Our speakers

Dr Mike Reid, Principal Policy Advisor, LGNZ. After starting his local government career at Christchurch City council Mike has been with LGNZ since 1996, during which time he has worked in a diverse range of policy areas ranging from local governance and social policy to legislative change and local democracy. He currently leads LGNZ’s localism programme. Mike completed his PhD on the topic of strengthening local governance and local government in in 2011 and is currently on the board of the Institute of Governance and Policy Studies. He speaks regularly on local government matters and has published widely.

Mike is a partner in Simpson Grierson’s environment and planning group, based in Wellington. He specialises in local government and environmental law, with a particular focus on the regulatory functions and processes of local government (including under the RMA), and decision-making and governance obligations and requirements. He regularly represents local authorities in relation to RMA matters (including before the higher courts) and has appeared before many other specialist tribunals and council hearings on specific strategic and regulatory matters.

Miriama Kamo (Ngāi Tahu/Ngāti Mutunga) is a celebrated broadcaster, acclaimed author, environmental advocate, and cultural leader.

A familiar face in Aotearoa’s media landscape, Miriama is the long-standing host of Māori current affairs programme Marae and a former host of TVNZ’s Sunday, as well as a trusted presence across many of the network’s news programmes. Her journalism is marked by integrity, depth, and a strong commitment to elevating underrepresented voices.

Murray is a Director and GM of Sales and Consulting at Liverton Security, a leading NZ cyber security software company and consultancy. Liverton is an ALGIM member. With more than 35 years of experience in information technology, Murray has advised organisations of all sizes across the private, public, and not‑for‑profit sectors, including Local Bodies. He has served as a vCIO and vCISO for multiple organisations, helping leaders navigate technology strategy, cybersecurity risk, and digital transformation.

Murray is a Member of the Institute of Management Consultants, a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors, a Chartered IT Professional and the NZ Chapter Lead for Digital Directors Australia.

Neill is the Valuer-General of New Zealand, based at Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) in Wellington. A Registered Valuer since 1983, Neill has held senior roles in both the public and private sectors. As Valuer-General, he oversees the regulation of the rating valuation system and chairs the Valuers Registration Board. He also serves on the NZIV Council under the Valuers Act 1948.

Nick is a senior litigation and dispute resolution lawyer with a broad range of experience in dealing with complex, high-stakes disputes across different sectors. He has a particular focus on commercial disputes that involve public issues – whether that is commercial entities that are interacting with public decision-makers or public entities that are involved in a commercial dispute. 

Nick has acted for various organisations across a broad range of disputes and industries, including commercial contracts, energy and the Emissions Trading Scheme, property and leasing issues, judicial reviews, infrastructure, insurance disputes, insolvency, class actions, banking and financial services, telecommunications and technology, and construction disputes. He has appeared before the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.  He also has considerable experience in arbitration, and in alternative dispute resolution forums such as mediation. 

Prior to joining Simpson Grierson, Nick worked for Herbert Smith Freehills and Allen & Overy in London.

Nick is also an Adjunct Lecturer and Teaching Fellow at Victoria University’s Faculty of Law. He currently teaches the University’s compulsory course on the core skills of legal research, legal writing, legal analysis, and advocacy.   

Based in Wellington, Phil leads PwC’s national Public Sector specialist tax advisory team and is co-lead of the PwC Local Government team.

Phil spends the majority of his time advising the local authority sector on an extremely diverse range of matters, from tax governance and tax risk management matters to compliance requirements, policy and transactional issues.

Particular areas keeping Phil busy of late have been the proposed income tax changes for local authorities, including working with Taituāra and presenting to the FEC. and the most recent submission work on Public Funds. This is in addition to keeping over the top of 3 Waters, RMA reform and the Future of Local Government review!

Philip has been consulting to a variety of Local Government related organizations since June 2007 in financial management and strategy, risk and asset management, financial policies and financial governance, and is a facilitator for Local Government New Zealand.

He has been the independent member on a number of Audit & risk committees and is currently the chair for three committees.

Between 1993–2007 Philip was the Chief Financial Officer and Group Manager Revenue and Finance for WBOPDC.Prior to joining WBOPDC he was a Business Services & Audit Manager with Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) in Tauranga, London and Hamilton.

Philip joined Taituarā in September 2025, as Principal Advisor, Sector Readiness.

