Speakers

We are sharing with you the details here of a few of our confirmed speakers and our MC for the day. There are many more speakers to come. New speakers will be added here regularly as they are confirmed so check back again soon.

Hon Nanaia Mahuta

As a mother, and a constituent MP with 20 plus years’ experience who has come from ‘flax-root’ politics, Hon Nanaia Mahuta remains connected to the aspirations of people from all walks of life. Those who work hard for a living so that their children can do better, kaumatua, tradespeople, those who aspire to own their home, those who own small businesses and those who lead a range of services and organisations and huge iwi entities.

During her time in Parliament, Nanaia supported policies and initiatives that built the capacity of communities, especially social service organisations, greater investment in education, employment and training opportunities particularly for young people, supported the continuation of the Treaty settlement process and supported specific initiatives that lift the wellbeing and opportunities for young mums and those who are vulnerable and victims of abuse.

Nanaia is a tribal member of Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Manu and her parliamentary experience has enabled her to contribute to the collective aspirations of Maori and all New Zealanders.

In the 2020 Labour Government, Nanaia became the first woman to hold the Foreign Affairs portfolio. She is also Minister of Local Government, and Associate Minister for Māori Development.

The Hon Justice Joe Williams

Justice Williams has an LLB from the Victoria University of Wellington and an LLM (Hons) from the University of British Colombia. He became a partner at Kensington Swan in 1992 and went on to co-found Walters Williams & Co in 1994. In 1999 he became Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court and was appointed Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal shortly after in 2000. He was made Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal in 2004. Justice Williams was appointed a judge of the High Court in September 2008, a judge of the Court of Appeal in February 2018, and a judge of the Supreme Court in May 2019.

Justice Williams’ iwi are Ngati Pūkenga, Waitaha and Tapuika.

Lil Anderson

Tumu Whakarae / Chief Executive Te Arawhiti – Office for Māori-Crown Relations

Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi

Originally from the small community of Panguru in the Hokianga. Lil has more than 25 years’ experience spanning the public service and wider state sector. Authentic leadership, vision and strategy, problem solving and driving results have been key features of her career to date.

Te Arawhiti was created to consolidate a range of distinct but related government functions that support the journey of the Māori Crown partnerships and help the Crown build on the sense of renewal in Māori Crown relations established through the Treaty settlement process.

Most recently Lil was redeployed for six months to the New Zealand COVID-19 All of Government Operational Command Centre to lead a cross Government programme called ‘Caring for our Communities’ aimed at supporting the most vulnerable groups within our communities across Aotearoa New Zealand through COVID-19 and beyond into recovery.

Fepulea’i Margie Apa

Fepulea’i Margie Apa has recently been appointed as Chief Executive of Health New Zealand moving to this role from being Chief Executive Officer, Counties Manukau Health. Margie’s career has spanned twenty years in the public sector in Wellington and Auckland, including past roles at the Ministry of Health (Deputy Director General, Sector Capability & Implementation), the Health Funding Authority, Capital & Coast DHB, the Labour Market Policy Group (Department of Labour) and the State Services Commission. Margie’s previous role at CM Health was as Director Strategic Development where she was tasked with strategic planning and programme management, Maaori and Pacific Health, organisational Communication and Human Resources.

Margie is Chair of World Vision New Zealand and an active member of the Presbyterian Church.

Fepulea’i also carries an honorific (or chief) title from her home village of Sale’aula, Savai’i, Samoa.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield

BHB 1988, MBChB 1991, MPH 1997

Dr Ashley Bloomfield is Director-General of Health and Chief Executive of the New Zealand Ministry of Health. He was appointed to this position in June 2018, after more than 20 years in the public service, working to improve health and address inequalities in New Zealand and globally. In March 2020 he became known as the face of New Zealand’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, providing daily updates with the Prime Minister through the lockdown that led to New Zealand’s elimination approach to the pandemic.

After completing medical qualifications at the University of Auckland in 1990, he spent several years in clinical work before specialising in public health medicine, with a particular interest in non-communicable disease prevention and control.In 2010-11 he worked for the World Health Organisation in Geneva, as Partnerships Advisor, Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health.

