Mentoring for Diversity 2026 mentors
Thank you to our 2026 mentors
Anna Curzon MInstD
Anna's executive experience includes global C-suite roles at Xero including Managing Director New Zealand, global Chief Partner Officer and Chief Product Officer, along with senior leadership roles with a number of other financial and technology companies. She is a director of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Gallagher Holdings Limited, Kiwibank, and Jade Software Corporation, and chairs the board of Atomic.io. Anna is also Co-Chair of the charity B416, advocating to make the online world safer for children - starting with restricting access to social media for children under the age of 16.
Anna also has a wealth of experience in the financial services sector, with over 18 years across senior leadership roles at ASB in Internet Banking, Brand & Marketing, Innovation & Design and the Contact Centre. She was appointed to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) by New Zealand's Prime Minister (Dame Jacinda Ardern) in 2021, reappointed by the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon in 2024, and today is Chair of the ABAC Economic Integration Working Group. She has also served on the New Zealand Prime Minister's Business Advisory Group from 2018-2020, and in 2017 the Global SaaS Report named Anna one of the Top 25 global women leaders in SaaS.
Anna advocates for diversity within the tech industry and is passionate about encouraging women and other underrepresented groups into STEM opportunities.
Anne Urlwin ONZM, CFInstD
Anne Urlwin is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Standards Committee chair, Wellington Branch Committee member, and a representative on the National Council. A professional director, Anne divides her time between Wanaka and Wellington. Her governance experience is in a diverse range of sectors including energy, construction, health, telecommunications, infrastructure, regulation and financial services, and in different organisations including private, publicly listed, Crown and local authority companies and statutory entities.
Anne is chair of Precinct Properties New Zealand Ltd, a director of City Rail Link Ltd, Infratil Ltd, Vector Ltd and Ventia Services Group Ltd. Anne is an establishment member of the NZX Corporate Governance Institute. She is a former director of Summerset Group Holdings Ltd, Queenstown Airport Corporation Ltd, Tilt Renewables Ltd, Chorus Ltd, and Steel & Tube Holdings Ltd, and a former chair of national commercial construction group Naylor Love Enterprises Ltd and of the New Zealand Blood Service.
Carol Scholes CMInstD
Carol has over 30 years of management experience in commercial and not-for-profit organisations in New Zealand and Australia, and eight years in CEO roles. She 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 a governance and leadership consultant and Chair of Parallaxx Ltd.
Carol is involved in the governance space as she passionately believes that all organisations and communities need effective leadership. Exceptional boards set the tone and expectations for high achievement while valuing people and positively impacting communities.
Hiking the beautiful mountains of Aotearoa with her family is one of Carol’s favourite activities.
Carolyn Steele CMInstD
Carolyn Steele has been a professional director since 2016 and brings extensive experience in capital markets, mergers & acquisitions and investment management.
Carolyn is currently a director and audit & risk chair of Property for Industry, Vulcan Steel and audit chair of ANZ Bank NZ. She is also a director and investment committee member of Oriens Capital GP 2. Previous directorships include WEL Networks, Green Cross Health, Datacom, Metlifecare, Tuatahi First Fibre, NZ Football Foundation, and Chair of Halberg Foundation.
Carolyn was a portfolio manager at New Zealand Superannuation Fund and prior to this spent 10 years investment banking at Credit Suisse/First NZ Capital and Forsyth Barr.
Carolyn holds a Bachelor of Management Studies (first class honours) from University of Waikato and is a chartered member of the IoD.
Clayton Wakefield CFInstD
Clayton Wakefield is a Chartered Fellow of the IoD, and a member of the IoD Auckland Branch Committee.
Clayton has over 35 years’ experience as an executive and director in banking, financial services, telecommunications and technology. He is the current chair of the Auckland Tamaki Makaurau Te Araroa Trust.
Clayton’s previous roles include chair of healthAlliance and was a non-executive director of The Co-operative-Bank and Co-operative Life Ltd, and an independent director for Chorus, and Fisher & Paykel Finance.
David Glover CFInstD
David has been a member of the IoD since 2007, a Chartered Fellow since 2023 and is a member of the IoD board. David brings strong expertise in the areas of business transformation, brand development initiatives, business, tertiary education and strategy development.
