Faces of the CRL: Maria Hernandez-Curry
Delivering the country’s largest infrastructure project takes some seriously talented people, so in this section “Faces of the CRL” we interview some of City Rail Link’s best and brightest. This month we turn the spotlight on Maria Hernandez-Curry, who is integral member of the City Rail Link communications team.
Name: Maria Hernandez-Curry
Age: 37
Suburb: Mt Albert
How long have you been working with CRL? Six months
What is your role? Stakeholder Communications Manager
How do you do it? Telling CRL’s story and connecting the project to the communities it affects. The CRL project has a huge range of stakeholders whose needs we take into account as part of this project. We build relationships and communicate with our stakeholders across a wide range of topics, including about construction works and their impacts, ways we can help mitigate these impacts, as well as other areas of the project including environmental and social outcomes.
What do you enjoy most about your job? All the awesome, interesting and diverse people I’ve met. I also never thought I’d get this excited about tunnels and train stations. I genuinely believe that the CRL is going to be a game changer for Auckland once it’s built, and it’s a privilege working on such an incredible project.
Most challenging part? Getting my 12-year-old daughter to understand/take any interest in what I do for a living.
Previous jobs? A range of stuff, mostly with local government on environmental outcomes and working with community. Including engagement and consultation, behaviour change around waste, waste planning and managing grants. I’ve also taught sustainability at AUT and worked with community groups on grants strategy and management.
Hobbies? Anything that involves being outside – especially now that summer is coming up. Especially love summer gigs, good walks and Auckland’s awesome beaches.
What are you looking forward to most about when the CRL is complete? I’m really excited to see all it all come together – particularly all of the station design work with being done with Mana Whenua. Our new stations are going to spectacular places and really unique to Auckland. I’m also a three-minute walk from the train station in Mt Albert, so I’m pretty excited about my own personal travel time savings too.