From 2012-18 he held leadership roles at Capital & Coast, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa District Health Boards, including as Chief Executive of Hutt Valley District Health Board from 2015-17 and Acting Chief Executive at Capital and Coast District Health Board from January to June 2018.

Dr Bloomfield fronted New Zealand’s response to the Auckland measles outbreak in 2019 and the health response to the aftermath of the Whakaari/White Island eruption in 2020.

Julia Black

Julia Black is currently LSE’s Strategic Director of Innovation. She completed her first degree in Jurisprudence and her DPhil at Oxford University. Her primary research interest is regulation. In 2014 was the Sir Frank Holmes Visiting Professor in Public Policy at the University of Victoria, Wellington. She has written extensively on regulatory issues in a number of areas, and has advised policy makers, consumer bodies and regulators on issues of institutional design and regulatory policy. Julia was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2015. She was appointed to the Board of UK Research and Innovation in2017.

Conference MC - Jehan Casinader

Jehan Casinader is a journalist, author and mental health advocate.

He was named “Best Political Columnist” at the Voyager Media Awards 2021, and “Broadcast Reporter of the Year” in 2020.

In the aftermath of natural disasters, terror attacks, sporting triumphs and everything in between, Jehan has helped hundreds of Kiwis to share their vulnerable and deeply personal stories with the rest of the country.

Jehan is the author of This Is Not How It Ends: How rewriting your story can save your life(HarperCollins).

He has a degree in public policy from Victoria University of Wellington.

Andrew Coster

Commissioner of Police

Andrew Coster became Commissioner of Police on 3 April 2020. His police career spans over 23 years and has a strong history of accomplishments following his graduation from the Police College in 1997, including serving in frontline and investigative roles in Counties Manukau and Auckland. During a year out from Police in 2004, he practiced as a Solicitor in the Office of the Crown Solicitor in Auckland.

Commissioner Coster was Area Commander in Auckland City Central before becoming the District Commander for the Southern Police District in 2013. In 2015, he took up a role as Assistant Commissioner: Strategy & Partnerships at Police National Headquarters, taking responsibility for a major reset in delivery of Police’s payroll implementation. In 2016, he was seconded to the Ministry of Justice as Deputy Chief Executive, where he led the development of a five-year plan to modernise courts and tribunals, before returning to Police.

Commissioner Coster has a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of Auckland and a Master of Public Management from Victoria University of Wellington.

Jason Dwen

Jason has worked in the private and public sector, in range of Finance, commercial and operational roles.

For the last six years Jason has worked in Service Delivery function within MSD, and more recently moved into Data and Information. Within Service Delivery Jason oversaw client delivery services for students, seniors and working age New Zealanders.

Jason’s teams were integral in the delivery of wage subsidy and the critical relationship with Inland Revenue.

Henry Fyers

Director - Diode Security

Henry has lead the response to over 500 major cyber incidents in New Zealand. His background is across cyber security and IT, where he started and sold an SME IT services business, and lead technical cyber incident response for Deloitte nationally. He currently runs Diode Security, a cyber security monitoring and incident response company. Henry believes in thinking like an attacker to track an attacker, and making cyber security more focused and practical for business owners.

Professor Dame Juliet Gerrard

FRSNZ, HonFRSC

Prime Minister’s Chief Science AdvisorKaitohutohu Mātanga Pūtaiao Matua ki te Pirimia.

Juliet trained at Oxford University and moved to Aotearoa in 1993 where her career has included roles in both Crown Research Institutes and universities. Juliet’s research background is broad and interdisciplinary, with particular interests in fundamental and applied protein science. She has held an Industry and Outreach Fellowship with Callaghan Innovation, founded a start-up company, chaired the Marsden Council, served on the Board of Directors of Plant and Food Research, and is currently on the Board of Te Papa.

Since Juliet’s appointment in 2018 as the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Kaitohutohu Mātanga Pūtaiao Matua ki te Pirimia, she has worked from a base of four founding principles: rigour, inclusivity, transparency, and accessibility. She has supported the science and science advisor community to provide advice to the PM, ministers, and the public on a wide range of topics, including advice on the Christchurch mosque shootings, the response to the Whakaari | White Island eruption, the Cannabis referendum, rheumatic fever and the Covid-19 pandemic. The Office has released two major reports, Rethinking plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand and The future of commercial fishing in Aotearoa New Zealand

Virginia Goldblatt

MNZM, MA (Hons), DipBusStuds (Dispute Resolution), FAMINZ(Med), MInstDNZ.

