Dr Caralee McLiesh joined the New Zealand Treasury as Chief Executive and Secretary in September 2019.

Previously she was Managing Director at Technical and Further Education (TAFE) New South Wales, Australia, where she led the organisation's transformation to become a more modern, competitive and sustainable organisation.

From 2008-2018 Caralee held several Deputy Secretary roles at the NSW Treasury. She led the development of state budgets and advised the Treasurer on fiscal and economic policy, including taxation, intergovernmental relations, and balance sheet management.

Caralee has also worked at the World Bank in Washington DC, the International Red Cross, and the Boston Consulting Group.

Following 20 years' experience at the Dunedin School of Medicine, Prof. Robin Gauld joined the Otago Business School in December 2016 as Dean and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, after a long relationship with the School through joint research projects, boards and committees.

Robin is also Co-Director of the Centre for Health Systems and Technology, which spans the Otago Business School and the Division of Health Sciences. His current research interests include comparative health policy, health system and quality improvement, clinical governance, primary care, population based health funding formulas, and health information technology.

He was a Senior Fellow at the Boston University Health Policy Institute from 2009–2013, and a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in 2008–2009, working with colleagues from Boston University and Harvard University.

Ranjna Patel is the co-founder and director of Tāmaki Health, the largest independent network of medical clinics in New Zealand, with more than 300,000 registered patients.

She also sits on the advisory boards of Diversity Works NZ, the Mental Health Foundation, Global  Women, the National Ethnic Forum, and the Middlemore Foundation. In 2014, Ranjna founded Gandhi Nivas, a family violence harm reduction initiative that has seen some amazing results.

She was inducted into the NZ Hall of Fame for Women Entrepreneurs in 2014, received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2016, Deloitte's Visionary Leader Award 2016, the NEXT Woman of the Year Business & Innovation Award 2017, the Westpac Women of Influence Community Hero Award 2020, and the TradeMe New Zealand Innovator of the Year Award 2021.

Des Gorman (Ngati Kuri and Ngapuhi) is a Professor of Medicine in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. From 2005 to 2010, he was Head of Auckland's School of Medicine.

His two doctorate degrees were awarded for in-vivo brain injury research. Professor Gorman’s non-clinical interests include health system design and funding, and health workforce planning and development. He has more than 300 research publications.

He is Chairman of the Ministry of Health's Orangi Mahi Governance Group, and a member of the ministry's Capital Investment Committee.

His past roles include being a Director of the New Zealand Accident Compensation and Rehabilitation Corporation (2012-2018), the Executive Chairman of Health Workforce New Zealand (2009-2019), a member of the National Health Board (2009-2014), and a member of the Government’s welfare reform group (2009-2010).

The Rt. Hon. Helen Clark was elected as Prime Minister of New Zealand for three successive terms from 1999 to 2008.

A respected global leader, Helen Clark continues to be a strong voice on sustainable development, climate action, gender equality, women's leadership, global health issues, and international co-operation.

In 2009, she became the first woman to lead the United Nations Development Programme, serving two terms as Administrator until 2017. She was also Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of all UN funds, programmes, agencies, and departments working on development issues.

In 2020, she was appointed by the Director-General of the World Health Organisation as Co-Chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, which reported in May 2021.

Throughout her parliamentary career over 27 years, Helen Clark engaged widely in policy development and advocacy across the international, economic, social, environmental, and cultural spheres.

Bryan Chapple has an extensive background in economic policy and strategy. Prior to joining the Treasury in 2017, Bryan was at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), where he held roles as Head of the Office of the Chief Executive, and General Manager Strategic Policy.

He has also worked in a range of policy and economic functions in government departments and central banks in New Zealand and overseas, including the Ministry of Economic Development, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and the Netherlands Central Bank.

Bryan lives in Wellington and holds an honours degree in economics from Victoria University of Wellington.

Mike joined the Sustainable Business Council as Executive Director in January 2020.

His previous role was New Zealand’s High Commissioner to South Africa. Before that he was Director for Sustainable Economic Development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the founding CEO of Aquaculture New Zealand.

Mike is based in Wellington and holds degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Canterbury.

Craig Renney is an economist and Director of Policy for the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.