David is based in Whakatāne and his current governance roles include Chair of Trust Horizon and Toi Economic Development Agency, director of Ngāti Awa Group Holdings and Trustee of the Bay of Plenty Education Trust.
Diana Puketapu CMInstD
Diana Puketapu is the Chair of New Zealand Cricket, the first woman to hold this role. She has been on the NZC Board since 2017.
Formerly a Chief Financial Officer, she has experience in the commercial sector as well as a number of sporting environments both in management and governance. She worked on two America’s Cup campaigns in New Zealand and Europe and has held board roles on World Masters Games, Netball Northern and Auckland Football.
Diana has previously held board roles with two NZ listed companies as well as her iwi commercial board Nati Growth Limited. Diana is a chartered member of the NZ Institute of Directors and a chartered accountant.
Diana is also the Chair of the New Zealand Olympic Committee having been on the Board since 2015.
Giselle McLachlan CFInstD
Giselle is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors (IoD), an experienced company director, chair, CEO and was a lawyer for over 30 years.
Her roles have been varied - from the agricultural sector through to being a partner in a law firm as well as General Counsel for New Zealand’s largest insurance company. She has held many board roles, notably serving as a director for four years on the Earthquake Commission (including its audit committee), the H&J Smith Group, and the Medical Council where she also chaired the audit committee. Giselle is currently the chair of an international agri-tech consulting business AbacusBio Limited and of the Audit & Risk Committee for Local Government NZ. She regularly advises organisations on how to improve their governance.
Living in Central Otago, Giselle has completed a Cambridge University Sustainable Business Management course which strengthened her desire to help businesses towards a more purposeful, sustainable and resilient future and believes governance brings long term strategic thinking and new ways of doing things - great governance is the enabler that will lead to a stronger New Zealand.
Graham Kennedy MNZM, DistFInstD
Graham moved from Dunedin to Ashburton in 1973 and joined the team at the accountancy firm Brophy Knight. He has been an independent director/chairman or trustee for a number of private and public entities, including a long association with the banking industry, having been a director of CBS Canterbury for 24 years. During this period, Graham was actively involved in the significant changes occurring over that time, including demutualisation and NZAX listing. He was also Chairman from 2002 – 2008, a period that included mergers with both SMC Building Society and Loan and Building Society.
Graham was a founding director of Heartland New Zealand Limited, an NZX 50 listed entity, and Heartland Bank Limited. Although he resigned as a director in 2019, he remains as a trustee of the Heartland Charitable Trust.
As well as his diverse range of directorships, Graham has been a trustee/chairman of numerous charitable organisations, was a council member of the Ashburton JP Association, and served for five years as a member of the Institute of Directors Canterbury branch committee.
Graham was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in 2017 for services to Business and Governance and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
Jackie Lloyd CFInstD
Jackie Lloyd BA, BCom, CFInstD, is President of the Institute of Directors and a National Council member. A life-long interest in the relationship between human behaviour and business performance led Jackie through an executive career as the global human resources director for the New Zealand Dairy Board and NZMP Fonterra, to consulting and governance. She is currently chair of Naylor Love Enterprises Ltd, Acting Chair of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and a director of CentrePort Ltd and Tatua Co-operative Company Limited. Jackie is also Deputy Chair of the Lion Foundation.
Jackie’s previous governance roles include AgResearch, Kiwi Group Holdings, NZ Post and New Zealand Cricket.
Jason McDonald CMInstD
Jason was appointed as a director for Orion in August 2017 and is the Chair of Orion’s subsidiary Connetics. He is an independent energy consultant and professional director. He is also a director on the Clarus group of companies, First Gas Group, Helios Energy and CentrePort. He was previously a director of Mevo, Top Energy and Red Bus.
Jason has 30 years experience in the energy sector including a number of executive roles at Meridian. He is a Chartered Member of the NZ Institute of Directors.
Dr Jim Mather CFInstD, CA
Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe
Dr Jim Mather is of Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Whakatōhea and English descent, and grew up in the communities of Te Teko, Ōtara and Māngere.