Virginia Goldblatt has had an extensive career in professional and continuing education, in the tertiary education system and the private sector. She has been practicing as a professional mediator since 1994 specialising in employment and organisational dispute resolution.

She is currently director of the University Mediation Service at Massey University and the New Zealand President of the Australian and New Zealand Education and Law Association.

She is a previous Vice-President (Mediation) of the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand, and a Fellow of the Institute. She presents frequently at international conferences in Asia, the United States and Australia.

Warren Hudson

General Manager Integrity and Debt

Warren worked for the Ministry of Social Development for a number of years in a broad range of management, operational and corporate roles.

For the last three years Warren has been overseeing the client integrity and debt functions for MSD, which includes benefit fraud investigation, interagency data sharing, integrity intelligence and debt management functions.

Warren is particularly focused on how we can strengthen fraud prevention capabilities by using intelligence, data and early intervention approaches to make it easier for MSD clients to get their entitlement right, but at the same time strengthen opportunities to detect and intervene early where potential fraud is suspected.

Warren’s team led MSD’s integrity work associated with Wage Subsidy Scheme.

Keiran Kennedy

Keiran manages the Welfare and Oranga Tamariki team at the Treasury. This team was the policy lead for the Wage Subsidy Scheme and works closely with MSD.

Prior to joining the Treasury in February 2020 to work on COVID-19 Economic support, Keiran worked in the Minister of Finance’s office.

As a lawyer and accountant, Keiran has worked at Inland Revenue and in the private sector in New Zealand and overseas.

Dr Grant Klinkum

Grant joined NZQA in early 2014, and has held the roles of Deputy Chief Executive Strategic and Corporate Services and Deputy Chief Executive Quality Assurance. Prior to taking up the Chief Executive role, Grant was seconded to the Ministry of Education as Acting Deputy Secretary for Graduate Achievement, Vocations and Careers.

While working at the Tertiary Education Commission between 2007 and 2014, Grant was responsible at different times for stakeholder engagement, the Chief Executive’s office and the Tertiary Investment function. He has also previously worked as Deputy Chief Executive for an Institute of Technology, and Dean of Faculty at two tertiary education organisations.

Grant has a PhD in Political Science from Victoria University of Wellington, a Master’s degree in Education Administration from Massey University and a Master of Arts from the University of Canterbury.

Paula Knaap

Paula is the General Manager Engagement for the EPA. Prior to this, she was Director of Strategic Engagement and Implementation at WorkSafe NZ. This involved partnering across the system with other government regulators and social agencies and delivering WorkSafe NZ’s integrated harm prevention programmes.

Paula has also led large regulatory and social policy functions at Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Education.

She also has extensive international experience, negotiating intergovernmental agreements and representing New Zealand overseas. She has Law degree, a Masters in Business from Henley Business School in the UK, is a member of the Public Services Career Board, and a Global Women Breakthrough Leaders Alumni.

Paula is passionate about people-centred and inclusive ways of thinking and delivering services.

Michael Lovett

Michael is the Deputy Chief Executive Local Government at the Department of Internal Affairs.

He leads the Local Government branch focusing on enhancing and strengthening relationships between local and central government, ensuring that the Department provides system stewardship with local government and iwi/Māori, and thought leadership on significant local government reform. The DCE is the Government’s primary advisor on Local Government and exercises a key leadership role across the public sector.

Michael has worked in a variety of senior management roles in operational and policy agencies across the New Zealand public sector including the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry for the Environment and Department of Corrections. He started his career within forensic psychology and holds a Bachelor of Science and an Executive Master of Public Administration.

Tracey McIntosh

Professor Tracey McIntosh , MNZM (Ngāi Tūhoe) is a Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Auckland and Co-Head of Wānanga o Waipapa (The School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies). She is the current Chief Science Advisor to the Ministry of Social Development, and a Commissioner of Te Kāhui Tātari Ture: The Criminal Cases Review Commission. She was previously Director and Co-Director of New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (2007-2010, 2014-2017). Her recent research focuses on incarceration (particularly of Indigenous peoples), social harm minimisation, inequality and justice.

