Peter Thompson, Managing Director
Barfoot & Thompson is much more than a business to Peter; it's quite literally part of his family. He started out in 1981 in the rental division at the Otahuhu branch and continued to move through a number of positions in the firm including sales, administration and management. He was made a Director in 1997, and ultimately became Managing Director in 2005.
Peter is the grandson of Maurice Thompson — the original Thompson in the Barfoot & Thompson team which started out in the early 1920s. Over 100 years on, those family links are still important to the company; his daughter Paula joined Peter in the firm as the first of the fourth generation, followed by her cousin Matthew.
Peter takes care to balance all aspects of his life — time with his wife Fiona and daughters Paula and Lisa, his commitment to the family firm, and his passion for sport. An intensely loyal person, he leads a very supportive culture within Barfoot & Thompson while continuing to achieve impressive growth.
Giving back to the community is a major focus for Peter, who has a special interest in Starship Foundation, believing that New Zealand’s children are its next leaders and that it’s important to improve health standards across the country. He is also seen as a leading spokesperson for the real estate industry, with a passion to improve the image of real estate agents.
Peter has held several directorships over the years, including being on the Board of Auckland Rugby, and still is a current Board Member of realestate.co.nz, an industry web portal company. He was awarded Life Membership of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand in 2011, and was made a Life Member of Auckland Rugby in December 2017.
More recently, Peter was awarded the Brokerage Leadership Award at the LeadingRE Annual Conference 2024 in Las Vegas. The award recognises the principal broker who exemplifies extraordinary leadership.
Stephen Barfoot, Director
A born and raised Aucklander, Stephen Barfoot is the grandson Barfoot & Thompson’s founder, Val Barfoot. Stephen’s father, Chris Barfoot, was a Director and Branch Manager and worked in the company for 40 years.
Prior to joining the family business, Stephen had a career in technology, and was New Zealand IT Manager for a US-based multinational corporation. Stephen started at Barfoot & Thompson in 2002 as a salesperson. After his experience in sales, he moved into the Barfoot & Thompson IT team, where he was most recently the Chief Technology Officer. In his role as CTO, Stephen oversaw the creation of the Barfoot & Thompson mobile app which has become an invaluable digital asset to the company’s 1,800 salespeople.
At the beginning of 2017, Stephen returned to the front line of the business and has spent 18 months as the Branch Manager of the Beach Haven office, followed by 12 months as a Relieving Branch Manager. In October 2019, Stephen was named a Director of the company. As part of his leadership role, he works to ensure that the best and most cutting-edge innovations related to real estate are considered for integration into the company.
In his spare time, Stephen is a keen sailor, having completed a sailing circumnavigation of the North Island with his wife Terri.
Chris Dobbie, Chief Executive Officer
Chris Dobbie has worked for Barfoot & Thompson since 1994. Initially starting as an assistant accountant, Chris then held the position of Chief Financial Officer for 17 years.
As the company has evolved into what it is today, Chris and the company have experienced massive changes in size, technology and market share.
For Chris, it was a natural progression to move into the Chief Executive Officer role, and to work closely with the Directors on Barfoot & Thompson's continued quest for providing an outstanding service to our clients and customers.
Communication with the internal managers, branch managers and external suppliers has provided a solid platform for Chris' sound decision making skills. His background and knowledge of the branch operating procedures and depth of experience in the industry is a perfect fit for this role. He is committed to following the Barfoot & Thompson family values and in 2023 was inducted into the Barfoot & Thompson Hall of Fame for his exceptional service to the company.
Priya Shankar, Chief Financial Officer
Priya has been part of the Barfoot and Thompson family for 17 years. Her journey began in 2006 when she was offered the position of Accountant at our Support Centre. Upon completion of her Accountancy degree in 2013, she was promoted to the position of Company Accountant, and in 2018, she was offered the opportunity to step up as the company’s Financial Controller. As Priya began her CPA qualification in 2021, she was promoted to the position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Priya has also previously held finance and accounting roles at companies such as Carter Holt Harvey, ASB Bank, Whitecliffe College of Arts, Household Linens and Unitec Institute of Technology.
Extremely results orientated, Priya runs a small, but effective finance team which services the company’s financial reporting requirements, compliance, tax governance and payroll functions. Her role includes working with the CEO and the senior executive team, to assist with the company’s strategic initiatives, and she strives to build strong internal and external relationships.
Grant Sykes, General Manager Branches
Grant has been with Barfoot & Thompson for more than 25 years, beginning his journey as a salesperson in Papatoetoe back in 1996.
In 2001, following five years in sales, Grant opened the Beachlands branch and successfully amalgamated the Whitford and Maraetai offices to form the Pohutukawa Coast team. This three-office setup was profitable from year one, and a landmark achievement for Grant.
In 2004, Grant opened the Dannemora office, which grew to become one of the top 10 branches in the company within ten years. It was a challenging but rewarding experience for Grant, who is immensely proud of the work put in to make it a success.
More recently, in 2019, Grant left the Dannemora branch to help turn around the Meadowbank branch. With some serious strategic leadership and a lot of hard work, the team were able to increase turnover there by over 250% in just two years.
Now, in his current position as General Manager of Branches, Grant gets to use his experience and knowledge to help other branches succeed.
Grant is a passionate lifelong learner and student of real estate and is a graduate of the ISL strategic leadership course. He takes great pride in being able to help the people around him grow into the best version of themselves and is proud of the fact he is the third generation of his family to work for Barfoot & Thompson. Grant's grandfather was a salesperson and branch manager, his father was the Company Secretary, and his mother was the Rental Computer Manager. You could say that real estate runs in the blood!
