Advisory Board

Danny is an experienced director, with extensive accounting, finance, investment management and education experience. He holds a number of directorships with companies including UP Education Group Ltd, Move Logistics Ltd, Marlborough Wine Estates Ltd and Flowerzone International Ltd, as well as numerous companies associated with his private investments. Danny was a Member of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet - China Project.

He is a current member of the New Zealand China Council, the Confucius Institute, and Centre for Asia Pacific Excellence, and is a former Asia New Zealand Foundation Board member. Danny has lived and worked in Asia for a number of years and is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese. He holds Bachelor of Commerce and Administration and Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (Hons) degrees from Victoria University Wellington.

Michele is the Chair of the External Reporting Board. She served as the Chair of PwC in New Zealand from 2016 to 2020, a partner for 15 years and held numerous leadership, executive and governance roles within PwC in New Zealand and Asia.

Michele is a Board Member of Toitū Tahua – The Centre for Sustainable Finance, Transpower New Zealand, AIA New Zealand and IAG New Zealand, and the Australian Financial Reporting Council. She served as Co-Chair of Champions for Change from 2018 to 2020, and was a board member and Deputy Chair of Global Women from 2011 to 2018.

Pete Jones is the Principal of Manurewa High School, one of the largest high schools in New Zealand with about 2000 students made up of over 50% Pasifika, 25% Māori and a mix of more than 50 nationalities. He is originally from the UK and has a BA from Liverpool University, a PGCE from Birmingham University and an MSc from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Pete came to NZ in 2006 and restarted his teaching career at Manurewa High School as a Health and PE teacher. In 2009 he was appointed Deputy Principal and then Principal in 2016.

Jeanette has held international management and senior executive positions in the people/HR area with companies including Ford Motor Company, Cargill Inc, Novartis AG, Agile People Ltd, Mexx/Liz Claiborne Inc, Priceline.com, Mayborn Group (Tommee Tippee), Spark NZ, and ASB Bank. She is currently managing director, Asia Pacific, for Ph.Creative and is also an independent Director, executive coach, and business consultant.

Jeanette was based in the UK until 2016, and then moved to New Zealand. She maintains a number of roles in the UK, including being on the Advisory Board at the University of Liverpool Management School (ULMS), and chair of the ULMS Hong Kong and Singapore International Advisory Groups. Jeanette has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from Loughborough University.

Jodie is One New Zealand’s (formerly known as Vodafone New Zealand) Chief People Officer, having joined the company in May 2020 from Air New Zealand where she spent seven years, four of those as Chief People Officer.

Prior to that Jodie worked at KPMG in London for 16 years in both management consulting and in HR leadership roles. She holds a double degree in Commerce (Human Resource Management) and Arts (History) from the University of Otago, and an Executive Management Qualification from INSEAD.

Eru holds a portfolio of governance roles spanning tourism, health, and sport, and has also held governance roles in the tertiary education sector. He was the Regional Commissioner for Social Development, Northland, at the Ministry of Social Development, and the inaugural Public Service Commissioner for Northland on behalf of the Public Service Commission.

Eru has experience in pre and post-settlement hāpu and iwi contexts, and is proud of the extensive work he has led in relation to the Crown-Māori relationship most recently leading, in partnership with iwi Māori and local government leaders, two regional responses to COVID related lockdowns. He is of Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Whatua, Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Kahu and Ngāti Toa descent. Eru holds a Bachelor of Laws, a MBA (dist. and valedictorian), and has completed executive programmes at IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland), Stanford and MIT (Boston, USA).

Rob’s finance career spans over 35 years, having worked overseas before joining Coopers and Lybrand in the corporate advisory and valuations practice in 1985. He joined Air New Zealand in 1993 and left in 2018 after 13 years as CFO.

Rob is currently Chair of Contact Energy Limited and is a director of Fletcher Building, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and Sovereign Assurance Company Limited. He is a former board member of the Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand Inc. and former vice chairman of the IATA Financial Committee. Rob has a Bachelor of Commerce from Auckland University and in 1999 completed the Program of Management Development at Harvard Business School.

Fady is an entrepreneur and innovator, most widely known as the founder of wireless charging technology company, PowerbyProxi. Under his stewardship the company quickly grew to become a world leader as the largest wireless power firm globally by revenue, and with over 500 patents to its name. In 2017, Apple acquired the company. Now in the role of Managing Director at Apple’s Auckland Technology Centre, Fady continues to make a significant contribution to current and future technology.

In addition to his work with PowerbyProxi and Apple, Fady has served on the international board of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) since 2013. WPC is the organisation behind Qi (the equivalent of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, but for electricity) which enables wireless charging. He holds a double degree in Engineering and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Auckland and has completed an Entrepreneurship Development Program at MIT.

Paul is a senior partner at PwC, with over 25 years of practice. He has held several senior positions for PwC, including the Managing Partner of their NZ Consulting business, the ASEANZ Risk Consulting leader, member of NZ PwC Firm Executive, ASEANZ Consulting Leadership and NZ Firm Financial Assurance leadership teams.

Paul has a deep passion for education, and is the deputy trust Board chair of St Cuthbert’s College, Auckland. He is a Chartered Accountant, and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Accounting and Financial Management from the University of Essex.

Roger is chairman and a Senior Fellow of The New Zealand Initiative, a think tank supported by CEOs of a majority of New Zealand’s largest companies. He led law firm Bell Gully as executive chairman from 2007 to 2014 and was a partner of the firm for 24 years.

Roger was executive director of the Legal Research Foundation, a charitable foundation associated with the University of Auckland, from 2001 to 2009, a member of the Council of the New Zealand Law Society, the governing body of the legal profession in New Zealand, from 2011 to 2015. He holds a double degree in Law and Commerce from the University of Auckland, and Master in Law from Cambridge.

David is the founding Director of Landfall Strategy Group, an economic advisory firm based in the Netherlands. He advises governments, firms, and investors in the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe on dynamics in global macro, economic policy, globalisation, and geopolitics, and how these institutions should best position themselves. David has also served as a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs & Trade in New Zealand, and as a Fellow at Singapore’s Civil Service College.

Previously, he was an Associate Principal with McKinsey & Company in Singapore, as well as being a Senior Fellow with the McKinsey Global Institute. Before joining McKinsey, David was the founding Chief Executive of the New Zealand Institute, a think tank. He has a PhD in Public Policy and a Master in Public Policy degree from Harvard University, as well as a Master of Commerce degree in Economics from the University of Auckland.

Vanessa is Managing Director of Microsoft New Zealand and Microsoft’s Chief Partner Officer Australia & New Zealand. She joined Microsoft after more than two decades at Spark, New Zealand’s largest telco.

Vanessa is an advocate and driver of diversity and inclusion, especially for Māori and Pacific communities and for women in STEM. She has initiated and supported programmes that foster talent, creativity, and education in these areas. Vanessa has a Mini MBA from the University of Auckland.

David has extensive experience in financial and non-financial boards. He is Deputy Chair of NZ Green Investment Finance, a Director of Toitū Tahua: Centre for Sustainable Finance, a Director of Whai Rawa Fund Ltd, and member of the NZ National Advisory Board on Impact Investing. David also sits on overseas boards for the Aga Khan Foundation as an Independent Director, First Microfinance Bank Afghanistan, and First Microfinance Company Egypt.

He has held leadership positions in various financial service organisations across various cultures and countries including in the United Arab Emirates, as CEO of Rasmala, a regional investment bank, as well as roles in Ireland, Scandinavia, Japan and the Middle East at ABN AMRO. David has a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University.