Our speakers

Shamubeel Eaqub is an influential economist who makes the complexities of economics both easy and engaging. Currently, he serves as the Chief Economist at Simplicity, bringing over two decades of experience.

His career has seen him contribute his expertise at leading institutions, including ANZ Bank, Goldman Sachs JBWere, NZIER, Sense Partners, and now Simplicity.

Sharon Lesa is currently working as an Asset Management Engineer at Beca. She is a former Senior Asset Planning Engineer at the Waipā District Council and Asset Management and Wastewater Engineer for the Samoa Water Authority, where she worked for five years on various roles ranging from planning, design, operations and finally to asset management. A chemical engineer by trade from the University of Sydney, she enjoys using her knowledge and skills to transform plans into practical solutions.

Simon Markham is Managing Director of Simon Markham Consulting Ltd and a senior public policy, local government, and disaster recovery advisor.

He has worked across New Zealand local government for more than three decades, including senior executive roles with city and district Councils.

He has advised councils, CDEM Groups, government and NGO sector organisations on emergency management reform, recovery governance, spatial planning, RMA reform, engagement, and strategic change.

Simon’s work has been recognised through a Civil Defence Emergency Management Ministerial Gold Award and multiple planning and local government excellence awards.

He is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors, a Life Member of Taituarā — Local Government Professionals Aotearoa, and serves in governance roles with for-purpose organisations including The Kind Foundation in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

Stephen is a representation review advisor with electionz.com and worked with more than a dozen councils across Aotearoa during the last review cycle.

He’s spent most of the past 30 years in local government, primarily in communications and engagement, customer service and governance leadership roles at Hamilton City, Environment Canterbury, Christchurch City and Selwyn District. He is a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand.

Alongside his advisory and consulting work Stephen is currently on a secondment as General Manager Governance at Environment Canterbury.

Steve had a 24-year career in a variety of roles at the former Auckland City Council. He was the Democracy Services Manager when he left in 2006.

Steve then he has been consulting primarily in the local government sector. He currently works with national and regional sporting organisations through Sport New Zealand on good governance practices.

Steve is currently a member of the board of a not-for-profit organisation.

Steve holds a diploma in Local Government and Administration from Auckland University and is a Justice of the Peace.

Tim has lived experience of the challenges associated with recovery from trauma and understands the opportunities for personal growth.

His journey has taught him how interconnected all elements of wellbeing are and how positive wellbeing takes daily practice.

Tracey has been in local government since 2012 in district and regional councils. Her roles have included economic development coordinator, governance/democracy advisor, project manager, mayoral candidate, and she is currently Strategic Planning Advisor and Civil Defence Local Recovery Manager at Kaipara District Council.

Her drive is to ensure our ‘system’ works for the people. A ‘strategic activator’ and collaborator, she streamlines and simplifies processes ensuring community needs and aspirations move meaningfully and appropriately through local government. Before 2012, she was a finance and marketing director in the building sector, and had her own management consultancy in UK prior to that.

Troy is Beca’s Te Mana o te Wai lead, a member of the water market leadership team, and part of Te Ahi Tūtata, Beca’s Māori advisory rōpū leadership. With extensive experience as a kaitiaki, civil engineer, water practitioner, and cultural navigator, he integrates Tangata Whenua values into water and environmental management. Troy has expertise in engineering consultancies, civil contracting, and government roles, focusing on designing and managing water solutions. He works on projects that address water health, supply resilience, sea level rise, and flooding hazards, collaborating with tangata whenua at marae and community levels to ensure culturally-informed outcomes.

Val Wheeler is a Managing Director at PwC. She has thirty years supporting public service organisations in improving performance, including adopting AI into their strategies, operating models, and processes.

Vern sits on the board of the Real Estate Authority and was a Director of the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Board (Chair 2009-2019) until 2021, a former board member of MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology), Council Controlled Organisations, Metrowater and The Edge and was an elected member for twelve years having served three terms as an Auckland City Councillor and one term as Chair of a community board.

Warwick has worked in local government for 32 years, firstly as Administration Manager at Papakura District in 1986 and Central Hawkes Bay DC, then as Returning Officer for electionz.com since 2000.

Warwick is Electoral Officer for 19 councils and 6 DHBs, and numerous public and private sector organisations. Warwick and his team carry out approx 200 elections in NZ each year, most of which use online voting.

Warwick has considerable experience in candidate management and electioneering/campaigning practices, particularly the use of social media by candidates.

Zofia is Head of Strategy and Performance at Greater Wellington, overseeing the Council’s Strategy, Corporate Planning & Reporting, Climate Change, and Emergency Management & Business Continuity activities. For the past seven years, she’s worked closely with councillors and senior leaders across the Regional Council and local government to improve planning, reporting and strategic decision-making.

In real terms, that’s three Long Term Plans, five Annual Plans, six Annual Reports, two Pre-Election Reports, a new Significance and Engagement Policy, new Strategic Direction, and a Climate Emergency declaration, to name some achievements.

Zofia is also a member of Taituarā’s Corporate Planning Reference Group