About Pan Pac:
Pan Pac Forest Products (Pan Pac) is a fully integrated forestry, lumber, and pulp products business, with more than 50 years of operation and deep roots in the Hawke’s Bay region. As the country’s largest producer of appearance‑grade lumber and a major exporter of radiata‑based products, Pan Pac plays a significant role in the national economy. Today, Pan Pac is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oji Fibre Group, one of the world’s largest pulp, paper and packaging organisations, allowing the business to benefit from the scale of a major international shareholder, while maintaining the agility, community connection and long‑term regional commitment of a long‑established Hawke’s Bay employer. Pan Pac currently employs approximately 450 staff located primarily in Napier.
The role: General Manager, People & Culture
Reporting to the Managing Director and a pivotal Executive Team member, the GM People & Culture holds enterprise accountability for the leadership, governance and performance of Human Resources, People & Culture, Health & Safety, Environment, Communications and Administration support. The role leads managers and subject matter experts to set standards, lift service delivery and manage people and reputational risk across the business units – supporting an operation whose products reach global markets.
The role leads managers and subject‑matter experts and ensures Pan Pac has the systems, frameworks, leadership capability and risk controls required to operate safely, compliantly and sustainably
Key Responsibilities:
- Drive enterprise‑wide people, safety, environment and organisational frameworks
- Influence across business units to uplift consistency and risk management
- Oversee ER, union engagement, governance processes and shareholder reporting
- Provide executive stewardship including budget oversight and legal engagement
Ideal Candidate Profile:
You will be an experienced people leader with a strong record of leading other managers and specialists, ideally in large‑scale industrial, operational or blue‑collar environments. You will bring gravitas, strategic maturity and the ability to influence executive peers, particularly in settings with autonomy and strong compliance, safety, and environmental requirements.
Essential Skills & Experience
- Senior leadership experience in industrial or operational environments
- Strong ER capability and experience working in unionised settings
- Governance experience across health & safety, environmental or risk‑heavy portfolios
- Capability in organisational systems, frameworks and scalable people processes
This is a rare opportunity to step into a critical senior leadership role at Pan Pac. The successful candidate will help shape enterprise direction, strengthen organisational capability and contribute to a business with meaningful regional impact, international reach and a long‑term commitment to sustainable, high‑value operations in New Zealand.
For more information or to apply, please contact Alex Nevil at Hobson Leavy Executive Search: nevil@hobsonleavy.com.
Applications close at 5pm on 27th February 2026
