Ockham Residential began in 2009, the vision of co-founders Mark Todd and Benjamin Preston who had the good fortune to stumble upon a fine young architect named Tania Wong. More than a decade and 14 completed developments on, these three original Ockhammers remain at the core of the company. They have been joined by a full-time team of more than 90, along with a sizeable 'family' of contractors and other regulars, many of whom have been with Ockham from the beginning. Here's a little more about us.
Our people
Our founders
Mark Todd
Co-founder and Development Manager, Ockham Residential
Mark grew up in Mt Wellington, a fifth-generation Aucklander, the son of a tomato farmer, a proud alumnus of Penrose High School (now One Tree Hill College), and an occasional equestrian. He studied Mathematics at the University of Auckland where he met Benjamin Preston — and after graduating, bummed around for a bit, thinking and labouring.
He started a painting business with brother Carl, which morphed into a building business with their father, Lance. In 2009, this evolved into Ockham Residential, the Auckland ‘urban regenerators’ with an ebullient vision for the city’s future. Specifically: "To make beautiful buildings that people love to live in, homes that honour this dynamic Pacific city, stand the test of time, inspire others — and bring an awesome Auckland lifestyle to as many people and communities as we can."
An avowed Auckland enthusiast, a deeply practical idealist and proponent of ‘density done well’, Mark believes developers have a responsibility to the communities they help shape. He has contributed to The Spinoff and had the privilege of an hour-long audience with Dame Kim Hill.
Benjamin Preston
Co-founder, Ockham Residential
Benjamin was raised in Mt Wellington, attending Sylvia Park Primary and De La Salle College. He was the first person in his family to go to university, completing a conjoint Commerce and Arts Degree at the University of Auckland. "I was always intrigued by finance and economic history but my real passion was, and continues to be, mathematics," he says.
After landing a job as a quantitative analyst with Macquarie Bank in Sydney straight from university, Benjamin was then seconded to Johannesburg in 1997 to trade long-term foreign exchange and market commodity derivatives to the local gold producers. From there, he moved to London, taking a commodity sales role with Goldman Sachs. He was lured back to Macquarie in 2000 to head up their London branch, managing more than 100 staff, and building their fixed income, currencies, and commodities businesses. The pinnacle of his banking career was becoming Head of Power Trading in Houston, Texas.
He stepped away from the finance sector and trained to be a teacher at Rice University in 2015, going on to teach mathematics at two Texan schools. By 2018, Benjamin was ready to return home so his two sons could finish their schooling in New Zealand. He currently teaches at the University of Auckland and will undertake some post-graduate study in Statistics in 2023.
Benjamin enjoys playing singing and playing Bluegrass and Americana songs. He owns a guitar store – “a petting zoo of sorts” – in Telluride, Colorado, and every June makes a pilgrimage there to attend the town’s celebrated Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
Benjamin is passionate about promoting education and creativity initiatives in Tāmaki Makaurau through the Ockham Collective. “I realised quite quickly that one of the things that we can tangibly do is provide beautiful spaces where people can learn and share their talents. We get to support, and make some enduring relationships with, people who are out there doing really amazing things.”
Our Team
William Deihl
Chief Executive, Ockham Residential
Will joined Ockham in 2018, starting with work on Avondale apartments, Set. “I loved that we were able to take a piece of land used to house a few people and make it a beautiful place to live and share for many,” he says. Instrumental to the development and success of Ockham Construction, he became CEO of Ockham Residential in June 2023.
Originally from Bulls, Will first honed his carpentry and management skills building high-end houses for Eaglen Homes in Auckland. He then spent two years working in project management for Transfield before decamping to the UK for a classic Kiwi OE.
While overseas, Will joined London Projects, building houses in Chelsea and Kensington for football stars and reality TV legends. Next up, he accepted a project management role at construction firm Forcia, focusing on Crown work. He and his wife Holly returned to Aotearoa in 2017.
Although it’s not Bulls, he has grown to love Auckland – “There are so many beautiful beaches and salt water is good for the soul. The climate is awesome too.”
Tania Wong
Head of Architecture
The first step on Tania’s path to Ockham was tech drawing at Avondale College. She loved the precision and creativity of the subject – she was drawing up imaginary houses at 13 – and subsequently studied architecture at the University of Auckland.
She landed her first job out of Uni in Vancouver, measuring and drawing up community colleges. Tania returned to New Zealand for her graduation and started work at Stephenson and Turner in the CAD department. One of the directors, Geoff Land, swiftly recognised Tania’s talent and drafted her onto his projects. “I learnt a huge amount from him,” Tania admits. After a couple of years, she moved back to Canada, living in Toronto, and working for a graphic designer before the bright lights of London lured her to the UK. There, she focused mainly on renovations of venerable London buildings for City North Group. She completed her registration back home at MGA Innovation, working on industrial and commercial developments.
In 2009, Tania started at Ockham and her distinctive, beautiful designs have been an integral part of our success. Tania loves living in Auckland. “I love the beaches and I love Rangitoto and it's steadily becoming a multicultural city, which is fantastic.” In her spare time, Tania tears up the tennis court at Dunholme or relaxes on Kawau Island. She enjoys taking underwater photographs and is a keen diver and fisher.
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Ben Gibbens
Chief Operating Officer, Construction
Ben’s love of construction was sparked while working school holiday jobs on Auckland building sites. After school, he completed a Bachelor of Construction Economics while also working at Kingston Partners in quantity surveying.
In Ben’s final year of study, he was in the audience when Shane Brealey delivered a lecture on vertical integration of construction companies. “That was what I was doing my thesis on,” says Ben, “So I grabbed the chance to chat to him and he offered me the opportunity to work for his company, NZ Strong.”
Ben spent the next six years learning the ropes of contractor quantity surveying from Shane. “I was really lucky to spend heaps of time with him. He was more of a mentor than a boss. My career accelerated much faster than most people just because of the exposure I got to his level of thinking.”
After two years working on high-end apartment buildings in London, Ben returned to New Zealand and applied to work at Ockham because architecture, project management and construction are all in-house. “The construction industry can be very adversarial and very contractual,” says Ben. “At Ockham, there is way less aggro. Being vertically integrated lends itself more to collaboration, so it’s a more enjoyable process to deliver a building.”
When he’s not at Ockham, Ben’s spending as much time as he can with his son Louie, enjoying a round of golf, or catching up with friends.
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