Meet the Management team
Andrew Paton
Andrew is the General Manager of Apex Water. He brings extensive experience from both New Zealand and overseas, leading the delivery of water and wastewater projects and holding senior management roles across a range of organisations within the water industry.
With a strong technical and commercial background, Andrew holds a degree in Chemical and Materials Engineering, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Accounting. His combined expertise enables him to provide strategic leadership while ensuring operational excellence across the business. His deep industry knowledge and entrepreneurial vision continue to underpin Apex Water’s success.
Shauney O'Loughlin
Shauney is the People & Capability Leader at Apex Water. In her role, she is responsible for leading the organisation’s people strategy, supporting leaders and teams, and fostering a positive, high-performing workplace culture.
Shauney brings a strong passion for developing people, strengthening leadership capability, and creating an environment where individuals and teams can thrive.
Steve Kroening
Steve is the Commercial Manager and original founder of Apex Water. As founder, Steve has played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s direction, values, and long-term growth. In his role as Commercial Manager, he is responsible for overseeing commercial strategy, contract negotiations, financial performance, risk management, and client relationships.
Steve works closely with the leadership team to secure new opportunities, ensure sustainable business growth, and maintain strong partnerships across the water industry.
Kennedy Boakye
Kennedy is the Projects Delivery Manager at Apex Water. He brings extensive project management experience across the oil, gas, chemical, water, and wastewater industries, and has successfully delivered numerous wastewater projects for both municipal and private sector clients.
Kennedy leads end-to-end project delivery, overseeing planning, budgets, contracts, stakeholder engagement, procurement, and site coordination to ensure projects are completed safely, on time, and to a high standard.
James Henderson
James is a commercial and sales leader at Apex Water with over 15 years’ experience in the water and waste sector. He specialises in business development, client relationships, and New Zealand drinking water standards, working closely with clients to deliver practical water and wastewater solutions that meet regulatory requirements and support long-term outcomes. His strong sector knowledge and commercial focus make him a trusted partner for customers navigating complex water quality and infrastructure challenges.
Rebecca Upton-Birdsall
Rebecca is the Engineering Manager at Apex Water. She has more than 10 years’ experience as a process engineer, specialising in commissioning water and wastewater treatment plants. Her expertise includes commissioning management, contractor coordination, process design, and developing functional descriptions and control software for plant operations. Her key strength is commissioning management, including planning and executing tie-ins, testing control systems, and supporting operational integration and handover. Detail-oriented and collaborative, Rebecca works closely with the wider Apex team to deliver successful project outcomes.
Mike Evans
Michael is the Major Projects Manager at Apex Water, leading the delivery of projects valued over $40M. He leads project teams, clients and stakeholders to ensure complex projects are delivered efficiently and successfully. Mike has a background in project management, design management and construction across the water, infrastructure, industrial and energy sectors and specialises in multidisciplinary design-and-build projects in the water sector. This experience gives a very good understanding of project risk across the project lifecycle ensuring efficiency while maintaining high standards in safety, quality, environmental and team culture.
