JLT Risk Management Forum

Richard joined Taituarā in December 2016. He loves his role assembling and sharing good and relevant practice so that people in local government have easier, more effective working lives, He is focussed on the Taituarā legal compliance modules, electoral readiness resources, and supporting G-REG the Government Regulatory Practice Initiative, He also has a hand in delivering some Taituarā events and policy projects.

Richard is studying part-time towards a Masters in Public Policy. With wife Christine, he has one teenage and two adult children, and believes passionately that Liverpool FC will again be Champions of England in his lifetime.

Grant Barnes is General Manager of Licensing & Regulatory Compliance for Auckland Council. The focus of the department is contributing to a fair, safe and healthy Auckland.

Specifically, the department is responsible for ensuring compliance across building consents, resource management matters, environmental health, animal management, alcohol licensing, and general Auckland Council bylaws.

This is achieved in partnership with other regulatory arms of Council, in collaboration with policy and planning colleagues. Externally, Grant works closely with the NZ Police and other key stakeholders across central government, manawhenua, industry and the community.

Hayley is Head of Legal and Risk (General Counsel) at Wellington City Council. Hayley joined the Council in 2016 to establish a legal services unit. In just over 18 months, Hayley's team went from one lawyer to eight, and was named Team of the Year 2018 at the NZ Law Awards.

From July 2017, Hayley also took responsibility for reshaping and refocusing the Council’s enterprise risk management function, and more recently, building strength in Project Governance for the Council.

Hayley has a passion for supporting women who become teen parents to continue their education, and is a trustee of He Huarahi Tamariki – a charitable trust that supports young women attending teen parent units throughout the greater Wellington region.

Steve is Nelson City Council’s Risk Adviser. He is a recognised expert in the development and application of risk management techniques with experience in a broad range of areas including; siting of explosives facilities, oilfield, geothermal power station, and irrigation scheme development, design and construction of urban wastewater systems, and local authority and health sector operations.

His experience also includes legislation development, resolving complex environmental issues at all levels from local to multi-national negotiations and the management of hazardous substances.

Steve holds a doctorate in chemical engineering and is currently a member of the New Zealand committee responsible for the maintenance of ISO 31000.

Jim Palmer chaired the panel that undertook a two-year review into the Future for Local Government, which delivered its report in June 2023. In 2021, he retired as chief executive of Waimakariri District Council after 17 years. Currently, Mr Palmer is the independent chair of the Greater Christchurch Partnership. He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, with experience as an audit director for Audit New Zealand and the Audit Office. Mr Palmer’s governance experience includes Chair of Riskpool, Chair of the Kaikōura Earthquake Recovery Steering Group and Chair of the Canterbury Chief Executives Forum.

Martin has 32 years experience in the New Zealand insurance industry, including loss adjusting, underwriting and broking.

Martin’s experience includes managing large property and liability (re)insurance programs for a variety of sectors, including local & central government, power & utilities and energy. In addition Martin also has specialist experience in construction project risks related to major infrastructure projects and other works.

Martin’s well rounded skill-set gives him the ability, confidence and experience to provide clients with sound risk transfer advice in relation to their businesses.

Dr Mike Williams is Director of the Deep South National Science Challenge and a Principal Scientist – Marine Physics at NIWA. Mike has been involved with Challenge since it started in 2015 and helped develop its mission of enabling New Zealanders to adapt, manage risk, and thrive in a changing climate. Prior to starting as Challenge Director, he led oceanographic and sea ice research in the Southern Ocean, and around Antarctica for NIWA. Mike returned to New Zealand in 2001 after working as an oceanographer in Copenhagen, Denmark and completing a PhD in polar oceanography in Australia.

Paul is a lawyer who was admitted in 1991. He has worked in the insurance industry for 25 years with a specific focus on Local Government liability risks over the past 21 years since joining JLT in 1995. Paul has worked with JLT London’s liability specialists and that market’s insurers for 17 years.

Paul is responsible for presenting JLT’s Local Government clients liability risks to the market, and the London market in particular, developing innovate extensions to liability wordings for risks unique to Councils. He has overseen in excess of 12,900 Local Government liability claims and insurance payments of NZD155m. Paul has been responsible for the management of the majority of litigation against Councils achieving positive precedents in key liability risk areas on behalf of Councils.

David Robson is the Internal Audit and Risk Manager at the University of Waikato. Prior to this he worked as a risk manager and crisis manager during his ten year tenure within local government.

David specialises in the building of tailored risk management frameworks and has particular interest in strategic risk. David remains actively involved in the government sector through his PhD research in long term risk management decision making across complex government networks.

David has published journal articles, academic papers and reports on risk and is a regular speaker at industry conferences and seminars.

Based in Wellington, Jo has worked for the Health and Safety regulator for over 14 years. She has held various roles in that time including Health and Safety Inspector, Service Manager and Chief Inspector for the Central region. Her key National focus has been with the Forestry Industry and currently the Agriculture sector.

As Deputy General Manager - Assessments, Operations and Specialist Services Group, Jo is currently responsible for an inspectorate of about 150, who perform proactive workplace assessments targeting the sectors where the most harm is occurring, i.e., Agriculture, Construction, Forestry and Manufacturing. The Assessments team are focused on activities that have the most long term impact. Jo is leading the Inspectorate to achieve a reduction in fatalities and injuries of 25% by 2020.

James has a decade of experience advising clients in both New Zealand and the United States on Risk Management and Internal Audit. Based in Wellington, James is the lead engagement manager for a number of local government and large public sector organisation risk and internal audit roles. He focuses on helping his clients build an organisational wide view of risk and developing clear linkage between risk and assurance. Through this he is helping clients to deliver meaningful Assurance reviews that stakeholders are bought into and help to drive positive change.

Bryan has spent seven years advising large organisations based both in the United States and New Zealand on how to meet their objectives by balancing risk and return, complying with relevant regulations, and leveraging secure, reliable technologies. At several central NZ government entities, Bryan is applying design/system thinking principles to facilitation techniques, in order to deliver high-impact workshops that are collaborative, assess key threats and opportunities, and address the root causes of problems.

Kritzo completed his BEng (Civil Engineering) degree at the University of Pretoria (South-Africa) in 2003. He spent his early working life in the construction industry managing multiple-disciplined engineering projects in the United Kingdom, Botswana, Zambia and South-Africa before relocating to New Zealand in 2010. Since then, he has been employed with the Whanganui District Council. He has a diverse range of work-experience in project management, risk management and asset management across the 3 waters activities. He holds Chartered Membership with Engineering New Zealand, and is a Chartered Professional Engineer in the practice areas of Civil Engineering and Engineering Management.