination to achieve results. Since 2019 Julia has been the Operations Manager here at Wood Training overseeing the bigger picture of the organisation.
Julia has in 2020 been recognised by Wood for her extraordinary commitment to providing an outstanding customer service by becoming a finalist of the Wood Global Inspire Awards.
Dr Christine Fenton
Academic & Quality Manager
Christine has served the education sector for over twenty years. She has had many roles from teacher to manager and senior executive roles in large education facilities. Christine specialises in education leadership, curriculum design, approvals as well as academic systems including quality assurance. Christine is an integral part of the team and is the driver of quality and practical learning outcomes.
Matt Ries
Business Manager
Matthew has a life long background in sales, marketing, customer engagement, logistics, engineering and business management. As an active collaborator any new developments in the business are his bread and butter. Having previous held a sales and marketing role within Wood Training, Matthew has started his new role in 2020. The primary goal is to grow the business by driving sales, supporting marketing activities, and improving relationships with customers and key stakeholders. Matthew believes the best thing about working at Wood Training is being part of a growing passionate team who really care about providing quality training and the best customer service.
Tutors
Richard Martin
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Richard Martin
Richard has been involved in training as a career since 2015, when Fonterra started an inhouse NZQA level 3 and 4 Milk Processing qualification. He was a tanker driver and dairy process management before moving into teaching. Working as a coach in this environment gave Richard the skills to support leaners in online learning as well as in person. This included delivery of technical information, assisting literacy-challenged leaners and tracking progress up to a regional level.
When talking to Richard about his teaching perspectives, he says “the student hasn’t learnt until the teacher has taught, but that doesn't define who the teacher is…. experiences are usually great teachers, by people sharing their experiences we all learn”.
Richard has had a varied work history initially training in applied art and design as well as agriculture. His time working in graphic design and print gives him a good eye for instructional material that supports his work as a trainer and online facilitator. His background as a tour driver operator and guide in New Zealand and Australia along with his agricultural experience gives him plenty of experience in the field and authentic work stories to demonstrate the importance of health and safety no matter the sector.
He continues to blend these interests of arts and the outdoors in his leisure time with cartoon work, photography, DIY and outdoor activities such as surfing and snow boarding. All of which makes him well placed to be a trainer with Wood.
Ryan Moss
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Ryan Moss
Coming from a business background, Ryan worked in the offshore industry before moving onshore to pursue a career as a fire and marine trainer. He has Emergency Care, Fire and Rescue qualifications as well as in the areas of Adult Education and Training. Ryan volunteers his time to work with St John Ambulance as an ambulance officer and as a senior fire fighter with Fire Emergency New Zealand. Ryan stands out as a well-rounded emergency response professional with experience across multiple areas.
Mike Ford
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Mike Ford
Mikes career started with 5 years in the RNZAF specialising in aircraft rescue firefighting. His has 9 years’ experience with FENZ (7 years career and 2 years urban volunteer) this combination provides a rich background of emergency response needs and the training that is required. Mike has just joined the Wood Training team recently and has the knowledge and experience that will be invaluable to developing the future of emergency .
Stephen Ritson
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Stephen Ritson
Steve’s background includes serving with the Royal Marines Commando, a teacher of Art and Design, Fire Fighter (NZFS), Ship Security Officer maintaining security. His personal passion lies with mountaineering and climbing, bringing valuable rope skills and rescue to the Industrial rope access industry. Steve has a strong understanding of teams working under high pressure in high hazard and high stress environments. He holds a postgraduate Certificate in Education as well as qualifications in Training, Assessment, Rope Access and Occupation and Health and Safety.
Bob Korewha
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Bob Korewha
There isn’t much that Bob can’t drive or operate. Bob is a MITO, and Connexis registered assessor, a Competenz registered Forklift Trainer and an NZTA approved assessor. Bob started his career as a Driver/Operator within the Transport and Building Industries and has spent the last 20 years training people on safe driving and operating equipment. He believes in giving the right information to the candidate so that they can make the right decisions out there in the workplace, that teaching the safe use of heavy machinery includes a strong approach to forming a safety culture at their workplace so that the operator goes home safe every day.
Jonathan (Jono) Miller
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Jonathan (Jono) Miller
Instructing in First Aid from mid-2006, Jon is an experienced first aid instructor. Jon’s sense of humour and on the job stories ensure engaging and relevant training whenever he delivers. Jon has extended his safety training skills over the years now also delivers our Helicopter Underwater Escape Training courses and continues to deliver training with freshness and relevance
Bruce Wakefield
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Bruce Wakefield
Bruce has been involved in Workplace Health and Safety for the majority of his career. Specializing in everything to do with Asbestos, Bruce had a depth of knowledge which is called upon regularly through out New Zealand by all the major public sector and private sector companies. As a leading expert in the field he can draw on many real world situations having worked with all levels of Asbestos removal, Asbestos management and project management. Bruce is currently a Licensed Asbestos Assessor.
Thomas Visagie
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Thomas Visagie
Thomas has been involved in Workplace Health and Safety since 2012. He has spent many years working for WorkSafe NZ and is enjoying the transition from regulator to educator. He holds a Bachelor of Science as well as a Work Health and Safety Diploma and is currently a Licensed Asbestos Assessor.
Jenny Coombe
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Jenny Coombe
Jenny's career started with the RNZN and then transferred to the RNZAF. She has spent 13 years on the road as an Emergency Medical Technician with the TDHB & St John. For the last 15 years Jenny's career changed to being a First Aid Instructor. In that time she was also a Health Consultant for 3.5 years being involved with Annual Health/Medical monitoring. Jenny holds various qualifications in Pre Hospital Emergency Care and Adult Education & Training.
John Williams
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John Williams
A safety conscious individual, John provides the bridge between training, assessing and employment on many of Taranaki’s oil and gas sites. Holding health and safety roles throughout the region and a passion for hazard identification and confined space entry, John is a well-known trainer and on the job assessor throughout the Taranaki region. John has numerous years of experience in training and his knowledge sees him as a valuable trainer due to his breath of knowledge and practical take on training.
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