The devastating earthquake in New Zealand that has riveted the world's attention on scores of trapped victims in the city of Christchurch has spared much of the rest of the country including the offices at Maxava, whose operations are located in Auckland and Wellington, according to Roxanne Mulvaney, Maxava's marketing operations manager.

In a note to friends, customers, and the media, Mulvaney summed up the somewhat depressing situation in New Zealand in the following words:

"Here at Maxava we have been rocked by the news this week that here in New Zealand, Christchurch has suffered a further earthquake. On September 4th last year, Christchurch was hit by a 7.1 earthquake and, although this week’s earthquake was smaller in magnitude, it was centered closer to the city and relatively shallow.

"Sadly, this earthquake has resulted in significant loss of life, with many people still missing and significant damage to the city center.

"As you know, our head office and development lab are in New Zealand, but these are in Auckland and Wellington respectively–a considerable distance from Christchurch.

"We are relieved to report that no Maxava staff were directly affected by the quake, or were in Christchurch at the time. As New Zealand is a relatively small place, we all have family and/or friends in Christchurch and our thoughts are with them and their neighbors at this terrible time.

"Maxava has a number of customers in the Christchurch area that have been affected by the earthquake and our support team has been working with them to ensure their systems are operational.

"Day to day operations at Maxava are unaffected and we continue to operate as per normal.

"We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all the kind messages we have received." 

Kind Regards,

Roxanne Mulvaney
Marketing Operations Manager
Maxava

Editor's Note: Roxanne, I think it goes without saying that the hearts and prayers of all of us in the IBM midrange industry are with you and your friends and loved ones in Christchurch who have suffered death and destruction this past week.

Chris Smith was the Senior News Editor at MC Press Online from 2007 to 2012 and was responsible for the news content on the company's Web site. Chris has been writing about the IBM midrange industry since 1992 when he signed on with Duke Communications as West Coast Editor of News 3X/400. With a bachelor's from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in English and minored in Journalism, and a master's in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Chris later studied computer programming and AS/400 operations at Long Beach City College. An award-winning writer with two Maggie Awards, four business books, and a collection of poetry to his credit, Chris began his newspaper career as a reporter in northern California, later worked as night city editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and went on to edit a national cable television trade magazine. He was Communications Manager for McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Long Beach, Calif., before it merged with Boeing, and oversaw implementation of the company's first IBM desktop publishing system there. An editor for MC Press Online since 2007, Chris has authored some 300 articles on a broad range of topics surrounding the IBM midrange platform that have appeared in the company's eight industry-leading newsletters. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..