Future Workplaces Forum

Seán oversees the development, maintenance and dissemination of the knowledge base and the delivery of leadership development across the sector.

Seán is a passionate advocate and believer in the role of local government and the benefits it can bring to our daily lives and wellbeing. He has worked for several local authorities in a wide range of roles and responsibilities. Seán holds a BA Hons in Government, is a qualified accountant with postgraduate qualifications in management and communications, and was a Resource Management Commissioner Chair. Seán completed a Masters in Public Policy, researching 'How New Zealand’s Directly Elected Mayors get things done' – a shortened version of which was published in Policy Quarterly and more recently contributed a chapter to a book on the 2022 local elections.

Outside of work, Seán spends time being second favourite parent to his two dogs, running, reading, and playing squash (all very badly).

Paul is a proactive, practical and effective Health, Safety and Wellbeing professional with experience in strategic, national, and international management roles in both NZ and Australia. Paul has worked with businesses across a range of industries to embed wellbeing into an organizations toolkit, while also developing leaders and growing cultures that support wellbeing. Paul’s focus is on creating environments where safety and wellbeing are a natural extension of business excellence.

Tiffany Rawlings is the Library and Archive Manager at Masterton District Council. After navigating the high stress corporate tax world, Tiffany refocused her priorities and returned to her childhood safe place – the library. With a renewed sense of purpose, she earned her Master’s degree in Library Science and has spent the last the last 12 years working in public libraries here and in the United States.

Tiffany is a member of Public Libraries New Zealand and the lead of the data working group. Passionate about libraries and their purpose, she is currently working on a national wellbeing survey to evaluate their impact on communities. Tiffany’s primary focus for health and safety is ensuring her staff are prepared, feel safe and prioritise their own wellbeing.

Hillary is a registered Psychologist with the New Zealand Psychology Board. She spent 33 years teaching organisational psychology, at a graduate and post graduate level, at universities in South Africa, Canada, and New Zealand. She has worked as both an internal and external consultant to a wide range of private, government and non-government organisations, across many sectors in New Zealand and Australia. Currently Hillary is a Director of Leading Safety, a consultancy specialising in the leadership of safety and wellbeing, the assessment and development of safety and wellbeing culture, human factors, and workplace health and safety. She developed the Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum’s CEO Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing at Work. This sense making framework has been used extensively, both in Governmental Agencies and private organisations, to assess both current wellbeing initiatives, as well as develop future wellbeing strategies. She also developed the Forum’s guide, Protecting Wellbeing for the Forum which provides a process for organisations to identify factors that are harming or protecting wellbeing in any workplace. In 2019 she was awarded the New Zealand SafeGuard Lifelong Contribution to Health and Safety Award.

Shona is the Senior Critical Risk Advisor, Harmful Interactions and Driving for Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA). Shona’s in depth understanding of these critical risks and the impact they have on staff has helped her strengthened NZTA’s response to them. Specifically, Shona provides guidance to NZTA safety leaders and supports them and their staff who may be impacted by these risks. She also works proactively to connect with other HSW leaders within the sector to share knowledge, experiences and resources.

Shona has accumulated experience across a spectrum of wellbeing and safety roles, with each opportunity further reinforcing her holistic approach. Her experience includes facilitating public and private health and wellbeing initiatives, and cultivating safety awareness and behaviour change for individuals and organisations.

Jen works as a health, safety and wellbeing advisor and trainer for Working Wise. The Working Wise team engage and support organisations and their workers on a pathway to excellence in health, safety and wellbeing. Our passion is helping people become workplace leaders in a great workplace culture.

Sharon works as the Group Manager People and Performance at Rangitikei District Council. She is an experienced HR and H&S professional who is passionate about shaping great employment experiences and creating empowering cultures where people thrive.

