Climate Change and Local Government Forum

Janet is the Director of the Centre for Sustainability, an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Otago. A social scientist, she is particularly interested in the role of individuals and organisations in the transition to a sustainable future. Her current research includes community-based adaptation to climate impacts, implementation of ecosystem-based management in New Zealand’s marine area, and socio-technical changes in New Zealand’s electricity system.

Deep South National Science Challenge

Bronwyn Hayward is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and is Dean for Postgraduate Research at the University of Canterbury.

She is a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR6 Report ( the global Cities and infrastructure chapter) and was a lead author for the 2018 Special Report on 1.5 (Sustainable development and Poverty eradication). She is co-primary investigator with University of Surrey’s ERSC funded Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity, and leads the Children and Youth in Cities Lifestyle Evaluation Study (CYCLES) in seven world cities. She was an Erskine Fellow with University College, Oxford (UK) in 2017. In 2019 she won a Kiwibank Local Hero award for service to Canterbury.

Catherine Iorns is a Reader in Law at Victoria University of Wellington. Her primary areas of teaching and research are environmental law, indigenous rights, and statutory interpretation; she has recently won various prizes for her environmental law teaching and her research. Catherine is funded by the Deep South Challenge to work on legal issues relevant to climate adaptation and liability for sea level rise damage, with reports from these scheduled to be released in June 2019. She is an advisor to the NZ Council of Legal Education and is a member of a Bioethics Committee for a project under the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge. Catherine is also a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.

Deep South National Science Challenge

Steve brings extensive experience across the local government and wider public sector to his role at the Taranaki Regional Council.

Steve joined the Taranaki Regional Council as Chief Executive in October 2019, and prior to that was the Chief Executive of Southland District Council for six years. Steve has also held Chief Executive roles with the Kaipara District Council (December 2011 – October 2014) and Thames-Coromandel District Council (December 1998 – December 2011).

Steve has also worked in a range of executive and governance roles across the health, tertiary education and broader public sector.

Of Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Ranginui descent, Steve was awarded a Bachelor of Management Studies from the University of Waikato, and is a Chartered Accountant Fellow (FCA) with Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

Sue Bidrose is Chief Executive Officer of Dunedin City Council. She has a long career spanning the not-for-profit sector, central government, local government and IT in the private sector.

She completed her undergrad study at the University of Otago in 1992 and also attained her psychology doctorate here. Since being appointed Chief Executive Officer, she has completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Organisational Leadership (with distinction) at the Saïd Business School, Oxford University.

Sue has a passion for local government, and for promoting the ethics of public service.

Grace is a Senior Advisor in our Sector Improvement team, with a focus on our community well-being and resource management work.

Grace has a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Canterbury. She initially practiced as an employment and resource management lawyer for a national law firm, before moving into local government focused work. Grace has worked at Local Government New Zealand, where she led the Climate Change Project, worked on the joint central and local government Community Resilience work programme and was the lead advisor to the Young Elected Members’ Network and Te Maruata (local government’s network of Māori elected members). Prior to joining Taituarā, Grace spent a year at Creative New Zealand in a role focused on establishing and supporting local government partnerships. Grace’s interest in local government, and the difference it can make in communities, stemmed from her involvement in New Plymouth District Council’s Youth Subcommittee many years ago, and several summers spent working as a student intern for the Council’s Strategy and Policy and Community Development teams.

Outside of work, Grace is interested in supporting Wellington’s hospitality scene, cooking, the arts, travelling and watching sport.

John Mauro is Auckland Council’s first Chief Sustainability Officer. John and his team provide thought leadership, drive strategic direction and champion change to mainstream sustainability and resilience in the Auckland region.

The focus of the office is to unlock the potential of Auckland’s low carbon transformation, build climate resilience, and lead by example through business and operational practices – from building portfolio to procurement, from fleets to financing - so all activities deliver smarter sustainability outcomes.

