Rebecca Finlay has been nominated by Anthony Warren, the quarry manager at Portland Cement, for a 2023 Q&M Tomorrow’s Leader Award. Rebecca started her quarry journey with ACT Safety in 2020, with the huge challenge of obtaining both her A-B Surface Management Certificates within a year.
With a very diverse background, Rebecca started her employment in government agencies, before joining the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1997 where she served for three years. After that was a stint working as a dispatcher for the NZ Police.
Rebecca moved to the Kauri Coast and worked for the Department of Conservation where she found her passion for health and safety and dealing with emergency situations; re-training to get her NEBOSH General Occupational Health and Safety Certificate 1, 2 and 3.
In 2014 she started in a role as Health and Safety Advisor with Golden Bay Cement, looking after its manufacturing plant and the Portland and Wilsonville Quarries.
In 2017 Rebecca took over the role of looking after contractors at GBC’s Portland quarry while the quarry manager took a month off on annual leave.
Finding this “exciting, new and different”, Rebecca enrolled for her A and B Surface Management qualifications, so she “could be more confident in her role and provide better support for her manager and team at Golden Bay Cement”.
In 2020 Rebecca joined the Wilsonville team as team leader and, under the guidance of Clive Halliday, completed the final step in gaining her A Grade CoC by passing the final oral exam.
And now as they say … Rebecca’s real training starts.
