Meet the man who helped shape Aspeq

Every morning, five days a week, 67-year old Mike Lynskey runs the five kilometres from his home to Aspeq’s Lower Hutt office where he has worked for nearly thirty years – almost since the company’s inception.

In his role as Director of Business Development, Mike is in charge of client relationships. He and his team manage the 20 plus clients that rely on Aspeq’s world-renowned assessment services to carry out high-stakes examinations, as well as growing the business into new sectors and geographic areas.

A natural people person, Mike loves representing Aspeq on the global stage. “Engaging with a wide range of people, building relationships, speaking at conferences – that’s where I get my energy from.”

Mike began his career in the Royal New Zealand Air Force when he was just 17 years old, and went on to serve for 21 years. His first role in the military was as an aeronautical engineer, a role that satisfied his childhood ambition to follow in his father’s footsteps as an engineer. His expertise sent him all over the world, including living in Australia, the States and the UK.

His natural aptitude for leading people was quickly recognised and awarded by the military. At 33, he became Squadron Leader responsible for leading a teams of over 100 engineers. At 37, Mike started searching for a new challenge in what he calls ‘civilian industry’, which led him to a management role at Aspeq, then known as Aviation Services Limited (ASL).

“I wanted to prove to myself that the training and experience I gained in the military could translate to civilian positions.”

Aspeq scooped up Mike in 1995 to lead its engineering and quality assurance team. He was one of the few people in the country who could fill that highly specialised role, which required licensing qualifications, a maintenance aircraft engineering licence and management experience.

During his time at Aspeq, he completed at Massey University with distinction. This shows the company’s commitment to upskilling its people, a value that Mike shares and has since helped to foster.

His first few years with Aspeq were spent travelling the country, conducting oral exams for aspiring aircraft engineers. For a while, every registered aircraft engineer in New Zealand had to have spent a few hours in the field with Mike. His success in that role proved that his military training not only translated to civilian industry, but instilled in him grit and an appreciation for teamwork that helped him thrive in the corporate world. Three years later, in 1998, Mike took over the helm of the company as its General Manager.

When Mike became General Manager, Aspeq was still ASL. It had ten employees almost exclusively dedicated to servicing the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority. Its world-renowned digital assessment services were still in development and it dealt mainly in paper-based exams. But change was afoot, and it was an exciting time to take over.

ASL was growing internationally and secured a large contract with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority in Australia. Securing this contract increased the size of the company and Mike promoted to Chief Executive Officer with teams in New Zealand and Australia.

One of Mike’s early tasks was to lead the company’s rebrand to Aspeq, a name Mike came up with which combines ‘assessment’ and ‘specialised’. This also allowed the Aspeq.com domain to be secured.

Aspeq was also in the process of developing its now proprietary software for digital examinations. Mike heavily influenced the software’s design and brought the company’s IT capabilities in-house to ensure its long-term success.

This success meant that the company more than doubled in size under Mike’s leadership, but it never lost its unique culture that is both sociable and well-structured.

“We were a small, tight knit team that felt like a family. We had morning tea together every day, and socialised after work. As we grew from 10 to now over 60, of course the structure of the company changed, but I’m proud to say that we never lost that family-like environment.”

Mike credits his early career in the Air Force for instilling in him the importance of people and teamwork, with everyone knowing their role within a team. “A lot of people think that the military is a heavily structured environment but we always knew that people work best together when they’re working in a team where they all understand their role in the organisation and what they want to achieve. I brought that approach with me when I joined Aspeq.”

Mike’s management style, which is echoed throughout Aspeq’s leadership team, is centred around empowering people. “I prefer to delegate and support rather than take over. I think the best way to see people reach their full potential is by giving them responsibilities and stretching them.”

After being in the role of CEO for nine years, Mike realised the part of the job he enjoyed the most – and which took up most of his time – was business development.

He swapped CEO for his current role as Director of Business Development, where he could dedicate his time fully to doing what he loved - growing the business.

He continued to lead Aspeq into new continents and sectors. This included securing a contract with the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK, and many countries in Asia, for the delivery of their aviation exams – landmark contracts that are still in place today. Moreover, Mike was integral to securing Aspeq’s first non-aviation contract in 1997, with Waka Kotahi NZTA to deliver its transport service licence, an enduring partnership. Following success with Waka Kotahi, Mike expanded the company into new sectors, including health, security, transportation, trades and finance in over 25 countries,

Now nearly eight years into the Director role, Mike is once again casting around for new challenges. At the end of 2023, he was appointed President of New Zealand’s division of the Royal Aeronautical Society – a global organisation committed to advancing the aerospace and aviation industry. In New Zealand, the society boasts over 150 members and Mike hopes to grow that number during his tenure as President. He also wants to strengthen the organisation’s role as an aeronautics advisor to government and other organisations.

This new responsibility, plus the desire to spend more time with his young grandchildren, means that Mike is planning for his work-life balance in the coming years to tip more towards the ‘life’ side.

Mike loves the job too much to fully retire cold turkey, but says that when he’s ready, he’ll pull back his hours and work in a consultant capacity while he mentors the company’s new leaders.

Even when Mike starts to scale back his time with Aspeq, his legacy will continue to be felt by everyone who works for, or with, Aspeq. He has helped grow the company from a small and specialised New Zealand-based assessment services provider, to a truly global company servicing a wide range of sectors and countries, without ever losing its unique company culture – itself a reflection of Mike’s personal values of learning, teamwork and people empowerment.