Governance Essentials

Fiona is an experienced board member and audit committee chair with a governance portfolio across a variety of sectors, including renewable energy, commercial property, utilities and airport software, intelligence and investigations software and financial and professional services. Her local and overseas Executive commercial operational experience was gained in leading funds management businesses for Westpac and AMP in NZ and managing the risk management function for AMP private equity in Sydney and London. Prior to her Executive career, she practised as a senior corporate and commercial lawyer (private practise and in-house) in NZ and overseas, specialising in mergers and acquisitions. A dominant focus of her board and Executive experience has been to profitably grow businesses during periods of significant industry disruption and execute substantial business transformation.

Richard has facilitated programmes for the IoD for more than 10 years and has more than 25 years’ experience as a director and board chair. He is based in Wellington and is currently chair of New Zealand Home Loans Limited and Co-op Money NZ, the financial technology business that supports New Zealand’s credit unions and manages most of New Zealand’s non-bank ATMs. He is also a director of RCBC Bank, one of the largest banks in the Philippines.

Until June 2019, he was Chair of Careerforce Industry Training Organisation and he has recently stepped down from nine years as the first independent director of the Dairy Goat Co-operative (NZ) Limited. Among his other roles, Richard was a founding independent director of Kiwibank Ltd and he has chaired several other organisations, including Intergen Ltd, Standards New Zealand, two SOEs, the New Zealand Telecommunications Forum and Canterbury Opera.

David is a highly-respected, leading New Zealand corporate lawyer with a reputation for providing clear, concise advice, and for achieving pragmatic, commercial outcomes.

He holds a number of regulatory and governance roles and has recently established a boutique corporate law firm – Flacks & Wong, after retiring as a senior corporate partner of Bell Gully. David also spent four years with Carter Holt Harvey as a member of the senior executive team, general counsel and company secretary. David is Chair of listed company Aft Pharmaceuticals, Harmoney, and a director of the Suncorp NZ companies and other private companies and charitable organisations.  He is also involved in regulation as Chair of the NZX Regulatory Governance Committee having previously Chaired the Markets Disciplinary Tribunal and been a member of the Takeovers Panel.

Pania has a mix of not-for-profit, public entity and for-profit governance experience. Pania currently holds governance positions with two privately-held companies: CORE Education Limited and Education Services Limited. She is the Chair of CORE Education Limited’s Audit and Risk Committee and is an independent member of the Te Mātāwai Komiti Tātari Tūraru (Audit and Risk Committee). She is also the Chair of a local sports club in Wellington.

Pania served two terms as an elected trustee for Hutt International Boys’ School from 2013 – 2019. She served a four-year term on the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) and a six-year term on the Academic Quality Agency for New Zealand Universities – including three years as the Deputy Chair.

With over 30 years of management experience in commercial and not-for-profit organisations in New Zealand and Australia and eight years in CEO roles, Carol specialises in helping organisations understand their vision, improve their systems and build teams to achieve success. As a consultant, Carol has provided board and executive coaching, mediation, facilitation and strategic planning with corporate, government and not for profit organisations. Her specialities are leading change, governance, financial management and conflict management. Carol has a Bachelor of Business in Human Resource Management, a Graduate Diploma in Dispute Resolution (Mediation), and Certificate IV in Executive Coaching, is a qualified trainer using accelerated learning techniques, is a Master NLP practitioner, International Master Coach, Master Clinical Hypnotherapist and a certified mBit coach. Carol is an accredited coach with the International Coach Federation, a member of the NZ Association for Training and Development and a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors in New Zealand.

Jo is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Chair of Northpower Fibre (ultra-fast broadband), Chair of Maritime NZ, Chair of Rotorua Lakes Audit and Risk Comm,  Chair of Harrison Grierson Board and also on the Auckland Museum Trust Board, and Principal of Leaders for the Future.   She is Chair of the Taitokerau Education Trust, supporting digital learning in low decile schools in Northland, a member of the Centre for Brain Research Advisory Board, and of other trusts. She is the Founder and Advisory Trustee of Leadership NZ, was Chair for more than a decade and has had an extensive governance career.  She was previously CEO of the Northland Regional Council and of the Auckland Regional Council. 

As a Harkness Fellow and Aspen Scholar, Jo spent a year researching leadership in the USA.  In addition to her governance roles, she develops and facilitates leadership and governance programmes.

Juliet is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors and has held over 20 board directorships in a wide range of sectors, with state-owned enterprises, private and publicly-listed companies and not-for-profit organisations. Juliet’s consultancy firm delivers corporate governance training, policy advice and strategic planning workshops to a wide variety of clients in New Zealand, the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. Juliet was awarded the Queen’s Service Order and the Commonwealth Medal. She is an honorary fellow of the School of Government at Victoria University.