James joined Ernslaw One in 2021 having spent 18 years in the forestry industry. Starting out with planting gum trees in Southland, he has held various roles throughout the forest cycle including managing lumber export and sales with Asia and South America and carbon forestry.

James enjoys getting his boots dirty, having spent much of his career coordinating and leading forestry operations. He believes that successful operations and safety go hand in hand and has provided health and safety support and leadership from a one-on-one and crew basis through to national safety culture and harvesting mechanisation initiatives.

He is responsible for providing leadership across all business operations for safety performance and transformational safety culture.  A key component of his role is to ensure that the company has the right policies and systems in place, that they are easily accessible and understandable and are followed by all staff and contractors.  Working collaboratively with operational teams, James drives exceptional safety performance through culture, innovation and valued business partnerships with contractors.