Parekawhia McLean

Parekawhia McLean has over 20 years of public policy and public sector management experience including almost seven years as a Director and Consultant of her own company Mauriora-ki-te-Ao/Living Universe Ltd (MKTA) – a company dedicated to advancing the creative potential of Māori knowledge, people and resources.

Parekawhia is currently the Chief Executive of Te Kāhui Tātari Ture | Criminal Cases Review Commission. She has previously held roles at the Counties Manukau District Health Board as the Director of Strategy and Infrastructure, Regional Director for NZTA and Chief Executive of Waikato-Tainui. Ms McLean holds a number of governance roles including Chair, Te Whakakitenga o Waikato.

She has a Masters in Social Sciences from Waikato University and a Masters of Arts in Public Administration and Development Policy from the University of Wisconsin-USA.

Jo Miller

Jo’s 30 year UK career in local and regional government included experience working locally, regionally and nationally across public, private and voluntary sectors, Jo emigrated to New Zealand in 2019 to take role of Chief Executive at Hutt City Council in Lower Hutt Te Awakairangi, NZ’s 7^thlargest city. From 1 July, Jo is Vice President of Taituarā.

Prior to emigrating, Jo held one of the most high-profile local government jobs in the UK. As Chief Executive at Doncaster Council, Jo was recognised as having brought exceptional growth and optimism to a previously economically depressed town. The Local Government Chronicle said Doncaster had been “dragged up from the depths of despair to something to be proud of.”

Landmark projects with a total investment of £2 billion boosted economic performance, then putting Doncaster in the UK’s top ten for growth. Jo was the elected President of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executivesfrom 2016-2019. In 2017 the Local Government Chronicle named her the third most influential person in UK local government. Jo regularly contributes to international publications and events as a recognised thought leader in her field.

Sir Geoff Mulgan

Sir Geoff Mulgan is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy & Social Innovation at University College London (UCL). He was CEO of Nesta, the UK's innovation foundation from 2011-2019. From 1997-2004 Geoff had roles in UK government including director of the Government's Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister's office.

Geoff advises many governments around the world. He has been a reporter on BBC TV and radio and was the founder/cofounder of many organisations, including Demos, Uprising, the Social Innovation Exchange and Action for Happiness. He has a PhD in telecommunications and has been visiting professor at LSE and Melbourne University, and senior visiting scholar at Harvard University. Past books include ‘The Art of Public Strategy’ (OUP), ‘Good and Bad Power’ (Penguin), ‘Big Mind: how collective intelligence can change our world’ (Princeton UP) and ‘Social Innovation’ (Policy Press). His Twitter handle is @geoffmulgan. His website is geoffmulgan.com

Dr Peter Mumford

Peter is a Policy Director in the Science, Innovation and International Branch, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment.

Peter is an experienced regulatory policy practitioner, having led the development of new regulatory systems in areas as diverse as building controls, financial markets and outer space, as well as systems-wide approaches to improving regulatory policy and practice, starting with implementing the government’s Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) regime some years ago, to more recently being the inaugural director of the Government Regulatory Practice Initiative (G-REG). Currently Peter is working with colleagues on how best to manage at a systems level the policy challenges (both exploiting opportunities and mitigating harms) posed by emerging technologies.

Peter has an MA (Distinction) for a thesis on Regulatory Co-operation between States, and a PhD for a thesis on Enhancing Performance-based Regulation – Lessons from New Zealand’s Building Control System. He occasionally lectures and writes on regulatory policy and international regulatory cooperation, combining academic insights with practical experience

Kane Patena

Ko Maungatautari te maungaKo Waikato te awa
Ko Tainui te waka
Ko Ngati Haua te iwi
Ko Kane Patena tōku ingoa.

Kane is the Director of Land Transport, a new statutory role that was established on 1 April 2021. Kane is responsible for providing leadership within Waka Kotahi on the regulation of the land transport system. Kane joined Waka Kotahi in April 2019 as the General Manager Regulatory Services after independent reviews found that the agency had not performed its regulatory functions effectively. During his time he has led the regulatory rebuild and development of Waka Kotahi’s regulatory strategy Tū ake, tū māia.