He served as a senior economic advisor to Grant Robertson for five years from 2016 to 2020, and prior to that worked as a senior analyst/policy advisor at the New Zealand Treasury, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

He wrote three budgets for the Labour government, and provided economic policy and costings for the 2017 and 2020 Labour Party Manifestos.

Wayne Tainui (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato-Tainui) is the Manukura Māori Business Team Leader at PwC New Zealand, where he is responsible for PwC’s Māori sector strategy.

He has over 20 years' business and commercial experience in advisory, assurance and deals roles, including experience working for PwC in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Wayne has a deep understanding of the Māori economy and Māori asset base. He works with a range of iwi and Māori clients to maximise their business value and enable them to achieve their economic, social and cultural aspirations.

He also works with mainstream clients ranging from SMEs to local government, government-funded agencies and national corporates.

Liz Te Amo (Waitaha, Tapuika, Tūhourangi) is Chief Executive Officer of Miro, a berryfruit company with more than 10 orchards across the North Island. Miro was created by 30 Māori iwi, hapu and whanau in 2017 as a pathway to transform their land and create jobs for their people through high-value horticulture.

Qualified in marketing, management and international trade, Liz has dedicated her career to growing New Zealand businesses internationally, Māori economic development, and regional development. She has lived and worked in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the USA and Australia.

Prior to joining Miro, Liz had an 18-year career with government, and 10 years in the private sector. She was Executive Director of the Maori Economic Development Unit at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and spent 11 years at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, where she worked on major events such as the Shanghai World Expo, the Rugby World Cup, and the America’s Cup.

A former school teacher, Professor Don Klinger spent 17 years at Queen’s University, Kingston as a researcher and Associate Dean of Research, before moving to New Zealand to join the University of Waikato's Division of Education.

Don's research explores measurement theory, the evolving concepts of formative and summative assessment, and the use of assessment to support teaching, learning and policy in public and higher education.

Currently Don is a member of the Technical Advisory Group Assessment for the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). Previously he has served as president of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education and the Consortium for Research on Educational Assessment and Teaching Effectiveness.

Alexandre Fernandes de Oliveira is a Chief Investment Officer at International Finance Corporation (IFC)'s Global Manufacturing and Services Department, Health and Education Division.

With more than 25 years of professional experience, he leads the IFC team responsible for the origination, evaluation, structuring and negotiation of IFC investments in the health and education sectors in Asia.

Prior to his current role, Alex worked for JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank in New York, focused on mergers and acquisitions and debt capital markets.

Alex holds an MBA from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University; a civil engineering degree from the University of São Paulo; and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fundação Getúlio Vargas in Brazil.

Dr Michael Johnston is a Senior Fellow at the New Zealand Initiative, and a Senior Lecturer in Education at Victoria University of Wellington. He has expertise in educational assessment, psychometrics and cognitive factors in learning.

He has previously been a chief research analyst at the Ministry of Education and a senior statistician at the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), where he conducted research and analysis contributing to the development of technical systems for assessing New Zealand’s national qualification system for secondary-school students.

Dr Johnston also has a strong interest in ways in which education can contribute to democratic citizenship. He is a member of the Heterodox Academy, an international organisation promoting viewpoint diversity in universities.

Matt is Senior Economist at the New Zealand Initiative.

Prior to that he was Senior Economic Advisor to Minister of Finance Bill English between 2012 and 2016; Chief Executive of iPredict, a prediction market based at Victoria University, and a Senior Associate at economics consultancy firm Charles River Associates.

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

Professor Jonathan Boston is Professor of Public Policy in the School of Government at Victoria University of Wellington. He has served at various times as both the Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, and the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies.

Dr John Gibson is ranked in the top 0.4% of economists worldwide. His academic research 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.

He 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.

Dr Simon Chapple became Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington in 2017. His research interests are in economics and public policy.

Simon has nearly five years of private sector experience at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, an independent economic consultancy firm.

Previously he worked in a research and policy advisory capacity for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Ministry of Social Development, and the Department of Labour. Internationally, he has worked for  the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, and for five years at the OECD Social Policy Division in Paris.

Academically, he has experience as a Senior Research Fellow in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit, Otago University, and in the School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington.