He brings over 20 years of experience, and relationships in local government and the public sector.

His career includes 10 years in senior roles with councils and more recently 7 years as Principal Policy Advisor with Local Government New Zealand. He has most recently worked in leadership roles at Waka Kotahi and at EECA where he was Development Lead in the Standards and Regulations Team. Philip’s expertise includes policy development, regulatory analysis, stakeholder management, and project and programme delivery.

In his role as Principal Advisor, Sector Readiness, Philip is committed to supporting the Sector Readiness Team develop tools and resources that help the sector prepare for and successfully implement new legislation and policies.

Priyani has over 30 years’ experience in the field of asset management, advising communities and governments across the world in this profession.  Priyani is a Chartered Asset Management Professional, the world’s first Certified Fellow in Asset Management, and is a Technical Fellow – Strategic Asset Management at Beca. Priyani sees the future of indigenous asset management as pivotal to prosperous and resilient futures, and practitioners as Kaitiaki and guardians of future generations.

Priyani is the Vice President of IFME, Past President and Life Member of Āpōpō, and former Chairperson and Life Member of Carbon and Energy Professionals (CEP).

Raymond re-joined Taituarā in June 2014 as Sector Improvement Manager, before commencing his current role as Chief Advisor at Taituarā. He has spent most of the last 20 years in local government related roles, most recently with the Department of Internal Affairs.

He describes his job as two-thirds providing assistance to the local government sector and one-third providing advice to central government on local government matters. His ambition is to help develop a Local Government Act that doesn’t require changes every 18 months. He asks that you wish him well with this task.

Reuben is a director in the Digital & Data Transformation advisory practice. He brings experience in delivering advanced AI and agentic solutions, transforming organisations AI experiments to tangible value

He has worked across many public and private sector organisation to drive automation and AI change. His work involves helping organisations advance their process maturity, and leading the cloud engineering practice for AI application delivery. 

Richard Catherall is a strategy advisor working with boards, CEOs, and public sector leaders in complex systems under pressure, where direction is not always clear and decisions carry long-term consequences. 

His career developed through early exposure to leadership at points of significant change. By his late 20s, he had co-chaired national cross-sector policy groups, led a social enterprise through turnaround, supported mergers, and advised over 100 chief executives across government and industry. He was recognised for pioneering practical models of system collaboration and market-shaping, with approaches that were adopted and replicated across England.  

He has since worked internationally across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa including in post-conflict and fragile state environments. His work spans governance, development systems, and innovation ecosystems – often at the intersection of public, private, and philanthropic sectors.  

Alongside initiatives that progressed to funding and scale, his experience includes complex opportunities that did not proceed – shaping his focus on timing, posture, and the conditions for change. In several cases, the underlying models proved more durable that the programmes themselves, contributing to the resilience of wider systems. This has informed his emphasis on second- and third-order impact, and a leadership approach focused on “finger prints rather than footprints” – the cumulative effect of well-placed interventions.  

His leadership philosophy – recalibrate, don’t retreat – supporting leaders to maintain direction under pressure, while adapting how progress is achieved.  

Robyn Broadhurst is a Corporate Planning Specialist with experience supporting strategic planning, performance frameworks, and community-focused initiatives. She leads key processes and works closely with organisational leaders to align long-term plans with community outcomes and statutory requirements. Robyn brings a pragmatic, collaborative approach to planning processes and is passionate about creating clear, accessible plans that reflect local priorities.

Ryan is an Associate in Beca’s Digital Consulting team, specialising in the design and delivery of data-driven solutions that help clients make better decisions. Working at the intersection of technology, data and business outcomes, Ryan helps organisations transform complex information into practical tools that support planning, operations and customer service improvements. He has been closely involved in developing and implementing digital twin and regional intelligence solutions for local government clients across New Zealand.

Sally Grey is Manager Premium Building Consents at Auckland Council. Sally initially practised as a lawyer and came to Building Consents via the Council’s legal team where she managed building defect claims for many years. She has seen many instances where buildings have not performed and is committed to championing the built environment to be more durable.

Sally has served on a range of committees including two terms on the Building Advisory Panel, a statutory panel reporting to MBIE and the Taituara Regulation and By-laws Reference Group. She was most recently seconded to MBIE for 9 months to support the review into liability settings in the construction sector.