Prior to joining Waka Kotahi Kane was the Director Strategy and Governance at Wellington City Council, was a partner at law firm Meredith Connell and has held various leadership roles in the private and public sector. Kane has a passion for driving improvement and change and, in his last several roles, has been deployed to fix complex problems or drive transformation.

Ezekiel Raui

Ko Mātai te Maunga Tapu
Ko Hokianga te Moana-Nui
Ko Ngātokimatawhaorua me Māmari ngā Waka
Ko Motukaraka te Marae
Ko Ngai-Tūpoto te Hapu
Ko Te Rarawa-Ki-Hokianga te Iwi

From attending the White House Tribal Leaders Gathering in Washington D.C in 2015, to receiving a medal from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2018 and being named on the Forbes 30 under 30 Social Entrepreneurs Asia/Pacific List 2019, Ezekiel Raui is no stranger to dreaming big and thinking outside the box.

Ezekiel grew up in the Far North community of Whatuwhiwhi in Doubtless Bay after his whānau moved north from Tokoroa.. After completing his degree in 2018, Ezekiel began working for Te Rau Ora as the Programme Lead for Tū Kotahi, a peer-to-peer support programme he co-designed while still at school.

Ezekiel is currently studying towards his Masters in Business at Te Kūnenga Kī Pūrehuroa - Massey University, while working full-time as a consultant for Social Innovation at Skills Consulting Group.

He intends to use his platform and knowledge to continue growing Aotearoa New Zealand into a socially, culturally, and environmentally friendly country.

Jayne Russell

Jayne Russell has been with the Ministry of Social Development for over 25 years and is passionate about employment and improving the lives of New Zealanders.

For the past 2 years she’s been the Group General Manager Employment. Her portfolio focuses on creating and improving services that meet the immediate and long-term needs of whanau, empowering them to work towards their employment aspirations.

Prior to this role she established the business unit of Client Experience and Service Design at MSD which was responsible for ensuring the voice of the client is embedded in the way we design, develop and deliver services to New Zealanders.

Gaye Searancke

Te Tumu Whakarae mō Toitū Te Whenua
Secretary for Land Information and Chief Executive
Gaye Searancke

Gaye has led Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand since mid-2019, bringing with her a broad range of senior leadership experience from across the public and private sectors.

Toitū Te Whenua is a kaitiaki pārongo whenua (guardian and custodian of New Zealand’s land information) and a key focus for Gaye is to ensure our products and services deliver value to Aotearoa New Zealand.

Before joining Toitū Te Whenua, Gaye was a Deputy Commissioner at Inland Revenue, focused on improving customer experience and building a stronger customer-focused culture.

Gaye started her career as a lawyer and has worked as a Crown Prosecutor and as Senior Counsel for the Commerce Commission. She has held senior leadership roles at ACC, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, leading governance, privacy, corporate and legal disciplines, as well as policy responsibilities in labour and employment law, business law, competition, trade and investment.

Notable highlights in Gaye’s career include enhancing the capability and capacity of New Zealand’s Labour Inspectorate, and undertaking extensive financial, labour market and health & safety reforms, including establishing WorkSafeNZ (New Zealand's primary workplace health and safety regulator).

Ross Young

Ross Young leads public policy and government affairs for Google in New Zealand. In this role, he worked on the Global Launch of Project Loon from Christchurch, NZ and founded the Innovation Partnership to help schools, businesses and government make the most of digital technology, amongst a number of other initiatives.

Ross’s career covers a wide range of activities. He has been an advisor and lobbyist for Human Rights for ethnic and religious minorities, has a Diploma in Theatre Performance, and has worked at the Commerce commission, leading a team of regulatory lawyers advising on electricity, gas, telecommunications and mergers and acquisitions.

Ross is a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand. After completing degrees in psychology and law at Victoria University of Wellington, he began his career in policy with the National Health Committee and then as Private Secretary to the Minister of Health. He lives in Wellington with his husband and their exuberant 10 year old daughter.