Barrie Miles Owen, Chartered Accountant PAL Chairman of Board Barrie has been a Chartered Accountant since 1964. He joined KPMG Tauranga or predecessor firm in 1965 and was Chairman and Managing Partner of the Tauranga office for 17 years to 2000 and a Senior Partner till 2004. Barrie was part of the KPMG National Management Board and was Deputy Chairman of Western Bay Health Limited 1994 to 1998. He has considerable experience over many years providing business, taxation and investment advice to GPs, specialists, hospitals, pharmacists, rest homes and retirement villages. He retired from KPMG December 2004 and now operates his own consultancy firm –and is chairman and director on boards for a number of companies. He has for many years been the Accountant/Advisor for PAL and has been Chairman of the Board of Directors since 1994.
Dr Ian Beer, BSc, MB ChB, FRCPA Director PAL, General Pathologist A generally trained pathologist with over 20 years experience in surgical pathology, FNA cytology, gynaecological cytology, laboratory haematology, clinical chemistry and forensic autopsies. He has served as Clinical Director of Laboratory Services at Tauranga Hospital and has been responsible for Blood Bank for 16 years, and Director of or predecessor firm for 10 years. Ian has been closely involved with integration of laboratory services within the hospital and community, Eastern and Western Bay of Plenty, Rotorua and Hamilton. He was chair of the Association of Community Laboratories between 1999 and 2004 and is currently a member of the Medical Testing Professional Advisory Committee of IANZ since 2000 and Expert Medical Advisor to the Health and Disability Commission.
Dr Stephen May, MB BS, MRCP, MRCPath Director PAL, Clinical and Laboratory Haematologist A clinical and laboratory haematologist, Dr May worked at Waikato Hospital for 20 years involved with inpatient care of leukaemia patients and bone marrow transplantation. In addition to private clinics, Stephen has had extensive management with coagulation disorders in both clinical and laboratory settings.
Dr Richard Massey MB ChB, FRCPA Director PAL, LSR, Histocytopathologist Dr Massey, a qualified pathologist, has been Director of Pathology Associates for 12 years. Richard is employed on a 0.2FTE basis by Waikato DHB with the responsibility for the Pathology component of the Gynaecology Oncology Multidisciplinary meeting. Richard is also support for the regional lymphoma multidisciplinary meeting.
Dr Murray Thorburn, MB ChB, FRCPA Lead Breast Pathologist, LSR Pathology HOD, Histocytopathologist Murray is a graduate of the University of Otago School of Medicine and trained as a Pathologist at Wellington Hospital. After becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (1989) he moved to Hamilton where he worked in public and private pathology. Murray was heavily involved with the Waikato Breast Screening Pilot Programme and later with the National Programme. He has been a member of the Quality Assurance, Scientific and Education Committee of the RCPA and the Pathology Uni-disciplinary Group of Breast Screen Aotearoa. He is a member of the International Academy of Pathology (IAP) and his areas of special interest include breast pathology, genitourinary pathology, dermatopathology and fine needle aspiration.
Dr John Viggiano, MD, Affiliate FRCPA General Pathologist John is an American trained pathologist. He received his American Board Qualification in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology in September 1989. John then did a one-year postgraduate Fellowship as Clinical Instructor in Anatomic Pathology at the University of California, Los Angeles Medial Centre. It was during the Fellowship he received some specialty training from Dr Joseph Mirra in bone pathology. John immigrated to New Zealand in June 1990 and worked at the Waikato Hospital in Hamilton as a Specialist Anatomic Pathologist and Supervisor of the Pathology Training Programme. Later, he became involved in the pilot Breast Screening Aotearoa programme. Since April 1995, John has been working as a General Pathologist at Medlab Tauranga, as part of PAL Ltd. He is one of the two lead pathologists for Breast Screening Aotearoa, Bay of Plenty branch and considers breast pathology one of his subspecialties. His other interests are FNA Cytology, GI pathology and soft tissue pathology.
Dr Tim Sutton, BSc, MB ChB, FRCPA General Pathologist Tim is a New Zealand trained General Pathologist. He completed training and worked at Barnes Hospital (St Louis) and Greenlane Hospital before moving to Tauranga Hospital and Medlab Bay of Plenty in 1992. He has an interest in Urological Pathology, particularly of the prostate and is one of the two lead pathologists for the Breast screening programme in the Bay of Plenty. Tim worked extensively with the McLeod whanau on the pathology side of the study on familial gastric cancer and is responsible for the training of pathology registrars at PAL. Tim has significant experience in clinical pathology, particularly clinical chemistry and continues to support advancing technologies and their role in the modern laboratory.
