The 2021
New Zealand Economics Forum

Matt Bolger was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Waikato Management School in August 2020, after 18 years at Fonterra spanning a range of senior leadership roles from corporate strategy to financial structuring to global sales, including six years based in the United States.

Matt completed his studies in business, English literature and Japanese at Georgetown University in Washington DC. He has also studied at Victoria University in Wellington, Columbia University in New York, and Sophia University in Tokyo.

Professor Neil Quigley was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato in early 2015. He has previously held positions at Victoria University of Wellington, where he was at different times Professor of Economics, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Provost, and at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, where he was Professor of Economics.

Professor Quigley has extensive governance experience, and is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and Chair of the Board of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

Dr Ganesh Nana was recently appointed Chair of the Productivity Commission Te Kōmihana Whai Hua o Aotearoa, after 22 years at the consultancy Business and Economics Research Limited (BERL).

Prior to BERL, Ganesh was a part-time lecturer at Victoria University. He has also worked in England as a researcher in the House of Commons, where he gained experience with IMF and OECD economic models.

Dr John Gibson is a Professor of Economics at the University of Waikato's Management School, and is ranked in the top 0.4% of economists worldwide.

His scholarship is recognised at the highest levels, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He has made major contributions to public policy, especially in the area of Pacific-New Zealand migration policies and survey-based measurement of poverty and living standards. His work has become the new norm for design, measurement, and analysis.

John is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and a Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Association of Economists and the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. He has a PhD from Stanford University.

Grant’s belief in social justice and a desire to see every New Zealander achieve their potential led him to politics, and he has been the Member of Parliament for Wellington Central since November 2008.

Following the 2020 election, he became Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, as well as being appointed Minister for Infrastructure and Minister for Racing.

After the 2017 election, Grant was appointed Minister of Finance, Minister for Sport and Recreation, and Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage. In 2019 he was appointed Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission,

Grant held a range of portfolios in opposition, including spokesperson for finance from 2014 to 2017.

Dr Eric Crampton is the Chief Economist at The New Zealand Initiative. He has worked in policy areas ranging from freshwater management to policy for earthquake preparedness, and from local government to technology policy. He has recently focused on policy related to Covid-19 response.

He served as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Department of Economics & Finance at the University of Canterbury from 2003 through 2014.

Dr Paul Dalziel has been Professor of Economics at Lincoln University since 2002 and Deputy Director of its Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit since 2010. He has published more than 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters on economic policy issues. Three of his books on New Zealand economic policy have been translated and published in Japan.

He is the lead author of Wellbeing Economics: The Capabilities Approach to Prosperity, which was the fifth most downloaded economics book published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018.

Dr Heather Connolly is the Director of Professional Programmes at the University of Waikato's Management School. Her role includes academic oversight of the Waikato MBA, as well as a number of corporate programmes. Prior to this position Heather was a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management.

Heather is an experienced management, risk management, compliance and assurance consultant, with clients ranging from large listed companies and government agencies to SMEs.

Sir Bill English, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, retired from politics in 2018.

Bill is now chair of Mt Cook Alpine Salmon, sits on the board of Wesfarmers Ltd, and is a director and investor in several private companies

He consults to New Zealand and Australian companies and governments, and mentors senior management.

Dr Anna Strutt has held an academic position at the University of Waikato since 1996, and she was promoted to Professor of Economics at Waikato Management School in 2020.

Her research expertise is in the area of international trade policy modelling and analysis.

In recent work for the World Bank and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Anna led efforts to develop a database of non-tariff measures for New Zealand. She also led an international team of researchers engaged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) to model the potential impacts of implementing the CPTPP trade agreement.

Anna has served as a consultant or expert advisor to a range of organisations, including the Asian Development Bank, the EU-VietNam Multilateral Trade Assistance Project, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

Leading a team of 5,500 people, Vittoria Shortt has been the CEO and Managing Director of ASB Bank since February 2018, after holding several senior leadership roles with ASB’s parent company Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

She has 18 years’ experience in banking across corporate strategy, retail banking, mergers and acquisitions and operations.

Vittoria’s career began in New Zealand, working in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions with Deloitte and Carter Holt Harvey.

She holds a Bachelor of Management Studies from the University of Waikato, is a Fellow Chartered Accountant, and a member of Global Women New Zealand.

Adrian Orr was appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in March 2018.

Previously, Adrian was Chief Executive Officer at the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, and prior to that he was Deputy Governor and Head of Financial Stability for the Reserve Bank.

Adrian has also held the positions of Chief Economist at Westpac Banking Corporation, Chief Manager of the Economics Department at the Reserve Bank and Chief Economist at The National Bank of New Zealand. He has also worked at the New Zealand Treasury; and the OECD, based in Paris.

Adrian graduated from the University of Waikato in 1983 with a Bachelor of Social Sciences, majoring in Economics and Geography. He also has a Master of Development Economics from the University of Leicester, England, graduating with distinction in 1985.

In addition to his role as Chair of Te Waihanga, Dr Alan Bollard is also a Professor of Pacific Region Business at Victoria University of Wellington; inaugural Chair for Pacific Region Business; Chair of the cross-university Centres for Asia-Pacific Excellence; and Chair of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. He is New Zealand Governor of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia.

