Hon Steven Joyce

Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment
7 December 2015

Board appointments to Victoria University, AUT and Unitec councils

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce today announced nine appointments to three tertiary education institution councils.

“I am pleased to welcome high-calibre council appointees into their new roles. I also welcome the reappointment of a number of council members in recognition of the high-quality governance they have been providing to these institutions,” Mr Joyce says.

“I also wish to recognise the valuable contribution made by outgoing council members and to thank them for their service.”

The appointments and reappointments of council members are:

• Victoria University of Wellington: the appointments of Dame Patsy Reddy and Dame Therese Walsh as members, the reappointment of Sir Neville Jordan and Mr Neil Paviour-Smith;

• Auckland University of Technology: the reappointment of Ms Lyn Lim, Ms Judith Thompson, Ms Sussan Turner and Mr Lex Henry as members;

• Unitec Institute of Technology: the appointment of Mrs Emeline Afeaki-Mafile’o as a member.

All eight universities now have new constitutions in place following amendments made to the Education Act 1989 earlier this year. These appointments to the newly-reconstituted councils of Auckland University of Technology and Victoria University of Wellington are the last of the Ministerial appointments to be made to the university councils and are effective from the date of each university council’s new constitution.

Victoria University of Wellington

Dame Patsy Reddy is a non-executive director, a lawyer, chief Crown negotiator for Treaty of Waitangi settlements, and a lead reviewer for the Performance Improvement Framework for the State Services Commission. She is Chair of the New Zealand Film Commission and Education Payroll Ltd, Deputy Chair of the NZ Transport Agency, a director of Payments NZ Ltd and Active Equity Holdings Ltd.

Dame Therese Walsh was the Head of NZ, ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and Chief Operating Officer for Rugby New Zealand 2011 Limited, the company established by the NZRU and the NZ Government to deliver the Rugby World Cup Tournament in 2011. She serves on the Boards of NZX, ASB and is Deputy Chair of Television New Zealand. She is also a member of the Government’s Major Events Investment Panel, is the Chair of the International Development Advisory and Selection Panel for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and sits on the Government’s Strategic Risk and Resilience Panel.

Sir Neville Jordan KNZM is a Wellington investor and adviser in science/technology and Executive Chairman of his company, Endeavour Capital. His awards and accolades include the Governor-General’s Supreme Award for Exporting and induction into both the NZ Hi Tech Hall of Fame and the NZ Business Hall of Fame. Sir Neville was President of the Royal Society of New Zealand from 2006–2010 and Wellingtonian of the Year in 2012.

Neil Paviour-Smith is Managing Director of Forsyth Barr and has over 25 years’ experience in New Zealand capital markets. Mr Paviour-Smith is a director of the New Zealand Exchange and of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand. Mr Paviour-Smith was also an inaugural recipient of a Sir Peter Blake Trust Leadership Award in 2005.

Auckland University of Technology

Lyn Lim is one of the two founding partners of Forest Harrison, a boutique law firm that specialises in providing legal services to medium-sized companies, high net-worth clients of Asian origin, and those with business links to Asia. Ms Lim’s governance experience includes the Auckland District Law Society, the ANZ National Bank Private Bank External Advisory Board, New Zealand China Trade Association and the Hong Kong New Zealand Business Association. Her current governance roles include the Centre for Social Impact Limited, Foundation North, Asia New Zealand Foundation, Public Trust and the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Board.

Judith Thompson is a design management consultant who works with both public and private sector organisations building design capability. As the former Head of Design for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, she established and led the Better by Design programme which assisted key New Zealand companies increase exports through the development of higher value goods and services. Ms Thompson has a diverse background including work in the not for profit sector, tertiary education sector and economic development roles.

Sussan Turner worked for much of her career within New Zealand’s largest media organisation, MediaWorks, most recently as Group Chief Executive, where she oversaw the company’s radio, television (TV3 and FOUR) and interactive operations. She is currently the CEO of Aspire2 Group Limited, which has just acquired 5 New Zealand based private training establishments, delivering vocational education and work place training to international students and New Zealand based students and clients. She is also the director of Television New Zealand and an advisor to the Well Foundation Board, a charitable trust set up to support the Waitemata District Health Board.

Lex Henry is the Pro-Chancellor of the AUT Council, a Trustee of AUT Foundation, and a Trustee of AUT Millennium. He practises law at Sanderson Weir, sits on the NZ board of Volvo Ocean Race together with governance roles at several private companies and until recently he was a director of Ngāi TahuProperties .For the majority of his career he was employed overseas and was a managing director of two major Wall Street investment banks, a director at two UK and Australian merchant banks and served as a New Zealand diplomat covering ASEAN. He holds other appointments associated with international business, education, and the arts.

Unitec Institute of Technology

Emeline Afeaki-Mafile’o has been a community practitioner for over 20 years. She has served as Community Advisor to the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs and as a member of the Pacific Advisory Group to the Ministry of Social Development. In 2006 Mrs Afeaki-Mafile’o was awarded the Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award and in 2013 she was awarded the Westpac Woman of influence for Community and Social Enterprise.

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