Spark NZ announces new HR Director

The new appointment will succeed Joe McCollum, who is stepping down after seven years

BY John Hilton 07 Aug 2019

Spark New Zealand has announced that Heather Polglase will become Group Human Resources Director on the Spark Leadership Squad, effective 1 September.

Polglase will succeed Joe McCollum, who is stepping down after seven years in the role.

Currently Lead HR Partner, Polglase joined Spark in 2013 and has since led several important HR initiatives, including as a key architect of Spark’s Leadership and Development programme.

Spark’s Chief Executive Jolie Hodson said Heather has proven herself as a “very talented HR leader” with the courage to challenge the status quo and I believe she’ll be a fantastic addition to the Spark Leadership Squad.

Hodson paid tribute to Joe McCollum’s role in the transformation of Spark:

“The Spark of today is a very different company to the Telecom of 2012 and Joe has been a guiding hand throughout,” said Hodson.

“During his tenure Joe created a new way of working in HR – with many local and large global companies coming to Spark to learn more about this way of working.

“He has been an amazing supporter and friend to me throughout my time with Spark and although he will step down from the HR role on 31 August 2019, I’ve asked him to help lead some specific projects on my behalf for the next couple of months until leaving the company.”

In another change, Andrew Pirie, Corporate Relations Lead has decided to leave Spark in December 2019, with a successor to be appointed in due course.

Hodson said Pirie had led Spark’s Corporate Relations function for the past seven years, through an era of unprecedented change:

“Andrew has done an outstanding job managing some colossal communication challenges – particularly the rebranding from Telecom to Spark, and more recently the Agile transformation.”

Effective 1 September 2019, the Spark Leadership team will be as follows:

Chief Executive Jolie Hodson

Customer Director Grant McBeath

Finance Director (CFO) David Chalmers

General Counsel Melissa Anastasiou

HR Director Heather Polglase

Marketing Director Matt Bain

Product Director Tessa Tierney

Technology Director Mark Beder