2020 Deconstructed Summit Christchurch: Beyond Lockdown - Reimagining our Future

Sam is the Co Founder of Te Mahere Whakauka (The Hope Project) – a unique venture that develops the capacity of whānau, hapū and marae-based enterprises to create regenerative jobs planting trees and growing food.

Prior to this, Sam started and ran the multi-award-winning charity Sustainable Coastlines. During his eleven years at the helm of Sustainable Coastlines it grew into a globally recognised movement that inspires, educates and enables communities to protect the places they love.

For five years Sam wrote a weekly column for the New Zealand Herald website as their sole contributor on the environment, bringing environmental issues and solutions to millions of readers.

Sam is passionate about the ocean and he enjoys surfing, spearfishing and swimming with his 8 year-old daughter Juliette.

Jonathan is a member of Simpson Grierson’s environment and planning group, specialising in public law and local government in particular. He is one of New Zealand's leading experts on the structures, processes, and funding of local government, with significant experience in council’s rating functions and associated decision-making.

Josh is a partner in Simpson Grierson’s finance group, with particular expertise in infrastructure funding and financing and local government finance.

He is the lead adviser to the Crown on the Infrastructure Levy Model enabled under the Infrastructure Funding & Financing Act 2020, and advises local authorities on debt facilities, commercial paper programmes, derivative arrangements, LGFA finance and participation in public private partnerships. His recent work includes advising the Crown and local authorities on the restructure of the LGFA borrowing programme to facilitate access to council-controlled organisations and advising MHUD in connection with the Housing Infrastructure Fund.

Professor Cheryl de la Rey has been the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canterbury since February 2019.

Prior to moving to New Zealand, Professor De la Rey was Vice-Chancellor and Principal of South Africa’s largest research university, the University of Pretoria. She has 18 years of experience as an executive in higher education.

After an academic career in South Africa’s university sector, she took up her first executive role as executive director at the National Research Foundation. Later she was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cape Town and was the CEO of the Council on Higher Education.

Over the years Professor De la Rey has also served on a number of national and international committees and boards. She was vice-chairperson of the Council of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and was the founding co-chairperson of the Australia-Africa Universities Network and the South Africa-Japan Universities Forum. She was a board member of the International Council for Science, the University Social Responsibility Network and vice-chairperson of the Talloires Network, an international association of institutions committed to strengthening the civic roles and social responsibilities of higher education.

Christchurch City Council chief executive Dawn Baxendale sets high expectations for herself and for her teams.

Dawn moved to Christchurch in September 2019. She is joined by husband Scott and their youngest son, Elliott who is attending St Andrew’s College in the city. Their eldest son, Jacob is completing his physics degree at University in England.

Over 30 years working in local government, Dawn has built a reputation as someone with energy and enthusiasm who works collaboratively with others to get results. She is also known for taking a keen interest in performance (people and finances) of the organisation she leads to deliver for the community.

She has a track record of achieving clear business and commercial outcomes and has led negotiations that have delivered a strong mixed economy to the towns and cities where she has worked.

Her roles have often involved working closely with politicians and political parties and a wide range of administrations and organisations, including the European Union and the World Bank.

She has been at the forefront of public sector reform in Britain, including regeneration, work skills, unemployment, health and social care.

It’s a long way from Huddersfield to Christchurch, New Zealand, a city still dealing with the consequences of the earthquakes, 2019 terror attacks. However, Dawn is unfazed by the challenge ahead. As she puts it: "I am excited by the opportunity and know that we are on a journey that is going to be hard, hard work. Covid-19 has reinforced the need for us all to work together. I genuinely believe that public authorities need to be at the heart of their communities. Local authorities should be leading and influencing the economic, environmental and community legacy that will remain for decades to come.”

David is Chief Executive of the Canterbury and West Coast District Health Boards – responsible for the health services for over 600,000 New Zealanders, and the leadership of over 11,000 direct employees and thousands more NGO health sector workers contracted by the DHB.

He is a big picture thinker and has particular skills in leading change and motivating and mobilising others to be part of the transformation. David has led the Canterbury Health system through some of the most challenging circumstances faced including the impacts of NZ’s largest natural disaster.

David has overseen the creation of what has been identified as one of the most integrated health systems in the world by The Kings Fund (an independent charity working to improve health and health care based in the UK). The achievements of the Canterbury Health System are testimony to his leadership.

In 2011 David was awarded the highest standing award by the NZ Medical Association for exemplary leadership for the devastating earthquakes in Canterbury. In 2014 David was made a member of the NZ Order of Merit for services to health.

Originally from Canterbury, David has worked in both the private and public sectors, in NZ and the UK.