John has over 20 years of experience in climate policy, research and advocacy. He came to Auckland from Seattle, where he worked as Policy Director for a transport not-for-profit, helped deliver the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement and Seattle’s first climate plan while in the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, and ran an organization dedicated to smart growth policy and advocacy.

Kristin has been a sector manager in the Office of the Auditor General’s Local Government team since mid-2016. The team is responsible for managing the Auditor-General’s relationships with the local government, environment, and energy sectors. The team also reports to Parliament on trends and issues arising in these sectors.

Kristin covers the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, and Gisborne regions. Kristin was previously a Principal Advisor, Planning at Wellington Water. Her principal experience lies in natural resource management policy and implementation. This included time with the New Zealand Transport Agency and the Ministry for the Environment.

Isabel leads the Carbon Neutral Advantage Project which focuses on bringing communities and businesses together to create a low emission future for the Southland region, and is supporting other regions in taking a similar approach. Drawing on her experience in the construction and financial sector, Isabel supports businesses with the application of circular economy, waste to energy, peer-to-peer trading, low emission transports options as well as looking at the use of aerial magnetic and satellite data to build a prosperous economy, support climate mitigation and provide long-term benefits to the community.

Isabel also leads the 2017 Deloitte Large User Award winner, the Wood Energy South project, which is now in its fifth year, is a member of the New Zealand Hydrogen Association, Bioenergy Association, the Southern Council and the Southern Institute of Technology Environmental Management Advisory Committee.

Steve has extensive experience in both large-scale strategic projects and community-led development initiatives. This has included managing the successful completion of major civil and mechanical engineering projects, establishing satellite and terrestrial television, and the development of mineral and agricultural systems, region-wide soils and climatic data.

Stephen is a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, a member of the Institute of Directors of New Zealand and Chairman of the National Broadband Forum, trustee of the Southland Electrical Power Trust, founding member of the Hydrogen Association, Bioenergy Association and the Queenstown Lakes District Council Climate Change Planning Committee.

Richard Kirby is Engineering Services Manager with the Tasman District Council. Responsible for the infrastructure services provided by Council including roading, water supplies, wastewater schemes, stormwater drainage, coastal structures and river management. His management, consulting and engineering career within Local Government spans over 35 years.

From April 2011 until January 2017, he provided consulting service to local government and central government agencies. In 2013 he provided technical input into the OAG report on the Mangawhai Wastewater Scheme and provided technical advice to Civic Assurance on the earthquake damage to infrastructure in the Canterbury region from September 2010 until early 2015.

Prior to April 2011, he was the Assets Group Manager for the Manawatu and Rangitikei District Councils. This comprised leading a shared services team providing asset management and engineering support to the two Councils with primary responsibility for roading, water supplies, wastewater schemes, stormwater, solid waste, parks and property activities.

He is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and Fellow of Engineering New Zealand (FENGNZ).

Wageed is a technical expert in waterway water quality, including the assessment of effects of pollution from both urban and rural environments. He has over 23 years’ experience in performing and managing water quality assessments for water resource projects, hydrodynamic and water quality modelling studies as well as hydrological modelling studies. He has also been involved in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) projects in support of detailed bulk infrastructure design.

Previously he has worked on climate change studies focusing on eutrophication and related water quality impacts in major water supply waterbodies and is currently involved in a Deep South National Science Challenge project focusing on the potential effect of droughts on drinking water supplies in New Zealand.

In addition to his experience in consulting, he has spent 6 years in the academic environment lecturing at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the areas of biological wastewater treatment, environmental water quality modelling and environmental engineering.”

Deep South National Science Challenge

The Asset Management Group is responsible for looking after a diverse portfolio of river and coastal engineering, flood control scheme operations and maintenance, drainage scheme operations and maintenance, the regional park network and inhouse workforce Works Group who undertake maintenance for HBRC and private clients. Chris has more than 20 years’ experience in strategic and operational engineering management roles in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Christopher Brankin is a member of the Strategy and Influence team at Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. Part of his role for the past two years has been assisting with the development of a tribal climate change response strategy for Ngāi Tahu. Christopher was raised in rural Canterbury and has a keen interest in the outdoors. His Ngāi Tahu whakapapa leads to Murihiku, and he tries to go south as often as possible.

