Strengthening Leadership - Two Key Appointments at Wilson Parking NZ

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

The company

Wilson Parking is New Zealand’s largest and most recognisable parking services provider and the team behind the widely used ParkMate app. As part of the international Wilson Group, the organisation has played a defining role in shaping urban mobility since 1962.

Now, with customer expectations evolving rapidly, technology reshaping the parking industry, and new competitors entering the market, Wilson Parking is investing boldly in leadership and future-fit strategy. Their ambition: to elevate the customer experience, modernise operations, and ensure they continue leading the way in mobility solutions.

The brief

Entering an exciting new era, one defined by digital innovation, customer-centricity, and scalable, sustainable growth, requires visionary leaders to spearhead this transformation from the inside out. To champion and accelerate this journey, Wilson Parking partnered with Convergence to identify and secure two pivotal leadership roles at the heart of this transformation:

1. Chief Operating Officer - created by an internal promotion, and a role charged with driving operational excellence, lifting performance, streamlining systems, and building high-performing teams across a multifaceted national network.
2. Chief Customer Officer - a newly created opportunity to bring the digital interface into the business, and responsibility for modernising and unifying the customer experience, marketing, communications, and customer care, ensuring Wilson Parking’s brand promise is lived at every touchpoint.

The challenges

Chief Operating Officer:

• A role demanding a rare combination of strategic thinking, transformation leadership, and hands‑on operational execution, all underpinned by strong commercial and financial discipline.
• The national, multi-site nature of the business adds complexity, requiring someone willing to engage closely with frontline teams, improve consistency, and embed scalable systems, processes, and reporting.
• A key focus was embedding stronger performance, clear accountability and gearing the business for growth.

Chief Customer Officer:

• A broad remit spanning brand, marketing, communications, customer experience, digital transformation, and customer care, requiring a leader who is both visionary and deeply practical.
• Success depends on balancing revenue, brand reputation, and service excellence in a highly operational, regulated environment.
• The ideal candidate needed to be confident navigating ambiguity, legacy systems, and public scrutiny while still driving innovation and elevating the customer experience.

Our approach

For both roles, we executed a targeted executive search strategy that combined deep networks, proactive outreach, market mapping, and supported advertising. This enabled us to broaden the talent pool beyond traditional pathways, identifying leaders whose backgrounds brought fresh thinking and diverse experience -  even if they didn’t fit every line of a conventional brief.

Throughout the process, we prioritised cultural alignment, people leadership, and the proven ability to deliver at pace. We evaluated candidates not only on technical expertise but also on their capacity to inspire multidisciplinary teams, apply strategic rigour, and uplift commercial performance through strong, authentic leadership.

The outcome

Chief Operating Officer:

Michelle secured a standout global leader with deep experience in strategy development, operational improvement, and large-scale business transformation. Commercially astute and highly people-focused, they have a strong track record in building high-performing teams, simplifying complex operations, and leading meaningful change.

Their capability in leading multi-site operations across digital innovation and customer‑centric growth makes them the ideal leader to help steer Wilson Parking through its modernisation and digital uplift journey.

Chief Customer Officer:

Erin’s search identified an enterprise-scale customer leader operating at the intersection of brand, growth, and commercial strategy, with a truly international footprint. With extensive experience across Australasia, the Caribbean, and Europe, they bring a powerful blend of brand leadership, customer growth strategy, digital transformation expertise, and team-building capability. Their ability to balance commercial outcomes with customer-centric innovation makes them the perfect fit for a role where customer experience, digital enablement, and commercial strategy converge.