On a personal note, Grant is happily married to wife Tanya and is the proud father of five children, keeping him fairly busy after hours! When he has free time, you'll likely find him ocean swimming, fishing, or travelling.
Samantha Arnold, General Manager Property Management & Body Corporate
Samantha is our General Manager for the Property Management and Body Corporate divisions at Barfoot & Thompson. She works with a team of over 320 people who in turn, look after more than 21,000 rental investment properties across Auckland, Northland and Tauranga and 16,000 body corporate units.
Sam has been with Barfoot & Thompson for over eight years, bringing 25 years of overseas experience with her. She specialises in business growth and strategy, project management and takes the lead on mergers and acquisitions for the divisions.
Sam's real passion is people, making things easier and more enjoyable for them by providing efficient tools, resources and most importantly trust.
We have grown our portfolio of rental properties to 21,000 managed properties, and this is purely down to happy staff who offer first class service.
Free time for Sam is mostly spent on cricket or rugby fields and horse paddocks supporting her families sporting passions with her husband Greg and their three children.
LeAnne Robinson, Regional Manager
LeAnne joined Barfoot & Thompson as manager of the Titirangi branch in 2019 and fell in love with the family business and their values. Her previous seven years management experience helped her to grow this branch from 6 agents to 32. Prior to this role, LeAnne had been managing real estate offices for 18 years and had worked in residential, lifestyle, rural and property management. After four years at Titirangi, LeAnne moved to Papatoetoe, where she grew up, and successfully grew the branch into the company’s top 10. More recently, in 2022, she moved to Orewa as part of the Rodney group; a fast-growing area that offers Kiwis a lifestyle of walks, beaches and family fun. It has been a great experience to work with people from all walks of life.
Now, in her current position as Regional Manager, her experiences and knowledge of how to help others succeed is a strength that can benefit others. LeAnne holds an AREINZ Business Diploma and is a graduate of ISL Strategic Leadership.
Happily married to her husband Neil, she is the proud mother of two girls and three beautiful grandchildren. LeAnne’s special loves are travel, food, boating, walking, beaches and spending time with her family and friends.
Jeff Tubman, Regional Manager
Jeff is highly experienced with many years and several roles in the Auckland real estate business including an auctioneer, business owner, general manager and Chief Executive Officer. Jeff describes joining Barfoot & Thompson as a Regional Manager as “coming home”.
Jeff is well-versed in real estate with expertise in leadership, conflict resolution and complex negotiations, which fits his psychology background. The role of directly supporting our extensive branch network in practical and useful ways is perfect for his skill set.
“The philosophy and commitment of Barfoot & Thompson to keep their people, the community, and the client at the centre of everything we do, aligns with me so well,” he says.
Jeff is involved with a number of schools and community groups fundraising with charity auctions and has a family active in sports and the arts to keep him busy outside of real estate.
Vaughan Borcovsky, Operations Manager
In 2003 Vaughan began his real estate career with Summit Real Estate in Nelson. He covered many different roles, including time as an auctioneer, on a three-year pathway to becoming General Manager.
Upon moving to Auckland he started with Barfoot & Thompson in September 2013 and spent five years as Regional Manager. This involved working alongside over 35 Branch Managers, to improve processes, help them grow as leaders and empower their teams to thrive.
In 2019 he became Operations Manager, a broad role that covers the management and delivery of a number of company initiatives. This sees Vaughan manage the PowerBI, Marketing and Auctions teams, bringing his industry expertise to ensure our Support Centre is delivering the best level of service and solutions to our branches.
Data-driven insights are key for Barfoot & Thompson and data is a passion for Vaughan, so it is a natural fit for him to lead the PowerBI team who provide dashboards to all levels of the business. Vaughan was crucial in helping this team introduce key new business software for the property management division, finance team and CRM used by salespeople. Vaughan also works alongside our Brand, Marketing Services and Design teams, sharing his industry insight to ensure we are delivering the very best to our people and clients. Additionally, Vaughan oversees our busy Auctions team, who facilitate the calling of over 5,000 auctions annually.
In his spare time, Vaughan enjoys cooking and loves exercise, participating in bootcamp and competing in half marathons.
Simon Casey, Chief Information Officer
Simon joined Barfoot & Thompson as Chief Information Officer (CIO) in 2008 and manages a team of 40 IT specialists. They are highly productive while working in self-managed teams within a flat structure, using agile development methods.
The company has continued to embrace new technology with the deployment of mobile applications, online auctions, advanced security systems and data analytics.
Simon’s previous role was CIO at Zintel, a publicly listed Telecommunications business with operations in Auckland, Wellington and Sydney. Before that, Simon was the Information Services (IS) Manager at Yellow Pages where he was a member of the executive team.
Outside of work, Simon enjoys spending time with family and friends, sporting activities, property investment and volunteer work at his church.
Lisa Gerrard, Senior Legal Counsel
Lisa Gerrard is our In-House Senior Legal Counsel. She has a wealth of experience in litigation, dispute resolution, risk management, contracts, negotiation, property law and more. Lisa arrived at Barfoot & Thompson after more than six years with The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) where she served as their General Counsel and General Manager.
Lisa, and her wife Lizzie, live in Rotorua and are the proud owners of their adorable dog, Awhi. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a seasoned barrister within the Barfoot & Thompson family.
