Invited Speakers

 Mai Chen
Mai LLB (Hons) Otago LLM (Harvard) (FNZIM) is a partner in Chen Palmer New Zealand Public Law Specialists, which won Best Public Law Firm in the New Zealand Law Awards for the 3 years it has been a category - 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Formerly a senior lecturer at Victoria University Law School, Mai has sat on the Securities Commission, the Advisory Board of AMP Life Limited (NZ), the New Zealand Advisory Board of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's Beachheads Programme, and the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

Mai currently chairs the New Zealand Global Women's Advisory Board, a network of the most senior women leaders in this country and working overseas, is a member of the World Class New Zealand Network and President of the Harvard Law School Alumni Association (New Zealand).

She has written about 100 articles and contributions to books and books on public law.

Kindly sponsored by Vero Liability Insurance

Allison Mooney
Allison is an international corporate speaker and presenter of vast experience, Allison first came to notice for outstanding customer service as Manager of Ansett Golden Wing (Auckland). Allison is a leading authority on Personality Plus, (a dynamic profiling system). Allison uses this program to build teamwork, customer service, and selling skills.

During her 12 year sojourn with both Ansett and managing Qantas’s First Class Lounge, Allison found herself in constant demand to share with others her gift at PEOPLE RELATING SKILLS, and soon began fronting seminars on this subject matter.

Kindly sponsored by Ernst & Young

Raewyn Fox
Raewyn is the CEO of the New Zealand Federation of Family Budgeting Services Inc and has held this position for 10 years.  Prior to that she managed a local budget service in Porirua for 13 years and was an active part of the Governance Structure of the Federation for the majority of this time.

Raewyn also works in the field of Consumer Representation and spent 6 years on the Governance Board of the Insurance and Savings Ombudsman Commission and 2 years on the Government Taskforce for the Regulation of Financial Intermediaries.


David May
David is Chairman of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and a director of Southern Cross and the Government Superannuation Fund. He is an actuary and spent most of his working life with Colonial, in New Zealand, the U.K., Australia and Hong Kong. He was managing director of Colonial in New Zealand from 1995 to 2000 and the founding chief executive of Jacques Martin in the mid 80s.

Kindly sponsored by IAG
Dr James Renwick
James leads NIWA’s main research programme on climate variability and change. He was a lead author on the IPCC 4th Assessment Report, in Working Group I (physical science), and has been selected for a similar role in the 5th Assessment Report. He is a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) Climate Expert Panel, and is President of the New Zealand Association of Scientists. He has worked in the area of climate and atmospheric dynamics since the late 1970s, starting as a weather forecaster at the N.Z. Meteorological Service. His current interests include Southern Hemisphere climate variability and the impacts of large-scale climate variability and change on the New Zealand environment.

Kindly sponsored by Swiss Re Life & Health Australia Limited
Dr Graeme Smart (MIPENZ)
Graeme is a senior scientist at the New Zealand Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and a consultant specialising in fluvial hazards. His first investigation was at age 13 when he followed an oil drum down the flooded main street of his home town in Taranaki. He subsequently obtained degrees in engineering, computer science and a hydrology PhD from Canterbury University. He has worked for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the Indonesian Ministry of Works, German and Swiss Government foreign aid programmes, and on flood mitigation in Malaysia. He has taught several university courses related to river hydraulics and hydrology and has advised state and private organisations in New Zealand on river hazards. His present research involves high-resolution computer models of flood hazard.

Kindly sponsored by Swiss Re Life & Health Australia Limited        
  Simon Botherway
Simon Botherway is Chair of the Financial Markets Authority Establishment Board, a member of the Securities Commission and a director of the Electricity Authority Establishment Board and Fisher & Paykel Appliances.

Simon has a B.Comm from Otago University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the US-based CFA Institute. He has served on the Asia-Pacific Advocacy Committee for the CFA Institute and was President of the CGA Society of NZ.  He also chaired the NZX's Asset Management Advisory Committee.

His background is in Investment Management, he is the former chair of Brook Asset Management a leading equities investment management company that he co-founded  in 2002.

Kindly sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers