Paula Beever worked with the New Zealand Fire Service for fourteen years and was Director for most of that time, responsible to the Chief Executive for community fire risk management advice, which responsibility included the Fire Service advertising and publicity campaigns.
From February 2004 she was a member of the Chief Executive’s Strategic Integration Team responsible for ensuring high level integration of organisational activity. As chair of the New Zealand Fire Service Project Review Committee she was accountable to the Chief Executive for procedures developed and implemented in order to provide assurance to the Chief Executive that the organisation’s capital expenditure aligned with strategy, and that projects undertaken by the organisation were well planned and managed. Paula was one of the advocates of the Baldrige Business Excellence Framework as a driver for organisational improvement.
For a number of years Paula was accountable to the Chief Executive for the provision to the New Zealand Fire Service of data and mapping services to underpin decision making, including data to support dispatch to emergency incidents, fire safety campaigns, resource allocation, operational planning and performance monitoring. this included leading a [roject to develop a resource allocation model for fire station location.
She acted as strategic advisor to the National Commander on fire engineering matters and provided leadership to a team of 12 fire engineers located around the country. The principal role of that team was to provide formal advice to building officials on all of performance - based fire designs in New Zealand. She was committed to improving the skill level and in that context has developed and delivered training to Fire Service Personnel.
She took a proactive role in influencing changes to standards and legislation in New Zealand. By identifying and exploiting opportunities, she was instrumental the preparation of a new Standard on sprinklers for houses and in advocating a new and strengthened role for the Fire Service in commenting on building designs under new Building Act. She wass part of a small working group that was responsible for the rewriting of the fire safety clauses of the New Zealand Building Code and developing a new framework for performance based designs.
On behalf of the New Zealand Fire Service Commission, Paula Beever managed a half million dollar Contestable Research Fund. She was responsible for convening an expert committee that disbursed the fund in line with the Commission’s research objectives and supervised research projects as they were carried out.
In April 2008 Paula was appointed as leader of an official inquiry into the circumstances surrounding a fatal explosion and fire at a coolstores facility in Tamahere, New Zealand.
