Shareholder Announcement - April 2026

We have great pleasure in announcing Ben Tait and Jaide Derbyshire as new shareholders to the company effective 1 April 2026.

Ben is a Principal Planner based in our Auckland office and has just re-joined WWLA after previously working in our Whangarei office from 2020 to 2022. 

Ben is a highly respected planning professional with over 18 years’ experience in natural resource planning and policy development. He has built a reputation for navigating the complexities of resource consents across diverse sectors, including municipal infrastructure, industrial wastewater, and large-scale irrigation schemes.

Ben is known for his pragmatic, solution-oriented approach, providing strategic policy advice to both public and private sector clients. As a Full Member of the NZPI and a seasoned expert witness, he frequently provides high-level testimony at council hearings and before the Environment Court.

Jaide is an Intermediate Hydrologist based in our Auckland office since October 2023.  During this time Jaide has been involved in a broad range of hydrology and hydrogeological projects, including remote stream flow gauging, design and monitoring of nature based solutions for land instability on Auckland’s motorway network, stormwater and flooding damage assessment and design of remedial options on various properties, soakhole and stormwater infrastructure assessment on residential and commercial sites.

Prior to joining WWLA, Jaide was based in the UK, her experience spans public and private sectors, where she specialised in flood risk resilience and storm overflow modelling.  She also has experience working as an Exploration Geologist in rural Sweden.