Our Team

Glenn Wakeman – NZCE, BE (Civil) – Director

Glenn has been working and living in Fiji since 2000 in Business and Project Management roles and joined Flame Tree five years later. He was instrumental in the company restructure and helped to meld it to what it is today. His specialty is project management and delivery, enjoying the technical and contractual challenges of those tricky jobs.

With more than 20 years experience in the Pacific, he has a tremendous wealth of practical experience. He has worked at various times for some of the major construction companies that operate in the South Pacific, including two years in Papua New Guinea, some time in Tuvalu and especially our major roading project in Vanuatu.

Andrew Naylor – BE (Civil), MBA (Diploma), MIPENZ, MFIE – Director

Andrew is our General Manager and has been with Flame Tree since 2008. He looks after the business side of the company and has worked for developers and builders on projects in Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, PNG and Russia.

He was a Consulting Engineer in NZ and Australia and first embarked into the South Pacific 25 years ago working on an international airport project in PNG.  He was the Project Manager on major resort projects in Christchurch and Denarau before joining the Flame Tree team.

Brendan Yandle

Brendan is our Plant Manager and underwent professional training with one of New Zealand’s leading heavy equipment supply and service organizations before heading to Fiji in 1999.

Having worked in Fiji, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Cook Islands and Samoa, his hands-on practical approach and in-depth knowledge of all things mechanical, coupled with his South Pacific experience and razor sharp wit makes him an essential member of our management team.

Peter Levestam

Peter has been with Flame Tree from the beginning. He has a marine background and steel and aluminium fabrication. Now, he manages special projects and provides workshop, logistics and ancillary support for projects of all sizes and in some way out locations.

Peter recently completed some wicked timber retaining walls on Malolo Island and before that managed the BP tank removal and rehabilitation project delivering it ahead of time and under budget on multiple sites in three different countries to the most stringent health, safety and quality requirements. Peter was also our on-site manager for our recent Solar Array installation in Tarawa, Kiribati which was the classic remote location.

Sam Tunidau

Sam began with Flame Tree as a Heavy Plant Operator in 2008 where his attitude and management skills saw him quickly elevated to a Supervisory role on the construction of airports in Vanuatu. He has a mechanical and forestry background and extensive Civil Engineering and Quarry experience.

Sam is a qualified Quarry Foreman and Blaster and runs a tight ship as the Manager of both our Saru and Waimanu Quarries. He also manages our explosives, magazines and drill and blast operations which means he gets to blow mountains up every day.

Vivita Bosewaqa

Vivita started with Flame Tree in 2006 and is our Accounts Administrator. During this time she has studied at Fiji National University for her Advanced Diploma in Accounting.

Vi is the brains putting the thousands of dockets, purchase orders and invoices together and flawlessly recording and turning the data into something our Managers, Clients and Suppliers can easily understand.

Vi is an integral member of our team with a wealth of experience. She communicates eloquently at all company levels and doesn’t take any backchat either.

Scott McNair

Scott is a qualified plumber, drainlayer and gasfitter (among other things) and has had a wealth of experience on a diverse range of projects and locations.

He joined us in June 2015 as the Project Supervisor of our Civil Infrastructure team on the Nadi 4 Lane Project. This was a major project on a busy arterial road being delivered to international quality and safety standards. A major challengies was the unknown existing services and the new underground infrastructure requiring careful planning, temporary works and execution.

Scott also has an active involvement of our Health and Safety System and development of procedures and policy.

George Wade

The 2005 Momi Bay water supply project saw the inclusion of George with Flame Tree. He has then been a key member of our company and travelled extensively on many of our major offshore projects.  He quickly demonstrated his work ethic and attitude and has travelled extensively in Fiji and the Pacific on many of our major projects.

George is a qualified Quarry Foreman and is the Supervisor at our Saru Quarry in Lautoka. Having sound equipment and process knowledge, George understands how to get our crushed rock product spot on the specification.

Jione Fereti

Jione was born and raised in Fiji and then spent time in some major Quarries and Mines in Australia. He came to us with a wealth of skills and experience and at a critical time, just as we were ramping up our crushing plant capacity in Saru Quarry.

Jione maintains our four rock crushers and associated screens, wash plants and conveyors at Saru in extreme operating conditions. In the game of rock versus machine he knows the rock always wins unless you stay on top of it.

Phil Tombs

Phil joined Flame Tree at the end of 2016 and heads up our newly formed Roading division. Phil boasts an extensive career in Project Management, road and pavement construction and has worked in Fiji and the Pacific for the last 15 years, including stints in Australia. Phil has a wealth of experience in all aspects of pavement construction including stabilisation and surfacing.

Phil’s extensive expertise and no-bullshit attitude makes for a good fit in the team as we develop this new area of our business.

Willy Kumeroa

Willy has been in Fiji since the late 90s and has travelled and worked extensively around the Pacific. Willy is quite simply a pavement construction master. His skilled grader operation, astute understanding of material performance, pavement geometry and ability to smash out the squares puts him ahead of all in the industry. Willy leads the roading team on the job, so get out of the way.

Mike Watson

Mike is a landscaper and nurseryman with a wealth of experience in Australia, UAE, the Maldives and on the prestigious Laucala Island in Fiji. He is heading up our new Landscape & Nursery division which sees us venturing into retail sales of plants and associated supplies at our Nadi Back Rd yard and the establishment of a landscape construction operation to cater to the resort and residential market.