Leadership

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Leadership

ExportNZ's National Board Members and Executive Committees are made up of experienced and successful exporters and trade experts. Our leadership consists of people who are all keen to give back to the export sector and support other businesses on their export journey.

  • Sir Kenneth
    Stevens KNZM

  • Kirk
    Hope

  • Catherine
    Beard

  • Stephen
    Jacobi

  • Jenny
    McGregor

  • Kristy
    Grant

  • David
    Wang

  • Christine
    Fenby

  • Michael
    Whitehead

  • Michael
    Fox

  • David
    Boyd

Sir Kenneth Stevens KNZM

Glidepath - Chairman

Sir Kenneth was the founder, owner and Executive Chair of Glidepath until he sold the company in 2019. Glidepath produces computerised airport baggage handling and security, cargo handling and parcel sorting systems.

Ken's expertise was initially in product design and then in Glidepath's market development where he has built strong relationships in a great many North American, Asian and Pacific countries

Glidepath has manufacturing facilities in the US and subsidiary companies in Canada, Latin America and Australia, along with manufacturing operations in its Auckland head office.

He is now on a range of Boards and is a mentor to a number of exporting firms.

Sir Kenneth Stevens KNZM

Kirk Hope

Chief Executive

Kirk Hope is Chief Executive of BusinessNZ, New Zealand's leading business advocacy group, representing thousands of businesses of all sizes.

Mr Hope and his Wellington-based team work with companies, organisations and political and other decision makers, advocating for New Zealand's success through sustainable economic growth.

Before joining BusinessNZ, Kirk was CEO of the New Zealand Bankers' Association. Prior to that he was Executive Director of the Financial Services Federation, the industry body representing the non-bank sector. He has previously held a range of senior positions at Westpac, including Head of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs.

A qualified barrister and solicitor, Kirk holds a Master's degree in law, focused on regulation of financial services, and a Bachelor and Post-Graduate Honours degree in political science. For five years he was a member of the Commercial and Business Law Committee of the New Zealand Law Society.

Kirk Hope
04 496 6552
khope@businessnz.org.nz

Catherine Beard

Executive Director

Catherine Beard has a wealth of experience in government relations and communication on behalf of industry associations, and is a champion for New Zealand manufacturers and international traders.

Catherine has close connections to key Government Officials and Government Ministers that have responsibilities for trade.  As Executive Director of ExportNZ she provides strong advocacy on behalf of industry to communicate their business challenges to politicians, policy makers, the media and the public.

Catherine also co-founded a design and manufacturing business called Fohfum that has won national design awards for children’s furniture.

Catherine Beard
04 496 6560
cbeard@businessnz.org.nz
027 463 3212

Stephen Jacobi

Board Member

Stephen Jacobi is Managing Director of Jacobi Consulting Ltd, a consultancy which offers advice to corporate and government clients in the fields of international trade, government relations and industry development.  He serves concurrently as Executive Director of the NZ International Business Forum and Executive Director of the NZ China Council.

Mr Jacobi provides advice to the three New Zealand members of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), as well as BusinessNZ in respect of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum. He has had extensive diplomatic, industry, trade and government experience, and was formerly Chief Executive of the New Zealand Forest Industries Council.  He is a regular commentator on trade and industry issues.

Stephen Jacobi

Jenny McGregor

Board Member

Jenny McGregor is the General Manager of Trade Strategy for Fonterra, leading a team of people that drives Fonterra’s engagement and advocacy on strategic trade issues globally. Jenny has over 15 years working in a range of trade roles, both in the private sector and with the New Zealand Government.

This includes roles at both the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.  She is an experienced trade negotiator, having been involved in a range of WTO and free trade agreement negotiations.  She also served for a period as New Zealand’s Geneva-based agriculture negotiator.  Jenny has a BA (Hons) in Political Science from Victoria University and Bachelor of Commerce in International Business from Auckland University.

Jenny McGregor

Kristy Grant

Board Member

With an international export trade development and marketing background, Kristy is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Logistics and Transport and has held several executive management positions - including running an export manufacturing and marketing company, so understands the unique advantage that the NZ story has to offer to the world.

As a fervent Wellingtonian and a very proud New Zealander, Kristy is passionate about supporting and developing NZ business, in particular throughout the creative sector and has established the Miramar Creative Centre in partnership with Victoria University.

Kristy Grant

David Wang

Board Member

Mr. David Wang (Wang Lei), Chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand (CCCNZ) and the CEO of the Bank of China (New Zealand) Limited (BOCNZ), has over 20 years working experience in banking industry.

