Infocouncil – LGHub Governance Professionals Forum

David Ward, Chief Executive of Selwyn District Council has been involved in local government since 1991, spending the first 17 years as Corporate Services Manager for Tasman District Council, then six years as Chief Executive at Horowhenua District Council before taking up his current role at Selwyn District Council in July 2013.

David is focused on ensuring that local government is planning appropriately for its changing demographic and local economies. David is also a champion of local government best practice and of developing staff within the Local Government sector. David is a qualified accountant. Prior to entering local government, David worked in the commercial sector.

Wendy is the Chief Executive of Porirua City Council, a role she has had for the last 6 years. Prior to that she had many years in senior roles at Wellington City. She has worked at the interface of community and Government all her working career.

Her whakapapa reflects the diversity she is talking about - Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri, Portuguese, Irish and Cornish.

Coral has been the Manager: Democracy Services at Tauranga City Council since October 2019 and is one of three Privacy Officers. Coral has over 30 years’ experience in central and local government and highlights include her time at the South Taranaki District Council as the Policy and Governance Manager and working for nearly 20 years at the Whakatane District Council in the governance role. Coral was previously a member of the LGNZ working party on Standing Orders and is studying for a Masters of Public Policy through Victoria University.

Robyn has been part of the Democracy Services team at Tauranga City Council, as Team Leader: Committee Support, since April 2018; and worked in the governance team at Bay of Plenty Regional Council for two years before moving across to TCC. Robyn is the Deputy Electoral Officer at TCC, was the Electoral Officer at BOPRC and is currently a member of the Taituarā Elections Reference Group. Before working in local government, Robyn previously practiced as a resource management lawyer in Christchurch and worked in the commercial fishing sector for a number of years, primarily for Ngāi Tahu Seafood, as well as for several industry stakeholder groups.

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.

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.

Anne Tolley has had a wide experience in local and national politics over the last 30 years.
Elected to the Napier City Council in 1986, she was Deputy Mayor for six years. Anne was also elected to the inaugural Hawkes Bay Regional Council for one term.

In 1999, Anne was elected to Parliament as a National Party List MP, then held the East Coast Electorate from 2005 until her retirement in 2020.

Anne served for nine years as a Government minister, holding the portfolios of Education, Police, Corrections, MSD, Children and Local Government. From 2017 to 2020, she served as Deputy Speaker.

Anne was appointed as Commission Chair for Tauranga City Council by the Minister of Local Government on 9 February 2021.

She is married to Allan and has three adult children and four grandchildren.

MDC Manager Economic, Community and Support Services, Dean has been the Electoral Officer for Marlborough since 1998. MDC was an early adopter of STV voting, becoming one of the seven local authorities which experienced the vote processing problems at the 2004 election.

MDC contracts out the processing of voting papers but, as Electoral Officer, Dean deals with all the issues that can attract public interest during the electoral cycle from the calling of nominations, local campaign complaints and the scrutiny of electoral expenses. Dean suggests patience and a sense of humour are requisites for successful handling of the role of EO.

First elected in 1989, Jim has since served as councillor for more than twenty two years on the Banks Peninsula and Waitaki District Councils (though not at the same time), an achievement which he modestly believes could be a world record for anyone attending the 2017 Taituarā Governance Professionals and Committee Advisors Forum. In addition to the time he’s spent reading agendas and hunting lost apostrophes, Jim has worked as a radio and television broadcaster, public speaker, columnist and author. He has 3 children, his favourite colour is infra red and his star sign is Alpha Centauri. Jim has MC’d Taituarā conferences in New Zealand and also local government conferences in Australia.

Louise Miller, Chief Executive at Kaipara District Council, is committed to transitioning local government in response to the Labour Government reforms, while continuing to meet community expectations and needs, ensuring they’re at the heart of any decision for change.

Transformation has been Louise’s focus since moving to Kaipara. Leading Council and the community from Commission authority back to an Elected Council has put Louise’s strategic leadership capability to effect … and then Covid-19 arrived which fast-tracked an agile workplace and better use of technology to engage with our community. Challenging years that matched perfectly with Louise’s core strengths of transforming, rebuilding, and strengthening organisations, along with great mahi tahi from the KDC team.

Giving back is important to Louise as Committee Lead for the Taituarā Workforce Committee, co-chair the Northland Intersectoral Forum Executive Group, and working closely with local agencies and central government, all to enhance the social development and wellbeing of Northlanders.

Says Louise ‘the upcoming changes facing the public sector are going to need us to be more resilient and think differently about how we position ourselves and our people. I want the best outcomes for local government and our communities and am eager to be part of shaping our future.

Diane has been the Director Office of Seniors since October 2016. Diane and her team are based in the Ministry of Social Development, and support the Minister for Seniors to advocate for the issues and interests of older people.

Previously Diane spent thirty years working in local government, including five years as CEO of the Whakatāne District Council.

In 2011 Diane took up the position of Deputy Chief Executive of Recovery Strategy, Planning and Policy Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA), where she led development of the Recovery Strategy and Recovery Plans.

Diane worked for three years at Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. Her roles there included contributing to the earthquake recovery and development of the shared equity home ownership scheme for whānau. In 2014 Diane established Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu (South Island Commissioning Agency), a $15 million investment fund for building whānau capability, owned by the nine iwi of the South Island.

Diane has a Bachelor Social Sciences from Waikato University, a Bachelor Town Planning from Auckland University and a Master Business Administration from Massey University. Diane is also a member of the Institute of Directors, and is a Justice of the Peace.

Judith Webster has over 30 years’ experience working in local government.

Beginning as a community advisor with Manukau City Council, Judith’s career has seen her work across a range of areas including community and urban planning, equal employment opportunities, community engagement, quality advice and governance.

In addition, Judith spent three years as a Disputed Tribunal referee in Auckland.

Prior to her current role, Judith led teams that provided democracy and general advisory support to two of Auckland Council’s local boards.

Judith now leads a small team that builds governance capability across the organisation and with elected members.

Linda Gifford has over thirty years’ experience working in learning and development roles. Starting as a computer trainer then moving into broader learning and development roles, Linda has worked in a range of organisations including Fonterra, Auckland University, Waitākere City Council, Tower Insurance and Auckland Museum.

Since 2018, Linda has been the Programme Manager of Auckland Council’s Kura Kāwana elected member development programme. The programme’s vision is that all elected members will have the right skills and knowledge to be effective governors who can tackle the opportunities and challenges of delivering on the strategic plans.

Linda leads the development and implementation of this programme to develop the governance capability of elected members, using a blended and strategic learning approach that involves working with internal and external subject matter experts.

Ryan is a second year commerce student at Victoria University of Wellington, studying a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Public Policy. Passionate about the role youth can play in shaping our future, he is pushing for greater rangatahi voice and representation within communities.

Outside of studies, Ryan works part-time at Trade Me and holds a Board position for Volunteering New Zealand, the peak volunteering body in Aotearoa. Having been on the board for the past year and a half, he is now leading a working group to investigate the best way to solidify youth voice within the organisation and wider sector. Prior to this, Ryan was a Student Representative on the Board of Trustees at Upper Hutt College, alongside being involved in a range of leadership and advisory groups - such as Spearhead Leaders, VIBE Youth Advisory Group, the Young Enterprise Alumni Advisory Group and more.

Ryan also has experience within local body elections, assisting a mayoral candidate in 2019 with social media promotion, campaigning strategies and youth engagement. Ryan is now involved in a youth branch of a political organisation, pushing for greater student-focussed policies and aiming to improve youth engagement in party policy cycles.