The Tauranga branch of air-conditioning and refrigeration firm Haden / O'Donnell Griffin in Judea is the winner of the Regional Territorial Force Employer Support Committee's 2010 Bay of Plenty-Waikato Employer of the Year Award.

Chief Petty Officer Paul Brennan of HMNZS Ngapona with his boss John Tomlinson and Captain Clive Holmes – NZ Defence Force Director of Reserve Forces from Wellington, at the awards ceremony on Wednesday night.

It receives the award for providing support and flexibility for its employee Paul Brennan.

Paul is a Chief Petty Officer engineer with the Mount Maunganui sub-unit of the Navy Reserve's HMNZS Ngapona and was needed in a navy team to complete a hydrographic survey off the North Island east coast in August.

Paul's skills as a former submariner in the Australian Navy were needed to complete the operation and so it was critical that he be released from work to participate.

Haden / O'Donnell Griffin Tauranga branch manager John Tomlinson was able to release Paul for this work, and it is for this act that his business has won the regional award.

John Tomlinson will now go on to attend the national final of the New Zealand Territorial Force Employer of the Year function with other regional winners in Wellington in early 2011 when a national winner will be announced.