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 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.”

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.”