The CEO of e-procurement software provider Conexa, formerly known as SupplyNet, died in a light airplane crash at Whenuapai, in Auckland, last night.
Brent Baldwin, aged 46, of West Harbour, died along with pilot Wayne Matthews, 62, of Greenhithe, after the plane crashed while trying to land in as yet unexplained circumstances.
Conexa claims to deliver procurement supply contracts worth in excess of $460 million from over 60,000 trading partners, trading over $5 billion of goods and services electronically.
According to the Sunday Star Times, Baldwin was a youth pastor and a former Air Force navigator. He quit the force about 17 years ago. Matthews was a retired Air Force wing commander and well known aviator.
The local IT industry has lost several people to light plane crashes in recent years. Jamie Tevendale, who helped deliver the IT systems behind the APEC conference in 1999, later died in a crash in the South Island. In 2005, Russell Smith, founder of HumanWare, also died in a light plane crash.