The Rt. Hon. Jim Bolger was Prime Minister of New Zealand from October 1990 to December 1997.

He held key ministerial portfolios for 16 years and had three consecutive terms as the country’s head of Government. Under his leadership the New Zealand economy was transformed from having one of the lowest growth rates among OECD countries to one of the strongest.

After retiring from politics in 1998, Mr Bolger was New Zealand’s Ambassador to Washington from 1998-2002.

He has chaired a number of companies, including Trustees Executors, NZ Post, Kiwibank and KiwiRail, and was Patron of the New Zealander of the Year Awards. He was Chancellor of the University of Waikato from 2007-2019.

Mr Bolger is a member of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ), New Zealand’s highest honour.

Adrian Orr was appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand - Te Pūtea Matua 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.

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.

Grant Spencer was Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank from 2007 to 2017. He oversaw the prudential regulatory and supervision functions of the Reserve Bank as well as macro-prudential and financial market policies.

Grant has held strategy and treasury roles at ANZ Bank in both New Zealand and Australia. He was Alternate Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund and chaired the OECD Committee on Financial Markets.

Professor Charles Goodhart is a British economist who was Deputy Director of the London School of Economics (LSE) until his retirement in 2002, when he became an Emeritus Professor of Banking and Finance.

He has written widely on matters relating to monetary policy, especially central banking, and macro-economics. In 2020, he published his most recent book, The Great Demographic Reversal: Ageing Societies, Waning Inequality, and an Inflation Revival.

Prior to joining LSE, he worked as a monetary economist at the Bank of England for 17 years, becoming Chief Advisor in 1980. Charles was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1990, and awarded the CBE in 1997 for services to monetary economics.

Prof. Mark Holmes is currently ranked in the top 5% of economists globally in the IDEAS/RePEc Economist Rankings.

His research interests include applied macroeconomics, international finance, housing and energy markets, as well as the behaviour of interest rates, inflation targeting, real estate and energy markets.

He has previously served as elected President of the New Zealand of Association of Economists, and Editor-in-Chief of New Zealand Economic Papers.

Prof. Holmes received his PhD in Economics from the University of Dundee, and has previously been employed by the universities of Dundee and Loughborough in the UK.

A lawyer and fellow chartered accountant, Sir Robert McLeod has more than 40 years' commercial experience. He is currently Chairman of Sanford, Quayside Holdings, and Ngati Porou Holding Company; and a Director of the Port of Tauranga.

Sir Robert is the former CEO of EY Australasia; and former Chair of the New Zealand Business Roundtable. He was also the lead negotiator of the Treaty settlement between the New Zealand Government and Ngati Porou in 2010, and he chaired the McLeod Tax Review in 2001.

Dr Oliver Hartwich is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative.

Before that he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, the Chief Economist at Policy Exchange in London, and an advisor in the United Kingdom's House of Lords.

Dr Hartwich holds a master’s degree in economics and business administration and a PhD in law from Bochum University in Germany. His articles have been published by major newspapers in Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand.

One of New Zealand's leading economic commentators, Brad Olsen is passionate about using economics to make better informed decisions. As a young person under 30, he brings a different perspective to key opportunities and challenges that New Zealand faces, and has the ability to communicate complex and detailed trends in a simple, relatable manner.

Brad was named New Zealand’s Queen’s Young Leader in 2016, one of Asia New Zealand Foundation’s 25 to Watch in 2019, and Young Wellingtonian of the Year 2020.

Leilani Frew is the Deputy Secretary Financial and Commercial at New Zealand Treasury Te Tai Ohanga. She is responsible for overseeing the Government’s activities in capital and export credit markets, infrastructure and urban growth investment, and the performance of the Crown’s entities and financial institutions.

With a career spanning more than 25 years, Leilani is a respected senior executive with extensive global infrastructure and finance experience. She has held leadership roles in global investment banks, Australian commercial banks and the Australian and State public sector.

Leilani has held several board and advisory roles for organisations focussed on infrastructure investment and major project delivery. In 2015, Leilani received the Women’s Achievement in Infrastructure Award from Infrastructure Partnerships Australia.

As Chief Economic Advisor, Dominick Stephens is responsible for ensuring that the Treasury’s policy advice on lifting New Zealand's living standards is supported and strengthened by sound economic theory and evidence.

