Mark grew up in Mt Wellington, a fifth-generation Aucklander, the son of a tomato farmer and a proud alumnus of Penrose High School (now One Tree Hill College). He studied Mathematics at the University of Auckland where he met Benjamin Preston — and after graduating, travelled 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 and Mark met in their first year of undergraduate study and have been firm friends ever since. After completing a conjoint Commerce and Arts Degree at the University of Auckland, Benjamin worked for Macquarie Bank for more than two decades. He was able to travel the world serving in different capacities within its fixed income, currency and commodity trading businesses.  

Mark and Ben co-founded Ockham in 2009.  Benjamin provided equity funding and financial structuring advice that has been integral to the company's success.  He served as a company director until 2023, continues to be a shareholder, and has run the Ockham Collective since 2019, providing space and support for education and creativity initiatives in Auckland.  

“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,” says Ben.

 In 2015, he retired from investment banking and retrained to be a high school teacher.  Back in New Zealand since 2018, Benjamin now teaches statistics at the University of Auckland.

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.” 

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.