Dean Butchers to lead ATEED’s Business Attraction and Investment division

Dean Butchers has been appointed General Manager Business Attraction and Investment (BA&I) at Auckland’s regional economic growth agency.

He comes to this role at Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) from a private sector career, including several senior executive positions at IBM – most recently as general manager of the company’s high-performing Systems and Technology Group.  

Dean is a permanent replacement for David Caselli, who established the BA&I unit before transferring to Auckland Council last year to work with the Council group to increase investment in Auckland’s key transformation projects.

In the last financial year, the BA&I unit directly delivered an estimated $265 million in foreign direct investment for Auckland, more than half coming from helping the establishment or expansion in Auckland of six multi-national companies; and the rest from the unit’s Screen Auckland team, which brought in $113 million of screen production investment.

ATEED Chief Executive Brett O’Riley says: “Dean has a highly impressive track record in management and, crucially, a great deal of experience in international business. In his most recent role, Dean led IBM New Zealand's top-performing team and delivered strong revenue and profit growth."

While working with IBM’s former personal computing division – now called Lenovo – Dean was based in Japan and the US, and completed an MBA in general management from the business school of Duke University. He has also held senior management roles at Hewlett-Packard, Telecom and OfficeMax New Zealand. 

Dean says: “I’m excited about this challenge in what is a tremendous time of growth for Auckland. The region has a strong proposition to offer foreign companies and investors in an intensely competitive global market, and we have an award winning FDI strategy template to springboard from, particularly our focus on aftercare.”

“I’m looking forward to working in partnership with central government agencies, the private sector and the wider ATEED business on an integrated approach which delivers new high-value jobs and new investment for Auckland across our key growth sectors,” says Dean, who starts his role on 4 April.