Dominick is on secondment to the Treasury from March 2021 until the end of the year. He has been Chief Economist at Westpac New Zealand for the last decade, leading its team providing forecasts and research on the New Zealand economy.

He is a respected analyst, adviser and commentator on a range of economic and market issues, from housing policy to monetary policy and climate change.

Named 2019 Young Economist of the Year by the Economic Society of Australia, Professor Gigi Foster is one of Australia’s leading economics communicators.

Her regular media appearances include co-hosting The Economists, a national radio programme and podcast series on ABC Radio National.

Gigi works in diverse fields of economics, including education, social influence, time use, lab experiments, behavioural economics, and Australian policy. Her innovative teaching was awarded a 2017 Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation for outstanding contributions to student learning.

Rodney Jones is a Principal of Wigram Capital Advisors, a macro advisory firm with offices in Auckland and Hong Kong that provides economic analysis and advice to leading global investment funds on developments in Asia, with a focus on China.

Currently based in Auckland, Rodney has been working as an economist and analyst in Asia for more than 30 years, having lived in Asia for 24 of those years. His focus in that time has been on the interaction between banks, the financial system and real economies across Asia. In recent years, Wigram Capital Advisors has been investing in a data science approach to tracking developments in China and Asia.

Rodney has also provided ongoing advice to the New Zealand government on its Covid-19 strategy, based on modelling undertaken by the data science team. In April 2021, Rodney was appointed as a special advisor to the Strategic Public Health Advisory Group. He also became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for his outstanding contribution to New Zealand's Covid-19 strategy.

Tim Groser's 35-year career in trade and economic issues has given him deep experience of international trade, spanning both the political and technical spheres.

After being elected as a Member of Parliament in 2005, Hon. Tim Groser became the Minister of Trade, Minister of Climate Change Issues, and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs (2008-2015).

Prior to his parliamentary career, he held a number of senior trade and economic roles within the New Zealand civil service. These included Chief Negotiator for New Zealand during the Uruguay Round (1990 to 1994), NZ Ambassador to Indonesia (1994-1997), Principal Economic Adviser to the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (1997-1999), Chief Executive of the Asia-NZ Foundation (1999-2002), and NZ Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (2002-2005).

In 2015, Tim was appointed as New Zealand Ambassador to the United States and Special Envoy to the Pacific Alliance (2016-2018).

Professor Neil Quigley was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato in early 2015.

With extensive governance experience, he has served as a director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand since 2010, and was elected Chair of the Board in 2016. He has also served as a director and acting chair of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), and currently chairs NZQA's Risk and Assurance Committee.

During his academic career, Professor Quigley was previously Professor of Economics, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Provost at Victoria University of Wellington, where he taught and published research in the fields of industrial organisation, money and finance, and economic history. He was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

Matt Bolger became the first-ever Pro Vice-Chancellor of Waikato Management School in August 2020.

Prior to that he enjoyed a highly successful 18-year career at Fonterra, including six years based in the United States, which spanned a range of senior leadership roles from corporate strategy to financial structuring to global sales.

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 Frank Scrimgeour is an internationally regarded researcher, lecturer, and business/policy advisor, who has spent more than two decades of his professional career at the University of Waikato's Management School.

Frank's research focuses on the economics of agriculture, the environment, regional economics, and financial economics. His current research projects include the impact of climate change on food production, and the drivers of demand for emerging food products in different markets.

He has published widely in international journals, and is committed to research that informs economic policy and business practice.

Frank has been awarded lifetime membership of both the New Zealand Association of Economists (2012), and the New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (2018), in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the profession. He is currently President of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.

Steven Joyce has a unique combination of commercial and political experience.

He served as a senior economic Minister in the John Key-led National Government of New Zealand. Over nine years in Cabinet he held the portfolios of finance, economic development, science and innovation, transport, and ICT, and spent seven years as Minister of Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment.

Steven Joyce led the Key government’s economic growth programme, the ultrafast broadband rollout, and the country’s largest highway building programme in decades. He was also the campaign chief for the National Party for five national elections.

He currently provides strategic commercial, marketing and public policy advice to a range of clients in the finance, technology, education, and construction sectors across Australia and New Zealand.