Dr Mark Wickham, MB ChB, M. Med Anat.path Histocytopathologist Dr Wickham is a South African trained Histopathololgist. He managed regional laboratory services including 6 satellite laboratories in the Eastern Transvaal area of South Africa, extending into Mozambique for a period of 13 years. He gained a wide experience of general pathology, tropical diseases and AIDS as well as provision of rural laboratory services. Mark joined the PAL group in 2004 where he is part of an active team working mainly in diagnostic surgical pathology and cytopathology as well as coronial work.
Dr Humphrey Pullon, B. Hum. Bio, MB ChB, FRACP, FRCPA Clinical Haematologist An experienced Haematologist with a special interest in Haematological Malignancies including leukaemia, lymphoma and autologous bone marrow transplantation. As part of his Health Waikato responsibilities, he has served the Waikato and Lakeland populations via Waikato Hospital and the Rotorua Hospital Haematology Outreach Clinic. Additionally, he has been involved with community laboratory work in Hamilton since 1994. In 1999 Humphrey joined Pathlab where he undertakes private consulting and part-time laboratory work. He continues his close involvement as a shareholder pathologist of the PAL group with a focus on their commitment to providing high quality accessible laboratory services to all in the Waikato, Lakes and BOP DHB areas.
Dr Gillian Corbett MB ChB, FRACP, MRCP, FRCPath Clinical Haematologist Gillian is a very experienced clinical and laboratory Haematologist who works within Health Waikato and is also responsible for outpatient Haematology Clinics at Tauranga Hospital. Gillian also has a private practice based in Tauranga, as well as the ability to consult in Hamilton in a private capacity. After qualifying in Otago, she travelled to England to undertake Specialist Haematology training at the Hammersmith Hospital in London. She joined the staff at Waikato Hospital in 1987 and has concentrated on clinical and laboratory duties with a particular interest in haematological malignancies. Her experience is wide reaching and includes all aspects of Haematology and blood transfusion.
Dr Michael Addidle, MBCHB, MRCP, MRCPath, DTM&H Clinical Microbiologist Dr Addidle is a United Kingdom trained Microbiologist. A member of Infection Control Committee for Tauranga Hospital (also Braemar Hospital and Southern Cross Hospital in Hamilton and Southern Cross Hospital in Rotorua - and a member of Influenza Pandemic Planning Group (Tauranga Hospital). Michael’s special interest is in helping the management of infections and works closely with the Infectious Diseases physicians and Microbiologist at Waikato hospital.
Dr Ben Tallon, MB ChB, FRACPderm Dermapathologist Dr Tallon is an NZ and UK trained Dermatologist and Dermapathologist, with experience working in America and Europe. Ben works at Tauranga Hospital and Pathlab and is a tutor for the International Dermatology Masters Programme.
Dr Nadir Hasan, MB, Fellow RCPath (London, UK), Affiliate RCPA Histopathologist Dr Hasan completed specialist histopathology training in London in 1996. Until 2004 Nadir worked in both the Community pathology sector and Waikato Hospital as a specialist pathologist. During this period he developed a subspecialty interest in gastrointestinal pathology and close professional relationships with the specialist doctors in GI medicine and surgery. Nadir now works at Pathlab Waikato.
Dr Sudha Patil, MBBS, DCP, FRCPath Histocytopathologist Dr Patil is a graduate from Karnataka University, India. After finishing her Diploma in Clinical Pathology in Baroda, India, she moved to England to pursue her career in histopathology. She has worked as a Consultant Histocytopathologist in the UK in public and private sectors before moving to New Zealand. Sudha has a broad and varied experience in all aspects of histopathology, autopsy and cytopathology. Her special interests include uropathology, skin, Gynea and GI pathology. She is a member of the International Academy of Pathology.
Dr Stephen du Toit MbChB, BSc. Hons, MMed (Chemical Pathology) Chemical Pathologist Dr du Toit is a South African trained pathologist in a shared position with Waikato Hospital laboratory. He is experienced in consultation, especially endocrinology, technical and quality assurance. Stephen is an honorary lecturer in molecular medicine at the University of Auckland.
Dr Elaine Bekker, MBChB (Pret), MMed (Anat Path) Histocytopathologist Dr Bekker is a South African trained Histocytopathologist. She worked as a pathologist for the National Health Laboratory Services in Pretoria where she had been involved in diagnostic surgical pathology and cytopathology as well as in training of undergraduate and post graduate medical students. She has a special interest in gynaecologic and breast pathology. Dr Bekker has been a member of PAL since June 2011.