Mr. Wang's previous role was assistant CEO of BOC Singapore branch, responsible for overseeing the bank's Prestigious Wealth Management unit for the ASEAN countries. Prior to that, he was general manager of private banking BOC Beijing, responsible for establishing BOC's first private banking centre worldwide, which was awarded the Best Private Bank in China by Financial Times in 2010. The BOC, which is majority-owned by the Chinese government, incorporated as an NZ bank in November 2014.

From May 2015, dedicated to the strategic goal of "Serving Chinese Companies, Contributing to the local community", Mr.Wang, the newly elected Chairman of CCCNZ, persisted in bilateral economic and trade development, reform and innovation as well as building membership. Also, he has established various ways of communications between the members and the local community with all kinds of activities, such as China-New Zealand Economy Conference, Chinese New Year Charity Gala, Round the bays, CCCNZ Annual Meeting and etc.

David Wang

Christine Fenby

Christine’s marketing career began in broadcast television with Television New Zealand Limited (TVNZ). Her first exporting experience was with a TVNZ commercial venture that established free-to-air television services in Pacific Island nations – six in total. Subsequently, she moved to (then) TVNZ subsidiary TVNZ Satellite Services in a new role as Marketing Director. This business established a global satellite delivery network to deliver news and sports content to broadcast networks, news syndicators and sports rights agencies across all continents – competing with global telco’s such as British Telecom and GlobeCast, France. Proving a highly successful and profitable initiative for TVNZ at the time, Christine was converted to the notion of ‘world’ as an addressable market for New Zealand businesses. Her passion for international marketing has not diminished since.

Subsequently, Christine operated her own marketing consultancy specialising in brand positioning; she worked across a range of sectors – many of them export-driven. She joined cinema management software company Vista Entertainment Solutions Ltd (‘Vista Cinema’) in 2012 putting her consulting career on hold to take full advantage of a globally operating business that listed two years later in 2014 (NZX & ASX: VGL).

Additionally, Christine sits on the Trust Board of the Vista Foundation; she is also Vice Chair of the Board of Auckland-based non-profit Home and Family Counselling and an active member of the Rotary Club of Downtown Auckland. And she is a past member of the board of national organisation The Talklink Trust that provides support and services to those with speech impairment.

In 2019 Christine was listed no. 29 on the 2019 “Top 50 Women in Global Cinema” as published by industry online platform Celluloid Junkie.

www.twitter.com/CFenby

www.linkedin.com/in/christine-fenby

August 2019

Christine Fenby

Michael Whitehead

Michael co-founded and ran WhereScape Software, a global software business with operations in New Zealand, USA, UK, Europe and Asia. WhereScape was the supreme winner at the 2016 New Zealand International Business Awards, the NZTE Services Exporter of the Year winner at the 2017 Air New Zealand Cargo ExportNZ Awards for Auckland and Waikato regions and also the winner of Excellence in International Trade at the Westpac Auckland Business Best of the Best Awards in 2016. He now runs Tap In Ventures, a business advisory for companies wanting to grow and scale.

He was appointed to the New Zealand Government’s Trade for all Advisory Board, is a Prime Minister’s Business Scholarship winner, a Category Winner at the EY New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and a graduate of Auckland University.

Michael Whitehead

Michael Fox

Michael Fox is Head of Communications and External Relations at Zespri International. He leads Zespri’s external communications, stakeholder engagement, policy, global tours and events and community investment programmes.

He joined Zespri after six years in Parliament as a Press Secretary and Chief Press Secretary to former Prime Ministers Sir John Key and Sir Bill English and Opposition Leader Simon Bridges. Prior to that he was a journalist with Fairfax Media in Auckland and Wellington, in Parliament’s Press Gallery and in Egypt and Cambodia.

Michael Fox

David Boyd

David is an experienced executive and company director with a background in specialised manufacturing, medical devices, and consumer products, with a focus on international markets. He has particular expertise in international branding targeting wider European markets.

David is a director of a number of New Zealand-based companies, and a past director of Orthopaedic Synergy Inc, a United States-based orthopaedic company which has two subsidiaries -Christchurch-based Enztec Ltd and Omni Life Science Inc of Raynham, Massachusetts, USA. He is also the founding shareholder of Foot Science International, the producers of Formthotics, and is still actively involved as a director as well as managing their R&D program.David has practical experience in developing specialised manufacturing businesses with a view to international markets. He has a particular interest in developing business capabilities that allow and encourage long-term growth.

Based in Canterbury, David has been involved since its inception with the CDC Hi Growth programme and numerous community organisations. David is on the national board of Export NZ.

David Boyd