Executive Leaders Masterclass

Richard was born in the Waikato and raised on a Waikato Dairy farm. He studied at the University of Auckland completing a Bachelors and PhD in Mechanical Engineering. While studying he worked at Gallaghers Engineering in Hamilton, Volvo in Sweden, MacMaster University in Canada and as a part-time lecturer at the University of Auckland.

Since completing his studies Richard has worked for: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare as a Research Engineer; Industrial Research as a researcher, team leader and General Manager; Meat & Wool New Zealand as General Manager Research; The Foundation for Research Science & Technology as a General Manager and Acting-CEO, the Ministry of Science & Innovation as acting General Manager Research; and most recently as General Manager Research & Technical Services at Callaghan Innovation.

Richard is a Fellow of the Institute of Professional Engineers of New Zealand [IPENZ], Associate Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management [NZIM] and is married with one son.

Dr Karleen Edwards has significant experience in the public sector in New Zealand and Australia at strategic, operational and leadership levels. She has been the Chief Executive of the Christchurch City Council since June 2014. Previously she was Chief Executive of the Commission for Hospital Improvement in the Victoria Department of Health in Australia. The Commission’s role is to improve clinical, quality and efficiency of Victorian Hospitals.

Graduating from Dunedin Medical School with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery and specialising as a psychiatrist, she also holds an MBA (with distinction) from Canterbury University.

Prior to becoming Mayor of Dunedin in 2010, Dave Cull completed a BA in Political Science at the University of Otago before embarking on an extensive career in the media and publishing a number of books.

Since becoming Mayor, Dave has focused on both economic and environmental sustainability as Dunedin realises its vision of being one of the world’s great small cities.

Under his leadership, the city has experienced sustained and sustainable increases in population, job numbers and visitor spending, while at the same time actively responding to 21^st century challenges such as climate change.

Dave is proud that Dunedin has become a much more outward looking city in recent years. He has been instrumental in helping strengthen international relationships, education and business links, particularly with sister city Shanghai and friendship cities of Qingyuan and Qingdao. Through its UNESCO Creative City of Literature status, Dunedin is also increasingly presenting its thriving creative sector to the world.

In July 2017, Dave became the President of Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) – the representative body that interacts with and advocates to central government on behalf of the diverse councils and territorial authorities of New Zealand.

Springing from his role at LGNZ, Dave is a Vice Chair of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, which promotes democratic local government across the Commonwealth and encourages the exchange of best practice. Dave is also Co-President of United Cities and Local Governments Asia Pacific (UCLG ASPAC), which advocates for democratic, effective and innovative local government, and promotes cooperation between local governments within the Asia Pacific region.

Mike Stenhouse is Executive Director and shareholder of Sheffield SI Limited and Sheffield Group Limited. He has over 30 years’ experience in Human Resource consulting with particular involvement in executive search and selection, board appointments and reviews of board effectiveness and organisational development projects.

Mike’s governance experience is significant, having identified, evaluated and appointed candidates to Non-Executive Directorship roles with a range of private, public and state sector organisations. He has spoken at a number of forums on executive search and selection, governance, organisational culture and related HR topics.

Jennifer is a senior leadership development practitioner, specialising in the Neuroscience of Leadership. She has a business background, having begun her career in the City of London, as a shipbroker and member of the Baltic and Mercantile Shipping Exchange.

She has held senior roles with the global organisation P&O Nedlloyd and her career has been internationally focused, encompassing London, Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand. She set up her own consultancy in 2007 in New Zealand where she works with government and private sector organisations.

Her work is primarily in the areas of:

• Development, design and delivery of long and short term leadership programmes.
• Development and delivery of neuroscience of leadership programmes and workshops.
• Using neuroscience principles to design and support organisational change.
• Leadership development consulting solutions for organisations.
• Consulting to organisations to increase organisational buy-in to change initiatives.
• Senior executive coaching; working with individuals and senior teams to support them in becoming more effective leaders of people and results.

Jennifer has a passion for effective leadership, believing that a combination of evidence and practical application leads to learning and behaviour change.

She qualified as a Shipbroker in the UK and holds a Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from Victoria University in New Zealand, as well as an MSc in The Neuroscience of Leadership from Middlesex University, UK.

Tanya has been in local government for over 20 years and is currently the Chief Executive of Ōtorohanga District Council. She has only been in the role for eight weeks, but is no stranger to a CE role. Tanya would be one of the few Chief Executives who has made the leap from second tier to a CE role in local government, not once, but twice.

This time two years ago Tanya presented to this very forum. At that time she had just been suspended as Chief Executive of Westland District Council. In what Tanya calls “the perfect storm” she found herself embroiled in a very public situation that would be a worst nightmare for many people less resilient. By the end of April 2017 Tanya was unemployed and thought her local government career was over. But her passion for the sector was unwavering, and in August 2017 she took on a very different second tier role at Otago Regional Council. In the 18 months that followed she applied for six CE roles. Not one to be discouraged, Tanya’s grit, determination and belief that she had unfinished business as a CE saw her landing the Chief Executive role at Ōtorohanga District Council.

Karen has been our Chief Executive since September 2011 and has responsibility for fulfilling Taituarā vision to promote and support professional excellence in local government. Over this time she has introduced leadership development for the sector, grown the membership and ensured that guidance and practice advice is updated regularly. Karen has established extensive local government networks overseas and regularly utilises these contacts to the benefit of the New Zealand local government sector.

Karen’s previous roles have included Chief Executive at the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and Regional Assistant Commissioner at the State Services Commission where she led the development of the proposal to establish the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), a world-leading educational institution.

Karen is a Chartered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. She has been on several boards including Refugee Trauma Recovery, AFS Intercultural Programmes where she was the Deputy Chair and she chaired Capital Swim Club Board for four years. She is a Swimming NZ qualified referee, and her other interests include reading and genealogy research.

André is the Head of Employment Relations at Auckland Council, a role he has held since October 2011. Auckland Council was formed in November 2010 and involved the amalgamation of eight local authorities across the Auckland region. It is now the largest local authority in Australasia, employing about 11,000 people across the group.

In the period he has been with Auckland Council, André has been part of a number of initiatives helping to transform the organisation. In particular, leading the negotiations for the main collective agreement` with PSA as well as helping to develop, with the PSA, the Council’s innovative employee engagement program, the way we work.

Before joining Auckland Council André was the employment relations manager at ANZ Bank for nine years. ANZ acquiring the National Bank, negotiating the first collective agreement of the new organisation, and managing the industrial ramifications of the bank’s offshore program being among the many challenges André encountered. André started his career with the law firm, Russell McVeagh, after graduating from the University of Auckland Law School. He has a LLM from the University of Virginia.