Operational transformation partners who have run the operation.
The best operational advice comes from people who have actually run operations. NNVT works from that experience — asking what really happened, because we've been the ones it happened to.
Founded in New Zealand, focused on the work.
We started NNVT after years inside live operations — rosters, control rooms, disruptions at 3am — watching recovery processes that only existed on paper. The cost was never in the manual; it was in what actually happened.
Today we partner with operations across transport, logistics, utilities and the public sector — reviewing how work really happens and giving leaders the evidence to fix it.
What we bring, combined.
- Two decades combined leading live operations across rail, bus and logistics
- Control room leadership experience in the Wellington and Auckland Rail Operations Centres
- Frontline to control: Locomotive Engineer, Train Controller, Network Control Manager, Day of Operations Manager
- Incident response and disruption recovery managed first-hand, in high-volume, time-critical environments
- Multi-agency operating experience — co-located control environments spanning KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and operators
- Specialists in process improvement, digital transformation, and building fragmented teams into resilient operations
The directors.
The operators behind the advice.
Jon Jacobson
Jon is an experienced operational leader with more than nine years in the public transport sector, bringing deep, hands-on knowledge of rail operations and control environments.
Most recently, Jon worked as a Network Control Manager at KiwiRail. His career spans a range of operationally intensive roles, including Locomotive Engineer and Train Controller. He has worked within both the Wellington and Auckland Rail Operations Centres, giving him broad exposure to different operating models and network contexts.
Jon specialises in process improvement, team leadership, and business development. His strong operational and technical background enables him to provide practical, well-grounded advice on improving how work is done, particularly in environments where safety, reliability, and coordination are critical.
He is known as an energetic and people-focused leader who places strong emphasis on building capable teams. Jon brings a collaborative style to his work, with a clear focus on supporting people to perform at their best while delivering meaningful, lasting improvements.
Rickus Van Niekerk
Rickus is an operational leader with a decade of experience across the transport industry, with deep expertise in operations and performance management.
He is currently Day of Operations Manager at NZ Post, leading a team of eight through day-to-day operations, incident response, and process improvement in a high-volume, time-critical environment. Before this, he held a range of operational leadership roles across bus and rail, including control room leadership within the Auckland Rail Operations Centre — co-located with KiwiRail and Auckland Transport. That gave him first-hand experience running live operations under pressure, across multiple agencies, when things don't go to plan.
Rickus specialises in digital transformation, continuous improvement, and team leadership — with a particular focus on what happens when operations don't work as they should: where decisions get made, where they should have been made, and what it takes to get things back on track faster. Throughout his career, he's repeatedly taken on teams and functions that were fragmented or in an early state, building them into capable, structured, and resilient operations which deliver consistent results.
His approach is practical and collaborative, with a strong focus on how teams use information, systems, and processes to make better decisions under pressure and deliver more consistent operational outcomes.
How we show up.
Truth over comfort
We tell you what the numbers say, even when it isn't the easy conversation.
Operator's eye
We've run operations ourselves — we know where the real process hides.
Leave it better
Success is a recovery that runs the same whoever is on shift — no NNVT required.
Find out where your operation breaks down — and what it costs.
Two diagnostics — Disruption Recovery and Go-Live Readiness — each ending in a ranked gap report and one session with your leadership.