Between 2002 and 2012 Alan was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. During this time he was responsible for monetary policy and bank regulations, helping steer New Zealand through the global financial crisis.

After two five-year terms as Governor, Bollard left the Reserve Bank to become the Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat, based in Singapore.

Vicky Robertson was appointed Secretary for the Environment in April 2015, with responsibility for leading cross-sector collaboration in New Zealand’s public sector to safeguard our natural environment.

She is co-chair of Aotearoa Circle, a partnership of public and private sector leaders committed to reversing the decline of New Zealand’s natural resources. Vicky also sits on the new public sector Climate Change Chief Executive Board, and is a member of the steering committee of Te Hono, a group of primary industry leaders exploring new ways of thinking and doing.

Vicky has also held senior roles at the New Zealand Treasury, where she spent time as Deputy Chief Executive, Chief Operating Officer and Acting Secretary and Chief Executive.

Matt is Senior Economist at the NZ Initiative. He was Senior Economic Advisor to Minister of Finance Bill English between 2012 and 2016. He was previously Chief Executive of iPredict, a prediction market based at Victoria University, and a Senior Associate at economics consultancy Charles River Associates.

Matt has worked on public policy, competition, governance, network industries including electricity, gas and telecommunications, infrastructure and climate change.

Dr Viktoria Kahui is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Otago, where she teaches on topics in microeconomics, environmental and wellbeing economics. Her research focuses on how to manage ecosystem services and spans areas in bioeconomic modelling, ecological economics and Te Ao Māori.

Viktoria also actively engages in local community efforts such as the Ōtokia Marsh and Creek Habitat Trust in Brighton, Dunedin, and provides advice to the Saddle Hill Community Board.

Donna Purdue has been Chief Economist at the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) since 2016.

She is responsible for leading the thinking on the economic frameworks used to underpin MBIE’s policy analysis; leading and shaping the direction of MBIE’s strategic research programme; and providing monitoring and analysis of key economic trends and their implications for policy advice and regulatory stewardship.

Her previous roles have been in the banking sector working as an economist for Westpac and Kiwibank. Prior to joining MBIE, Donna was a Principal Advisor at the New Zealand Treasury supporting the forecasting and modelling, and macroeconomic and fiscal policy teams.

Donna graduated from the University of Waikato in 1994 with a First Class Honours degree in Economics.

Dr Les Oxley is Professor of Economics at the University of Waikato’s Management School; and is ranked in the top 2% of economists worldwide over the last 10 years.

Les is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand since 2006, who has received seven Marsden grants and published on a wide range of research topics.

Les is currently engaged in research on the circular economy and sustainable economic development; the effects of COVID-19 on financial markets; and the effects of colonisation on the wellbeing of all New Zealanders.

He also applied his expertise on intergenerational wellbeing to the New Zealand Treasury, in relation to developing the new Living Standards Framework.

He is an associate investigator of Te Pūnaha Matatini, the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) for Complex Systems; and research leader on the MBIE-funded project, Āmiomio Aotearoa: A Circular Economy for New Zealand.

He is also an Affiliate at Motu; Adjunct Professor at Curtin University; Research Associate at the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA); and Research Affiliate at the Centre for Economic History (CEH) ANU.

Tom Roa is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato, and Te Mata Ahurangi (Tikanga Advisor to the Vice Chancellor).

Tom has been a member of Te Kauhanganui/Te Whakakitenga o Waikato since its inception and also holds advisor roles at organisations such as Maniapoto Māori Trust Board, Māori Tourism Board, ACC, Oranga Tamariki, along with research organisations including Te Pūnaha Matatini; Āmiomio Aotearoa and WERO.

Dr John McDermott is the Executive Director of Motu Economic and Public Policy Research. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Victoria University of Wellington and a Senior Consultant at Wigram Capital Advisors Limited.

Prior to starting at Motu in March 2019, John was Assistant Governor at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand: Te Pūtea Matua. He previously worked at National Bank of New Zealand and the International Monetary Fund.

Iris Claus is a Senior Fellow in Economics at the University of Waikato. She previously held economic advisory, policy and research positions at the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank, Inland Revenue, Treasury, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the Bank of Canada.

Iris is a member of the Asian Economic Panel, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Economic Surveys and on the editorial board of Asian Economic Papers.

Leo Krippner is the Managing Director of LJK macro-finance analytics and a Fellow in Economics at the University of Waikato.

His former experience includes the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and private sector funds management. He received the 2017 Economics in Central Banking award for his 2015 book, Zero Lower Bound Term Structure Modelling.

Sharon joined the ANZ economics team in 2010 and became Chief Economist in late 2017.

She started her career as a macroeconomist at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in 1998, and also worked at the Central Bank of Norway for two years, before moving to the New Zealand banking sector.

Sharon holds a Master of Commerce from the University of Canterbury. She also developed the ANZ Truckometer, an economic indicator based on traffic flow data, and writes the weekly ANZ Charts that Matter.