With over 20 years’ experience at the Council under her belt, Wendi is taking her passion and knowledge for local government and merging it with her drive to keep people safe to lift the performance and maturity of health and safety at the Council. Having started as an apprentice gardener back in the day, Wendi now uses her knowledge of all things Council to influence a system that works and keeps people safe. Her history as a high-performance athlete means Wendi understands how teams work at their best and is now doing her bit to change and influence the future of Wellington City Council.

After dabbling as a health and safety rep, communications business partner in HR, and working on safety system projects, TJ finally took two steps into the safety business to make his mark on the strategic direction of safety at the Council. Since starting in 2022 TJ has transformed the Council’s safety reporting and insights processes, helped develop and author the Council’s first long-term workplace safety strategy, and lead the project to transition the organisation from its underperforming legacy technology platform to a new safety reporting platform that is changing the way Wellington City Council sees and understands health and safety information.

Louise has worked across a number or public service entities from Utilities, Police, Audit Commission to Local Government during her career. She was lucky enough to work with the Civil Service College in UK to support national and international programmes on EFQM (European Foundation Quality Model) and the balanced scorecard. In all her roles she seeks out areas and organisations that need a bit of focus to become their best; implementing successful change and improvement is what gets her out of bed. Louise is the Chief Executive at Napier City Council, having taken up her role immediately after Cyclone Gabrielle, and prior to this was the Chief Executive at Kaipara District Council.

Frances Valintine CNZM is a passionate educator and technologist who is dedicated to creating educational opportunities that connect professionals to the knowledge they need to be successful in today’s rapidly advancing world. For 25+ years she has been dedicated to shifting education and business practice to develop the capabilities, knowledge and mindset needed to respond to the future of work, changing societal expectations and the protection of the planet.

In 2024, Frances transitioned from her role as CEO to Founder and Board Director, allowing her to concentrate on major impact initiatives and partnerships led by academyEX, a post-graduate institute focused on professional development and knowledge in the fields of technological advancement, education, sustainability and leadership.

A Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her lifetime contribution to education and technology (2018), Frances has received numerous awards recognising her passion and commitment to supporting the young and more mature to seek opportunities and reach their potential. In 2022, Frances was inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame for Women Entrepreneurs and in 2020 Frances received the lifetime award for her Outstanding Contribution to Technology and Business at the CIO Awards. Her past accolades also include:

2017: Frances received the NZ Flying Kiwi Award, and she was inducted into the New Zealand Hi-Tech Hall of Fame and named one of the top 3 NZ Innovators of the Year at the NZer of the Year awards.

2016: named one of the top 50 EdTech Educators in the World by EdTech International; awarded a Sir Peter Blake Leader Award.

2015: awarded the Westpac New Zealand Woman of Influence (Innovation) and the Next New Zealand Woman of the Year (Education).

2014: awarded the Best Start-Up in Asia Pacific as judged by Steve Wozniak and Sir Richard Branson.

Driven by a strong sense of purpose to support positive growth for Aotearoa, Frances sits on the board of Watercare and is a selection adviser to EHF (Edmund Hillary Foundation), a judge on the Hi Tech Awards, and the National Expert for the global World Summit Awards. Frances is also a mentor to a number of global female technology leaders, and a Director to On Being Bold, an initiative to support and encourage emerging female leaders and female students to aim high and dream big. Frances is also on the Board of Trustees for the University of Silicon Valley.

Frances is the author of Future You, a book dedicated to shifting perceptions about learning as an adult and promoting the need to stay connected, relevant and informed throughout our life. Frances holds a Master of Education Management from the University of Melbourne.

Mike has worked in the Local Government sector for many years in the fields of Information Technology, Customer Service Management , Client Relationships and Business Development.

Mike is passionate about technology and has travelled the world over the past 12 years working with Local Authorities from other countries on collaboration initiatives and sharing ideas. Mike has presented in the USA, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, UK and Australia on Local Government ICT.

Mike is currently working on a shared software development project between Canadian and New Zealand Local Government to be launched in November .

