Steve Critchlow – founder, owner and executive director of specialist mapping consultancy Critchlow – has taken over the company reigns as managing director.
The move follows Critchlow chief executive Jos Kunnen stepping down to develop his own business interests.
Critchlow provide data, software and consultancy related to mapping and telematics for a number of industries, including transport. They also provide spacial analysis of crash statistics for the NZ Transport agency.
“My goal four years ago when I joined Critchlow was to position the company for future success by focusing on the real operational and business needs of our customers, embracing the new technologies that were emerging and promoting the value of Critchlow’s range of capabilities,” says Kunnen.
“This has enabled us to deliver to our customers a number of impressive solutions in diverse areas including emergency management, fleet and routing optimisation, marketing, franchising and service management.
“With these things well in train, the time is right to move on.”
Kunnen’s background as CIO in a large corporate and his consulting background have made a sustained and positive difference to the company, says Gavin Lennox, Critchlow’s chairman.
“In the four and half years with Jos at the helm of Critchlow, the company has achieved much including extending and developing relationships with business partners Nokia (NAVTEQ), Intech Solutions and Pitney Bowes, gaining ISO9001/2008 accreditation and hiring Critchlow’s first Australian employee,” says Lennox.
“Critchlow needed a clear vision for the future. Under Jos’ leadership the company has focused its vision, resources and processes to position the company well, and has enjoyed a number of successful years.”
“On behalf of the Critchlow board, I want to sincerely thank Jos for his efforts and congratulate him on his many achievements during his time with the company – he will be missed,” says Lennox.
Steve Critchlow has 25 years background in the New Zealand mapping industry. With a surveying and computing background, his extensive knowledge of the land tenure, survey and mapping systems of NZ has made a solid contribution to the success of projects undertaken by Critchlow for its clients.
While Critchlow says it is too soon to comment about the future direction of the company, DIESELtalk spoke to Kunnen in August following a new deal with Nokia Location & Commerce, said to ‘open up a number of opportunities for fleet operators in the sector.’
“The Nokia deal means we have access to a number of other datasets we haven’t had access to before. One of these is traffic patterns and we have 10 years of traffic flow data for all of the major roads in new zealand. We see that as an exciting opportunity for transport operators to start to get a more effective modelling for their logistics,” said Kunnen.
“We don’t come from a trucking background as such, but we have some exciting projects that are starting to form and look like they are going to have significant benefit for transport customers.”
“Unfortunately, we can’t disclose any details of the pilot programs we are looking at for the transport industry,” says Kunnen, “but details around these should be emerging in the next few months. I can say that these will have a triple layer of benefits for drivers, the environment, and business profits.”
