Meet Tash Hallett, ABL’s Senior Maritime Security Consultant in New Zealand
The team at ABL Group shares the passion, vision and values for working in energy and the world’s oceans, de-risking and driving the energy transition. We are driven by the idea that the best work is born from professionalism, diligence… and fun. You know ABL Group, but do you know our team?
Give us a glimpse into your day-to-day life at ABL in New Zealand and leading the maritime security services. What keeps you on your toes?
Being in New Zealand means we get a bit of a head start to the day, so I use this time to do some world event searching for situational awareness in the maritime space, check my LinkedIn account and then start processing my emails.
Given the newness of the security business for ABL, there is a lot of engaging with clients in order to understand exactly what it is they want and how I can design a specific product for them; every port is different and needs a solution that works for them.
This aspect is probably what keeps me on my toes as I want to add value to their needs, and to do this means thinking out of the traditional box to give them a product that suits them; it also energises me as well, so that is a great thing.
What drew you to the industry and what keeps you passionate about it?
To be honest, coming from a law enforcement background, I truly did not understand how important the ocean was around us – just that we needed to learn how to swim and be respectful to it. When I applied for a job within the maritime industry, it became really clear how important it was, which then led onto the varied jobs that came within the industry and eventually finding my way back into a national security space but with a maritime lens.
This is the bit that really drew me in to the point I was excited to get up and go to work each morning, add into this the ability to help countries in the Pacific learn how to adapt international conventions to suit their cultures and resources, and this is the dream job. This allowed me to support an industry that protects our supply chains and people’s livelihoods through the implementation of the ISPS Code, especially critical when over 99% of our export and import volume is transported by sea. This makes our ports and shipping critical infrastructure, and if we don’t secure them, then we can find ourselves and our generations in a very different world.
Can you tell us about something exciting you are working on right now?
Much of my current work sits around the question of whether traditional, government centric security delivery models are still sufficient for today’s risk environments. I’m engaged in discussions with government and international counterparts about how carefully governed public-private collaboration could play a more constructive role in security outcomes globally, particularly where scale, speed or specialised capability are required.
What does the future of energy and oceans look like right now?
We are entering a period where the future of energy and ocean industries is being reshaped offshore, across shared and increasingly complex maritime systems. Yet the full implications of this transformation are not well understood. Energy, data, logistics, and environmental systems are becoming interconnected faster than our understanding of where responsibility for the associated risks truly lies.
This means security can no longer sit at the periphery as a regulatory afterthought, it must evolve in step with these systems, embedded as core infrastructure, designed in from the outset rather than added as an add-on later.
Beyond the work, what makes you tick outside of the office?
What makes me tick the most outside work is family time added in with all our animals, the chickens probably get more time out of me than should be allowed, and then there is the constant need to learn; anything from going back to university through to building DIY projects; hence the chickens, as that was my first project.
More about Tash
Position: Senior Maritime Security Consultant
Office: Wellington, New Zealand
Hobbies: Chicken raising, dog walking, study and building projects around the house
Favourite Movie/Song: My favourite movie is The Sound of Music, my favourite song is anything modern country, especially from Chris Stapleton
ABL New Zealand offers expert engineering and consultancy services across the maritime and offshore energy sectors, with a strong focus on safety, sustainability, and risk management. Their maritime services include: