Meet the team - introducing Nathan

A long-termer here at GovCMS, Nathan is the Director of the GovCMS team and is responsible for managing the activity that helps get your website up and running on GovCMS. 

Nathan started his career in Government as a graduate 25 years ago, so not surprisingly, he has a broad range of knowledge and skills to contribute.

“I remember when I first started my career, I stumbled across this thing called the internet, I was offered a position as I was ‘good with computers’. Now I have been working with it for 24 years. I worked overseas for 12 years with the New Zealand Government in a variety of roles. The common theme for all the roles I’ve had is making government services better. The GovCMS team has a range of different experiences like mine, and combined the team is stronger.”

Nathan’s journey began with GovCMS in August 2016, just one year after GovCMS launched.   

“When I first started with GovCMS there were 36 agencies and 86 websites. Now we have 97 agencies and 308 websites, with lots more coming.” 

As a passionate, innovative thinker who puts the GovCMS community at the forefront of his work, Nathan’s a strong advocate for human-centered design and putting the customer first. He is keen to engage, listen, and ask questions, reassuring customers that they’re not alone and that we’ll help them through it.

“GovCMS is different to other government shared services because we’re community led. Customers don’t come on board because they feel like they have to, but because the services we offer are good value. We know there’s a lot of unknowns when coming to GovCMS, so we find out what’s important to the customer and focus on that.” 

Nathan’s favourite part of his role is being able to welcome a new agency into the GovCMS community. He also works closely with his team to break down the barriers between digital teams across government.

“We understand how government works, so we try to make GovCMS work for government. It’s like a puzzle, and part of my job and my team’s is to help assemble the pieces. We get bits of the customer’s story and that helps bring it all together.”

“It’s worth it. I never get tired of saying, ‘Welcome to GovCMS.’”

Outside of work Nathan spends his free time gardening, going on road trips and undertaking genealogy research.  It’s another passion of his, and a journey he’s been on for 32 years.

“I spend a lot of my time outside work doing genealogy research. I have a massive family tree, with some very weird and sometimes infamous connections. I’ve met some distant family, and love to share and exchange research with them.”