A member of the Chartered Accountants of New Zealand/Australia and Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors (IoD), Jim has been a professional director and the founder of a specialist Māori development consultancy, holding a Master of Business Administration from the Henley Business School in England and a Bachelor of Business Studies (Accounting). He also completed a PhD in Māori economic development through AUT University in 2014.
With business management experience spanning 25 years, Jim has held a variety of private sector roles and currently holds numerous governance roles within private, government and iwi organisations. In 2018 he completed his final Chief Executive role with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (New Zealand’s second largest tertiary institution) after a 5-year term. This followed a 9-year tenure as Chief Executive of Māori Television, and prior to that he was Chief Executive of the Pacific Business Trust for almost 3 years.
Jim is passionate about Māori development and contributing to the strengthening of all entities that he is entrusted to support in either advisory or governance roles.
Aligned with his commercial background, Jim is also a former officer in the New Zealand Army, and was awarded the Sword of Honour in recognition of his distinguished achievements in Officer training. He served for six years in the NZ Army before leaving to further his career and educational aspirations.
Julian Smith CMInstD
Julian is an experienced professional director, currently serving on the boards of Watercare, Northport Group, MetService, CDL Investment and Cancer Support New Zealand. He chairs the Institute of Directors (IoD) Te Tai Tokerau Committee and sits the MCERT advisory board for the government’s RMA reform programme.
With over 16 years of governance experience across the technology, utilities, and not-for-profit sectors, Julian brings specialist expertise in digital and business transformation, customer strategy, and corporate affairs. He is a Chartered Member of the IoD.
Keiran Horne CFInstD
Keiran Horne is an experienced independent director with over 15 years’ experience across public, commercial and not-for-profit sectors. A Fellow Chartered Accountant and Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Keiran brings strong financial stewardship, risk management, assurance, and ESG expertise. Prior to her governance career, Keiran worked as an Accountant specialising in business rescue and insolvency, strategic planning, change management and commercial transactions.
Keiran has served as an independent director and Audit and Risk Committee Chair for a range of organisations, providing independent oversight and constructive challenge to boards and executives. She has experience in complex and changing environments, including organisational transformation, technology, regulatory and compliance matters, and stakeholder engagement.
Keiran has held a range of governance roles including TVNZ, Lotto, Solid Energy and University of Canterbury. She is currently on the Boards of The Co-operative Bank, Enable Network Services Ltd, Quayside Holdings Ltd and Antarctica New Zealand.
Kim Wallace CMInstD
While working in executive roles, Kim also served as an independent director from 2012 before moving into a full-time governance career in 2017. Her governance experience spans property, New Zealand’s primary industries (dairy and horticulture), major transport infrastructure projects, science, funds management, technology and logistics.
Alongside her directorships, Kim provides governance and stakeholder strategy advisory services through her consulting practice. Her dual passions for effective governance and personal growth have led her to pursue consulting and mentoring engagements that strengthen organisational performance.
Having held executive financial roles in Germany, the United States, China, Australia and New Zealand, Kim brings a global perspective to her work. She is particularly focused on impactful strategy and sound financial stewardship, underpinned by commercial acumen and enduring stakeholder relationships. She combines empathy and strong leadership with a commitment to diverse thinking, ensuring successful outcomes.
Kirsty Campbell CMInstD
Kirsty is a professional director and commercial adviser who has held a range of roles in corporate finance, banking, law and regulation.
She is chair of Toitū Envirocare and an independent director of Mercer NZ and NZHL. She is also a member of the NZ Markets Disciplinary Tribunal and several advisory boards.
Her previous governance roles include Salt Funds, Public Trust, Ando Insurance, Montana Catering Group, New Plymouth PIF Guardians and Simplicity NZ.
Kirsty is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors, a certified member of INFINZ and a member of Global Women.
A proud Scotswoman, she has a Bachelor of Law (Hons) and a post-graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, from the University of Edinburgh.
Mark Callaghan MInstD
Mark Callaghan is an experienced Independent Non-Executive Director with extensive governance and leadership expertise. He was appointed as an Independent Director of Briscoe Group in 2021 (currently Chair of the HR Committee) and brings over 35 years of experience in manufacturing and marketing consumer goods, predominantly across New Zealand and Australia. His career includes senior roles at multinational companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, Kimberly-Clark, Cadbury UK, Australia & New Zealand, and Frucor Suntory New Zealand.
