About Patrick

Technical excellence isn’t a slogan — it’s a discipline built over decades.
 
My career began in 1982 with the United States Air Force, diagnosing autopilot and avionics systems on F-4, F-16 and SR-71 aircraft. The training was 800 hours of electronics theory before they let you near the airframe. The discipline was simple: there is zero room for error.
 
That foundation has informed every wire I’ve pulled and every system I’ve designed since.
 
A global career, a local commitment:
 
After the USAF I built tech businesses across continents. I founded HighTech Computers in Mallorca, Spain (1998) serving the expat and luxury yacht community. I scaled HighTech Computer Solutions in Auckland (2001-2010) from $5,000 of seed capital to $1.2M annual turnover, two retail stores, and authorised partnerships with HP, Brother, Microsoft and Intel.
 
I led quality assurance for a 30,000 sqm manufacturing facility in Guangzhou, China — implementing ISO 9001 and Lean Six Sigma protocols across an export business reaching 26+ countries.
 
I sold $1.1M of solar systems in five months as Sales Engineer at Solar Power Specialist in Queensland, ranked #1 nationally for five consecutive months.
 
In 2013 I brought all of that experience home and founded Suntricity Solar in Nelson — designing and installing more than 100 on-grid, off-grid and hybrid solar systems across the top of the South Island.
 
Leadership in the engineering community:
 
From 2019 to 2021 I served as Chair of Engineering New Zealand (Nelson/Marlborough Branch), advocating for professional excellence and the technical pathways our region’s engineering future would require.
 
I’m a current member of the Institute of Directors NZ, Master Electricians, and the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce.
 
Why Queenstown:
 
In 2026, after 14 years in Nelson, I relocated HighTech and Suntricity permanently to Jacks Point.
 
The Southern Lakes is the most technically demanding environment I’ve worked in — heavy snow loads, low winter sun angles, storm-related grid stress, and architecturally adventurous homes that demand engineering depth most contractors don’t have. It’s also where my work belongs.
 
Why I founded HighTech:
 
I founded HighTech because I saw a structural gap in the New Zealand electrical industry: the space between a standard electrician and a high-level engineer. The work that keeps falling through that gap — smart-home commissioning, alpine solar diagnostics, EV integration, bench-level inverter repair — is the work I want to do.
 
I built HighTech to be a firm that:
 
▸ Repairs what others replace, using circuit-level diagnostics to save high-value equipment
 
▸ Designs for the future, using CAD and data-driven modelling to create systems that last 25+ years
 
▸ Answers the phone — providing a professional, reliable service that respects your time and your investment