As Executive Director in the Workforce sector, Malcolm works with organisations and executives to uplift business performance through their people. He has more than 20 years of experience in designing and implementing enterprise-wide improvement initiatives that impact the workforce through organisation design, workforce transformation, change management, and business process improvement programmes. Malcolm has assisted public and private sector organisations with their HR, workforce performance and change management initiatives in the United States, South East Asia and New Zealand.

A recognised senior advisor in the workforce of the future, Malcolm has served as principal advisor to Indonesia’s delegation at G20 Digital Economy meetings, and has spoken at APEC on Building Better Cities, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment Policy Summit on Transforming the American Workplace, the Indonesian SOE sector’s 1st HR Symposium on Leading in Disruption, and industry forums in the United States, Asia and New Zealand on the workforce of the future.

Malcolm is committed to creating positive social impact and has served on the board of a healthcare charity in the US, as mentor/coach with Ashoka, an international organisation that promotes large-scale change to society through social entrepreneurship, and as executive-in-residence for the executive MBA program at Victoria University of Wellington.

Gemma is a seasoned HR generalist who has found her passion in helping organisations grow and change effectively. Having helped the likes of Audit New Zealand develop its retention strategy and employee value proposition and one of the leads on the three-way merger between Olswang, Nabarro and CMS; Gemma is now steering the direction on Wellington City Council’s restorative approach to workplace issues. Gemma loves people – good thing she’s in HR – and is excited to be helping the Council find new and innovative ways to shape the future HR practices of the organisation.

Jo Miller has been Chief Executive of Hutt City Council since July 2019. She is working with a new Mayor and Council, staff, iwi, partners and the community to ensure Lower Hutt is the very best it can be for all its people.

Jo previously held one of the most high-profile local government jobs in the UK, with an outstanding track record for motivating people, creating solutions and brokering agreements in major housing, economic regeneration and capital investment schemes.

As Chief Executive at Doncaster Council, Jo was recognised as having brought exceptional growth and optimism to a previously economically depressed town. The Local Government Chronicle said Doncaster had been “dragged up from the depths of despair to something to be proud of.”

Landmark projects with a total investment of £2 billion boosted economic performance, putting Doncaster in the UK’s top ten for growth. Jo was elected President of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives in 2016 - 2019 and led the leadership portfolio on behalf of the profession. In 2017 the Local Government Chronicle named her the third most influential person in local government.

Cathy Hendry is the Managing Director of the proudly New Zealand owned and operated Strategic Pay and a seasoned remuneration professional with over 17 years’ experience in the industry. Leading Strategic Pay since 2021, Cathy brings invaluable experience and insight to her role. As a dedicated advocate for pay equity, Cathy’s commitment to this cause has seen her actively engage with organisations such as MindTheGap and promoting research and analysis on Pay Gaps within New Zealand contributing significantly to the ongoing discourse on achieving pay equity within remuneration practices. 

I have been married for 42 years and have 4 kids and 5 granddaughters who I love to pieces.

Grew up mostly in Palmerston North in Highbury attending Takaro, Monrad and Palmerston North BHS. Then joined the National Bank in Palmy straight out of high school in December 1977.

I had spent 40 years with the Bank being shifted all around NZ and held senior executive roles with the Bank which was taken over by the ANZ (the bank was my second whanau, and I loved every day of my job). My last role was GM ANZ Business Bank/ Retail and was a part of the biggest financial merger creating the biggest Bank in New Zealand.

I should have retired but wanted to help my people progress so undertook a role as Director for Māori and Pacific with MSD which I had the opportunity with working with some fantastic people.

After three years the role of CEO, Civic Financial Services Ltd was put in front of me and it just felt the right fit.

Sports crazy I represented my country in both Football and Softball in age group and had the honour of coaching the best domestic football team in NZ called Napier City Rovers. ( Liverpool supporter)