He has served as a director/chair for several organisations, including The Warehouse Group, Office Products Depot Ltd, Humour Foundation (Clown Doctors), and Hayes Asset Management. He also currently serves as an Independent Director on the board of Tasti Products Ltd.
Mark Ratcliffe CMInstD
Mark Ratcliffe is an experienced director and chair with more than a decade of governance experience across listed companies, Crown entities, infrastructure, telecommunications, technology, education and the not-for-profit sector. His current appointments include Independent Director of One NZ and ikeGPS Limited, a member of the Massey University Council, Chair of WilliamsWarn Limited, and Chair of Kaibosh Food Rescue.
Mark has previously served on the boards of Clarus Group, Kainga Ora, Two Degrees Mobile, Tuatahi First Fibre and Te Aranga Alliance. He was also Independent Chair of Waka Kotahi’s Major Capital Programme Governance Group from 2020 to 2025.
Bringing extensive experience in major capital infrastructure and senior leadership, Mark offers strong commercial judgement, strategic oversight and an understanding of complex, high-stakes environments. His governance portfolio reflects broad sector experience and a sustained commitment to effective stewardship, organisational performance and community impact across commercial and public-purpose organisations throughout New Zealand.
Mary-Jane Daly CFInstD
Mary-Jane (“MJ”) is Chair of AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited, Chair of the Fonterra Shareholders Fund, Chair of Partners Life and an Independent Director of Kiwibank Limited. She has served on the boards of Kiwi Property, Auckland Transport, Toka Tu Ake EQC, Cigna Life Insurance, Airways Corporation of New Zealand, and the New Zealand Green Building Council.
In her executive career MJ worked mainly in banking and insurance in a variety of roles both in New Zealand and the UK. Her last executive role was as Executive General Manager at State Insurance. Prior to this appointment she was Chief Financial Officer for IAG in NZ.
When not In Auckland MJ enjoys spending time in Wanaka and making the most of all the outdoor activities on her doorstep there.
Rex Williams DistFInstD
Trained as a Civil Engineer, Rex had a 30 year career in the cement, quarry and concrete industries including 10 years as CEO of Holcim NZ Ltd before retiring in 2007.
Since then he has had a range of governance roles including Chair of West Coast District Health Board, Chancellor of University of Canterbury, Commissioner Environment Canterbury.
In the private sector he has Chaired the HWRichardson Group for 15 years, recently chaired Milford Sound Tourism Ltd and presently Chairs Te Tai Poutini Planning Committee.
As a volunteer Rex has been a member of the Water Rights Trust and recent Chair of Styx Living Laboratory Trust, a river care group which secured MFE funding and completed a major native planting and weed eradication program.
Rex has mentored many individuals and boards of small or family companies.
Susan Paterson ONZM, CFInstD
An independent director since 1996, in 2015 Susan was appointed an Officer of the Order of New Zealand (ONZM) for her services to corporate governance.
Having trained and practiced as a pharmacist, Susan completed her MBA at London Business School, then worked in strategy and IT consulting and management roles in New Zealand, Europe and USA.
As well as being our Chair of Theta, and Steel and Tube, Susan is a Director of Lodestone Energy, EROAD, and Les Mills NZ Ltd. She added regulatory skills in 2010 and is on the Board of the Reserve Bank.
Susan has a keen interest in sport, education and the environment, and was Chair of 'Home of Cycling' (Avantidrome), and on the Board of NZ Golf, a Commissioner of the Tertiary Education Commission, past Chair of Auckland Hockey, and a past board member of companies including ; Arvida, Goodman Property, the Electricity Authority, SkyTV, Airways Corp (Chair), Housing NZ, Abano, Auckland Regional Holdings, Ports of Auckland, Transpower, St.Cuthbert's College, the NZ Ecolabelling Trust (Chair) and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).
She lives in Auckland, has 3 adult children, and enjoys the outdoors, including exploring in her 1976 caravan ‘Sybil’. She is a keen golfer and cyclist (having done the Tour of Aoteoroa).