Our Senior Management

Dianne McQueen, DMLS, Cert. Personnel Management Chief Executive Officer PAL, Managing Director LSR Dianne’s role is to provide leadership, to plan, organise and provide control through systems and procedures. To provide liaison between the Directors and staff to assist in determining overall company policy. Originally an experienced scientist with Biochemistry qualifications, Dianne moved into management and strategic roles in the early 1990s. She has ten years experience running hospital, community and multi-site laboratories and has an excellent understanding of the pressures this sector faces.
Claudio Turilli, DMLS, Dip. Bus. Management Operations Manager Pathlab Waikato Claudio started work for the National Health Laboratory Services in Durban, South Africa. He qualified as a Technologist (Biochemistry) in June 1974 and progressed through to Principal Medical Technologist by June 1978. Between 1975 and 1979 Claudio served as the Local Examiner for the national examinations (Biochemistry) and qualified in Microbiology 1986. In 1992 Claudio obtained a certificate in Business Management and immigrated to NZ in 1994 to join Pathlab Waikato as Customer Services and Collections Manager and in November 2004 took up the role of Operations Manager for the Waikato laboratory.
Nicholas Page, DMLS Laboratory Manager, Pathlab Bay of Plenty Nick qualified as a Medical Laboratory Technologist in 1992 (Clinical Chemistry) and the following year completed a certificate in Transfusion medicine after 6 years at Rotorua Hospital Laboratory. He has since spent the remaining 12 years within the Transfusion speciality, spending 2 years as second in charge in Rotorua Hospital Blood Bank before taking up the Charge Scientist Transfusion role at PAL. Nick was appointed Bay of Plenty Laboratory Manager in 2008, taking this as his sole position in 2010.
David Beveridge, MSc. Clin. Biochem. P.G. Cert. Biomed. Sci, Hons. BSc. Biochem. Laboratory Manager Pathlab Whakatane David worked for several years in Biochemistry Department of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He moved there in 1985 after attending Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. After gaining valuable business experience at his family’s business, in 2000 he returned to the UK and retrained for 5 years in Clinical Biochemistry at Luton & Dunstable Hospital, immigrating to NZ to join the Biochemistry Department at Whakatane Hospital Laboratory in 2005. In October 2010 he took up the role of Laboratory Manager at the newly formed Pathlab Whakatane.
Jo Hartigan, DMLS Operations Manager Laboratory Services Rotorua (LSR) Jo Hartigan commenced work for Pathlab BOP (then Medlab BOP) in 1990 as Technician in the Microbiology Department. In 1995 she sat her Microbiology exam to complete her studies and qualified as a Scientist. She became the 2 IC of Microbiology in 1999 until leaving in 2005 to work in Brisbane for in a senior role for a large private laboratory. In 2008 Jo returned to NZ and began working in Pathlab Waikato as a senior scientist in Microbiology. She was appointed 2IC in the Microbiology department in May 2008 and continued in this role until she was appointed Operations Manager for Laboratory Services Rotorua in March 2010.
Alan Neal, CSci, MSc, FIBMS Manager, Quality Alan assists in the planning for the future direction of the organisation in terms of quality and maintains these standards across the laboratories of PAL. An experienced scientist and manager with more than 20 years experience Alan works with a motivated team to ensure a quality service to the Midlands region. Our Laboratories are regarded by peers and IANZ, as one of the better diagnostic services in New Zealand.
David Scarrow, DMLS Manager, Information Systems Dave manages and directs the activities of the PAL Information systems. Having trained as a Medical Laboratory Scientist, David was chosen to be the Laboratory sponsor for the implementation of the Delphic LIS in 1989. Since then the role has expanded to encompass all aspects of the PAL Information Systems. David has gained a huge understanding of the Sysmex suite of software, including Oracle and UNIX administration and is responsible for the LIS (Multilab), networking and communications across Pathology Associates sites. His interests revolve around family and the lifestyle opportunities available in the Bay of Plenty.
Vicki Clayton Manager, Purchasing Vicki started work at the Tauranga Hospital Laboratory in 1979 on a twelve-week work experience. After training and qualifing as a Qualified Technical Assistant in Haematology in May 1982, she was employed as a phlebotomist in the Collection Services team at Medlab Bay of Plenty in 1994. Upon promotion from 2IC to Charge of Collection Services Vicki’s involvement in purchasing continued to expand with negotiating contracts and establishing standing orders. In January 1993 she was appointed as Purchasing Manager for PAL. Her additional responsibilities include being a member on the Health and Safety Committee, a trained First Aider, Staff Health Supervisor and responsibility for the set up and monitoring of collection services sites.
Bobby Tagore, BMLSc Manager, Health & Safety Bobby assists in the planning for the future direction of the organisation in terms of health and safety and maintains these standards across the laboratories of PAL to ensure a safe and healthy workplace, compliant with relevant legislation. An experienced scientist, Bobby works with a motivated team to ensure a safe service to the Midlands region.