Kevan ScottDirector
Kevan Scott
Director
Kevan has forty years’ experience in a wide range of roles in the public and wider state sectors, both in New Zealand and overseas. From these he has gained an extensive understanding of leadership and governance, public sector management, policy development, legislative change, machinery of government, and strategic resourcing. He has held roles as diverse as being a military advisor to the United Nations in Afghanistan to being a member of the budget team at the NZ Treasury during the Global Financial Crisis.
Kevan is an experienced and skilled manager and leader. He has a strong track record in building high performing teams himself and in helping other leaders and teams realise their potential. Having been a senior leader he understands the complexity of the challenges leaders face and can help them navigate their way through uncertain and difficult issues.
Kevan was an officer in the New Zealand Army for over 20 years and has completed operational deployments to Bosnia, East Timor and Afghanistan.
Kevan holds a Master of Business Administration with Distinction from Victoria University of Wellington and a Bachelor of Arts in History.
Dougal List
Associate Director
For the past 20 years Dougal has spearheaded a range of transformational programmes and opportunities to enable a better future. This includes organisational change, sector wide programmes, policy development, major land use planning and infrastructure planning and delivery.
Dougal is passionate about adding value through driving collaborative change programmes. He works with partners to effectively plan, design and deliver complex programmes as part of a wider system approach. This includes building multi-organisation relationships, developing co-investment models ensuring buy-in to a clear and compelling case for change.
Dougal provides project and programme director / management advice for a range of local and
central government organisations. Dougal holds a BREP (Hons), PG Diploma in Management and is a full member of the NZ Planning Institute. His work background includes a range of local government organisations and eight years with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.
Phil Plimmer
Business Manager
Phil joined the team in 2017 as Business Manager and works closely with the Director and Associates to ensure the day-to-day operations run smoothly and efficiently. Phil is highly organised and adept at managing the logistics of multiple work programmes, schedules and workshops. Phil has strong interpersonal and communication skills and strives to deliver the best outcome possible for the projects she works on.
In addition to running the business, Phil has completed a range of consulting assignments. These have included providing project support at the Ministry of Health, executive and operational support roles within the KiwiBuild Unit, project support in the Quality, Assurance and Insights team in the Provincial Development Unit and assisting in a review of the Government’s Jobs for Nature initiative.
Her most recent consulting role was as Commercial Coordinator with the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund (IAF) – an initiative that provides government funding for bulk infrastructure to enable medium-term housing outcomes in areas of need throughout NZ. Phil joined the IAF team in early 2021 and was involved in the design and establishment stage, followed by the fund allocation and delivery phases. This work included a wide range of project coordination and logistical tasks, which drew on Phil’s broad skill set, including her attention to detail and ability to multi-task.
Phil holds a BA in French and German and is a certified TMI facilitator.
Senior Associate
Helen joined Scott Consulting in September 2024. She brings more than 25 years’ experience leading finance, funding and strategy teams in senior management and executive roles.
She has worked across a range of local and central government agencies, with a particular focus on the transport and infrastructure sector. Before joining Scott Consulting Helen spent 10 years at KiwiRail, most recently as their Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer. Prior to KiwiRail Helen worked as a consultant with NZTA Waka Kotahi, Airways NZ, Ministry for the Environment, and spent several years as Financial Controller for Wellington City Council.
Helen’s strengths include programme governance, strategic finance, funding policy, business case development and stakeholder engagement. She is a thoughtful and collaborative leader, and she has a proven ability to bring teams together to achieve pragmatic solutions. Helen is passionate about helping organisations deliver sustainable and successful outcomes.
Helen is a Chartered Accountant and a member of Global Women.
Diana Pedlow
Senior Associate
Diana joined Scott Consulting in 2020 after 25 years’ public sector experience working on programmes as a behaviour change specialist and programme manager, across a variety of organisations and topics. She has worked in a mix of operational and strategic roles at MidCentral Health, ACC, Department of Internal Affiairs, Activity and Nutrition Aotearoa, and Te Hiringa Hauora/Health Promotion Agency.
Diana has significant experience across the wide range of skills required to effectively plan, deliver, and evaluate social sector programmes, and has a particular interest in stakeholder engagement. In her role at the Health Promotion Agency Diana led stakeholder management workstreams for national social marketing campaigns and she understands how critical stakeholder relationships are to intervention success.
Diana has experience working with marketing and communications providers, extensive experience with budget management, project reporting, managing provider contracts, and providing excellent customer service. She is good at rapidly acquiring knowledge and developing relationships in new environments. In her last two roles Diana developed networks of advisors across the country to ensure the delivery of quality professional development workshops that met the needs of the sector.
Working through Scott Consulting has allowed Diana to focus her efforts into work that genuinely helps clients and makes a difference for their stakeholders. Diana can see the big picture and how to join-the-dots, and she is known as someone who gets things done.
Diana's recent consulting work has included assignments on behalf of Greater Wellington Regional Council, Capital and Coast District Health Board, Waka Kotahi and Sport New Zealand.
Karyn Green
Senior Associate
Karyn is a change, service design and human resources specialist with experience across both the public and private sectors. Karyn draws the best out of people and quickly gets to the nub of any issue. She has a strong personal commitment to collaborating with people to design better workplaces and she appreciates the value that different perspectives and experiences bring to the table to support quality outcomes.
Karyn has worked as a senior Human Resources specialist and is well versed in all aspects of recruitment, performance management, disciplinary matters, and remuneration reviews.
Karyn's recent career has seen her leading strategic service design and change programmes with Wellington City Council, Massey University, the Ministry of Health, and numerous clients through five years of offering consultancy services. She has led the design of a new shared-services operating model to meet the needs of an organisation experiencing significant changes in their external environment; a review of culture in a newly formed unit within the government sector, and; facilitation of the strategic planning process for a corporate services portfolio, including the development of a cohesive team culture and new ways of working.
Karyn's most recent work has seen her leading the function transfer change process associated with the New Zealand health and disability sector reform. Currently Karyn is supporting three waters reform and working in a large government agency to design and implement a regional partnership model with iwi/Māori and local government.
Karyn is extremely professional and held in high regard by all her colleagues and clients. Karyn holds a Bachelor of Social Work and a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration in Human Resources Management and Services.
Bruce Robertson
Senior Associate
With over three decades’ experience with the Office of the Auditor General and Audit New Zealand, Bruce has deep practical knowledge of the system of government with a particular interest in the local government sector.
Bruce delivers advice and solutions to a wide range of central and local government clients. He shares their passion to increase public value, through the delivery of high quality advice and by working collaboratively and in partnership with clients to increase organisational capability and institutional knowledge.
Bruce's experience includes developing organisational capability. An example of this is the work he has done with the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) to develop capability and knowledge across participating Pacific nations. His advisory work covers strategy, effective decision making, value for money and performance, organisational and functional "health checks”, and how clients can make collaborative frameworks “real”. Bruce's work has a strong focus on bringing together the financial and asset management disciplines within organisations to drive performance and deliver value for money.
Bruce's significant technical and leadership experience means he is frequently be called in to provide trusted advice to chief executives, boards and senior management as well as to elected officials and he is an independent member on a number of Audit and Risk Committees. Bruce is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
