Deon Swiggs

Deon Swiggs at AMI Stadium

Deon William Swiggs (born 6 September 1986, Nelson, New Zealand) is a New Zealander known for his participation in Rebuild Christchurch, an organization founded after the 2010 Canterbury earthquake.

1986–2013

Deon Swiggs meets Prince Charles in Christchurch

Swiggs was born in Nelson, New Zealand and is the oldest of 3 siblings. Until Swiggs was 5, he was raised at Parihaka Pa as a Christian. Swiggs was educated at Marlborough Boys' College where he was a sixth form prefect. After graduating in 2004, Swiggs joined the Royal New Zealand Navy in 2005 as a navigation officer. Swiggs left the Navy in 2008 to pursue a career in the business sector.^[1] In 2008, Swiggs worked as a real estate agent for Harcourts in New Plymouth before transferring to Christchurch in 2009. He left the company in 2010 to form Swiggs Consulting Limited. Later in 2010, Swiggs was offered the position of South Island Accounts Manager at AdzUp.^[1]

At the time of the 2010 Canterbury earthquake, Swiggs was working for AdzUp, two days later he founded Rebuild Christchurch, which collated information from a variety of sources and placed this information in an easy to understand format. Swiggs has been called one of the innovate new entrepreneurs born out of the Christchurch Earthquakes.^[2] On 22 February 2011, Swiggs was in the AdzUp office located in the Christchurch CBD when the first earthquake struck,^[3] he left the building he was in, and helped other people with the aftermath of the earthquake.

In April 2011, Swiggs was made redundant from AdzUp due to the earthquakes. From this time, Swiggs worked full-time on RebuildChristchurch.co.nz and studied on the side.^[4] In 2012, Swiggs was nominated for Young New Zealander of the Year.^[5] and was named alongside Roger Sutton and Bob Parker as a leader in the Canterbury Rebuild.

Swiggs was accepted into a placement at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology in February 2013 into a Bachelor of Applied Management. In March 2013, Swiggs Graduated from CPIT with Bachelor of Applied Management Majoring in Sales and Marketing ^[6] and Graduate Diploma in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.^[7] The Press reported on 27 April 2013 that Swiggs was contemplating running for Councillor of the Christchurch City Council.^[8]

Present

Presently, Swiggs is the Chair of The Rebuild Build Christchurch Foundation, Director of Rebuild Christchurch and a founding trustee on the Canterbury Insurance Advocacy Service funded by council to advocate for people with insurance issues.^[9]

On 26 August, Swiggs announced he had put his nomination forward for the Christchurch East by-election.^[10]

Projects

Swiggs has worked on the following projects;

• Project Christmas ^[11][12]
• Lets Get It Done ^[13]
• Football in the Gap ^[14]
• The Canterbury Insurance Assistance Service ^[15]
• The Concert
• Buck Brings Back Marmite ^[16]
• A Beautiful Struggle ^[17]

Awards

• Local Hero Award in New Zealander of the Year Awards ^[18]
• Christchurch City Council Service Award for Youth ^[18]
• Community Service Award ^[19]

References