Speakers
| Tony Hartevelt | Dr Karen Poutasi | David Slack | Mike Munro |
| Russell Brown | Colin James | Karen Jones | Peter Abernathy |
| Michael Player | Brett Sangster |
Tony Hartevelt - Deputy State Services Commissioner
Tony Hartevelt was appointed as the first of the SSC Deputy Commissioners in July 2000. In November 2001 he was also appointed to the Statutory Office of Deputy State Services Commissioner for a five-year term.
Before joining the State Services Commission Tony had been, since 1988, a New Zealand partner in the global management consulting practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers. In this role he specialised in strategic financial management and performance improvement advice. In the public sector he worked particularly with Crown-owned companies and Crown entities facing financial difficulty.
Dr Karen Poutasi - Chief Executive, NZQA
Dr Poutasi is a medical graduate of Otago University, and holds Otago University and Harvard University management qualifications. She has held a Harkness Fellowship and is on the New Zealand Appointments Committee for Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy.
Dr Poutasi was previously Director-General of Health and Chief Executive of Health, from 1995, responsible for implementing government policy to establish District Health Board (DHBs) and more recently overseeing a major change to the delivery of primary health care.
She has significant management experience at the highest level. She brings a wealth of experience in cultural and organisational change.
David Slack
David Slack is a speechwriter and columnist who has written speeches for a number of New Zealand politicians since 1989. A graduate in law from Victoria University, he has worked in advertising and public relations. His website speeches.com, which enables users to generate speeches automatically, has an international clientele. He also generates his own content on his blog, Island Life, which features this illuminating bio:
"David Slack's father was a farmer. His father was a farmer, and his father was a farmer and as far as the records show, it's farmers all the way back. It was only a matter of time before one of them became a speechwriter."
Mike Munro
Mike worked for 20 years as a newspaper journalist, including 10 years (1984-94) in the parliamentary press gallery for the NZ Herald and then The Dominion. In 1996 he became Helen Clark’s chief press secretary when she was Leader of the Opposition. After Labour won the 1999 election, he became chief press secretary to the PM and filled that role for six years. In January this year Mike and his wife, Heather Church, formed Munro Church Communications Ltd, a consultancy that specializes in government relations, strategic media advice and communications management.
Russell Brown
Described as a web entrepreneur and a mediaphile, Russell Brown is the mastermind of PublicAddress and the voice of HardNews. Hard News began life in 1991 as a weekly news and media commentary on Auckland radio station 95bFM, and stayed that way for 11 years, until Russell retired the radio slot with this final bulletin in September 2002.
In addition to running the blog, he's a journalist, an "internet specialist", a columnist for the Listener and several other publications, and an authoritative media commentator.
Colin James
Colin James is a political journalist of more than 30 years who writes a weekly column in the New Zealand Herald and a monthly column in Management magazine. He is also an occasional commentator on radio and television. He is the New Zealand correspondent of Oxford Analytica. Most of his recent writing and speeches can be found on ColinJames.co.nz.
Colin is an associate of the Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington. He has contributed papers to seminars in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. He has held several university fellowships, including JD Stout Research Fellow at Victoria University in 1991 and inaugural New Zealand Fellow at the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne University in 1993.
Panellists
Karen Jones - Chair
Karen is the Communications Manager at the State Services Commission, a position she has held since early 2002. Her work history spans senior communications roles at Parliament and in the private and public sectors. Karen has a long standing interest in issues management which she has put into practice when managing communications for front page type events at previous roles at the Electricity Corporation and New Zealand Rail. Her current role at a central government agency has involved her in a number of sensitive and high profile all-of-government issues.
Peter Abernathy
Peter is Communications Manager for the Ministry of Health. He joined the organisation in May 1993 and is still there. He enjoys the challenges of the health sector with all it attracts – highly motivated people; intelligent and passionate debate and high profile complex issues. In a previous life he has played roles that include film food caterer (though only a functionary cook), Sydney taxi driver (only three accidents in nine months), windsurfing instructor (better in theory than practice) and journalist (ex Radio New Zealand).
Michael Player
Michael is General Manager of Public Affairs in the New Zealand Police, a position he has held since June 1999. A specialist in public sector public relations, Michael has spent most of his career either in or within 100 metres of the Beehive. He served as a parliamentary press secretary for seven years and held senior comms manager roles in the Ministry of Transport (on two occasions), the Meat Industry Association, the Department of Social Welfare and Police.
Brett Sangster
Brett is the Director Corporate Communications, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. He has a wide range of experience in the broad area of issues management, crisis communications and in the disciplines of communications and marketing.
During his career, Brett has worked with a range of organisations exposed to high areas of risk, either in terms of accidents, emergencies, and human health and welfare. These organisations include Solid Energy New Zealand, Housing New Zealand Corporation and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. He also has considerable experience in the area of reputation management – both for organisations and individuals.