Rata (Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe) is a Policy Advisor with the Strategy and Influence team at Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, having joined the team as a Graduate Researcher in early 2016. During this time she has been involved in the development of the tribal climate change strategy ‘He Rautaki mō te Huringa o te Āhuarangi’, which was launched late 2018.

Rata has a Masters in Science and Bachelor of Science majoring in Marine Biology and Environmental Science from Victoria University of Wellington, as well as a Post-graduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies from Canterbury University.

David is currently the Chair of the Interim Committee for Climate Change – an independent organisation tasked with providing analysis and recommendations to Government regarding emissions from agriculture and electricity generation.

Prior to this, David was Chief Executive and Managing Director of Opus International Consultants, an NZX listed global infrastructure professional services company employing around 3000 people in 80 offices. He had a number of other senior roles including General Manager, Business Development and Director of Opus’ UK operations before his appointment as CEO in 2010 saw him return to New Zealand. He also served on the Board of Directors for Opus as a non-independent and executive board member. David also worked in the IT sector for four years in a variety of roles.

He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) degree and a PhD in Engineering and came to New Zealand as a Civil Engineer in 1997.

David was Chairman of Business New Zealand’s Infrastructure sub-group for five years, is a member of the Institute of Directors, and a Fellow of Engineering New Zealand.

Brandy is a Senior Policy Advisor at Kāpiti Coast District Council, with a strong interest in community-led initiatives for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Brandy holds a PhD from the University of California Irvine in Political Science, with an emphasis on the intersection of community activism with policy design and implementation. Since August 2017, Brandy has been involved in the development of the Wellington Region Approach to Community-Led Coastal Adaptation, while also participating in the development of the Kapiti Coast District Council Long term plan 2018-38.

Dr Judy Lawrence is Senior Research Fellow, New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington. Judy’s research focuses on climate change adaptation, decision making under uncertainty, and related institutional issues that support adaptation action. Judy leads development of Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAPP) planning and its application in New Zealand. She co-chaired the New Zealand Climate Change Adaptation Technical Working Group advising the Minister of Climate Change Issues on adapting to climate change 2016-2018.

She co-authored the Ministry for the Environment national Coastal Hazards and Climate Change Guidance 2017 and is currently Co- Lead Author for the Australasia Chapter of the IPCC Sixth Assessment. She is a previous Director of the NZ Climate Change Office at the Ministry for the Environment and chief executive of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. She has a PhD in Public Policy and a Master’s degree in Geomorphology from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Deep South National Science Challenge

Tēnā koutou katoa. Nō Te Arawa rāua ko Tainui ahau. Tīhei mauri ora.

Sandy is the Vision Mātauranga (VM) project leader for the Deep South Challenge: Changing with our Climate and works with the Challenge Leadership Team to ensure that the VM perspective is strong and present at every level within the Challenge. The VM programme has funded eight research projects over the past five years and is preparing for Phase Two of the research programme.

Her research and professional specialty focuses on adult education, education for sustainbility and the application of indigenous models in addressing developmental issues to improve livelihoods for indigenous peoples and peoples of the Pacific.

Sandy is the President of ICAE, International Council for Adult Education, a global NGO which advocates for the right of adults to education and lifelong learning and was inducted into the International Adult and Community Education Hall of Fame by the University of Oklahoma in 2009.

Deep South National Science Challenge

Waverley has 15 years experience in developing and implementing climate change and environmental policies in both local and central government. She specialises in translating science into policy and implementation.

She has been at Cuttriss Consultants since 2015 as a Senior Planner and is currently the Partnerships Director for the Deep South Science Challenge. In this role, Waverley keeps in close contact with key partners & stakeholders, making sure the climate change adaptation research from the Deep South Challenge is available as when & how they need it.