Ganesh is well known to local government having previously been the Chief Economist for BERL.

As the Former Chair of the Productivity Commission, he oversaw the Fair chance for all inquiry into reducing persistent intergenerational disadvantage in Aotearoa.

Ganesh outlined some of the findings from the inquiry, including a review into the recent progress of joined-up social services. Read the review Together alone: A review of joined-up social services or a summary here

Laura O'Connell Rapira (Te Ātiawa, Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāruahine, Ngāti Whakaue) is the Director of ActionStation, an independent community action group representing over 100,000 New Zealanders acting together to create what we cannot achieve on our own: a society, economy and democracy that serves people and Papatūānuku. Laura is also a board member of JustSpeak, a youth-powered organisation working to transform our justice system and The Workshop, a think-and-do-tank that researches the best way to shift hearts and minds on important kaupapa.

Arihia Bennett (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi) has been the Chief Executive Officer of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu since 2012. Reporting directly to the board, Arihia works closely with the senior leadership team to protect and advance the interests of more than 67,000 iwi members, and develop the strategy and purpose that guides the whole organisation according to its tribal whakataukī: Mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei – for us and our children after us.

Arihia oversees the operations of the entire Te Rūnanga Group, using strong relationship management and stakeholder engagement skills across a broad range of internal and external stakeholders, including other iwi, central and local government, community agencies and corporate entities. She also oversees the delivery of a range of programmes and initiatives designed to create intergenerational wellbeing for all Ngāi Tahu whānau.

Arihia is a member of the Pūhara Mana Tangata Māori advisory panel to the Ombudsman’s Office. She is one of the inaugural members of The Nature Conservancy’s Aotearoa New Zealand Programme Advisory Board and the New Zealand-China Council. She has held several other advisory roles and directorships, including Commissioner of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Commission, and later worked collaboratively with other leaders in the Christchurch area to advise on the city’s redevelopment. Arihia also served as a director of Ngāi Tahu Development Corporation from 1999 to 2002, and then as chair until 2005.

Arihia is an alumna of graduate business school INSEAD Fontainebleau and Singapore and Te Hono Movement (a partnership helping to drive the success of the primary industry in Aotearoa). She is a member of Global Women and the Tuahiwi Māori Women’s Welfare League and was previously on the board of Barnardos NZ and the Christchurch Women’s Refuge. In 2008 Arihia was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and the community.

Dr Eruera Tarena Ngāi Tahu (Ngāi Tūāhuriri), Executive Director, Tokona te Raki: Māori Futures Collective

Eruera is Executive Director for Tokona te Raki: Māori Futures Collective, a Ngāi Tahu-led futures lab to empower rangatahi to realise the future of their dreams and influence partners to transform how they engage rangatahi and their whānau. The lab shares future focused insights so rangatahi can determine their own future, equip them with the tools to lead change and connects them with partners so they are designing systems that work for them.

Currently Eruera is involved in a range of data projects mapping our current education systems performance for Māori (mapping barriers/boosters), mapping rangatahi journeys through education/employment and a range of projects focused on the future of work for Māori and preparing for the transition to a future skills-based economy. A key part of this work is training a cohort of rangatahi future makers to lead the transformation and designing from the future.

Eruera is also a Ministerial appointee to Te Taumata Aronui and Te Māngai Pāho.

Jane Davidson is the author of #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country, the story of why Wales was the first country in the world to introduce legislation to protect future generations.

Jane is Pro Vice-Chancellor Emeritus at University of Wales Trinity Saint David which has embedded the Well-being of Future Generations’ Act into all its activities. Jane has won a number of UK wide awards for this work.

From 2007- 2011, Jane was Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing in Wales where she proposed legislation to make sustainable development its central organising principle – the Well-being of Future Generations Act which came into law in April 2015. She created a Welsh Climate Change Commission and Future Generations Commissioner, the 800 mile Wales coastal path,.

Before going into national politics in Wales, Jane was an elected local government councillor for 10 years (1987-1996) and then 3 years (1996-1999) as Head of Social Affairs (Housing, Health and Social Care) for the Welsh Local Government Association.

Jane introduced the first UK charge on carrier bags, leading the way for similar charges across the UK. She is a patron of the Chartered Institute for Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) and Tools for Self Reliance Wales (TFSR Cymru). She holds honorary fellowships from WWF, CIW (Chartered Institute of Waste), CIWEM (Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management). She is Chair of the RSA in Wales and an associate faculty member at Harvard University.

She lives on a 10 acre smallholding in west Wales where she tries to live a low carbon life, growing organically as much food as possible.

As a Welsh learner, Jane welcomes messages in Welsh.