As Head of Investor Assurance, Rene is known for providing independent, frank, and fearless advice to government. His division has conducted over 1,000 assurance reviews since 2016, helping ensure that infrastructure projects across NSW are delivered on time, within budget, and with a clear focus on public benefit. Rene is a trusted advisor to government and a key member of the Executive Leadership Team. He is also recognised for his practical insights—often assessing project health through unannounced site visits, where he gauges progress based on operational discipline and site organisation.

Graham has a background in macroeconomics, fiscal policy, and forecasting, having worked for the Bank of Canada, International Monetary Fund, and State of Vermont Legislative Fiscal Office. At the Commission, Graham’s work has focused on forecasting future infrastructure needs and providing advice around infrastructure funding and financing, local government issues, and the links between economic growth and infrastructure investment. He holds a master’s degree in public affairs with an economics concentration from Princeton University and an undergraduate degree in economics from Centre College (Kentucky, USA).

David Carter is a highly experienced engineer with a diverse sector background spanning water, industrial, energy, airports and roading. He has worked both within New Zealand and internationally and is experienced with a range of project delivery mechanisms. He holds several strategic roles, including Executive Chair of Beca, a Guardian of both the Aotearoa Circle and Koi Tū, and Chair of The University of Auckland Foundation. He has a PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from UC Berkeley and received the award for Outstanding Leadership and Contribution to Infrastructure at Building Nations 2024. He lives in Auckland.

Len was the Government Statistician of New Zealand from 1992 to 2000. From 2000 to 2005 he was National Statistician of the United Kingdom and Registrar-General of England and Wales. Len was a secretariat member of the Ministerial Task Force on Tax Reform (1981), and a member, NZ Royal Commission on Social Policy (1987-1988). Between 2015 and 2018 he was Families Commissioner and Chair of the board of the Superu evaluation agency. Some recent professional roles include Vice-President, International Statistics Institute (2005-2009), President, Institute of Public Administration NZ (2009-2013). Elected Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Len’s longstanding interests are in the areas of population change and public policy, public administration, retirement provision, imprisonment patterns, official statistics, and the place of science in policy.  

Geoff Cooper is the Chief Executive at Te Waihanga. He has a background in global policy having worked for the United States Federal Reserve, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development and the United Nations. He is a former Chief Economist for both PwC and Auckland Council, where he worked on infrastructure, housing, regulation and financial policy, including business case development for Auckland’s City Rail Link. At Te Waihanga, Geoff was previously the General Manager of Strategy where he had purview over research capabilities, the National Infrastructure Pipeline, and development of the New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy. He holds a Master of Economics with First Class Honours from the University of Auckland and a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University.

Nadine’s work seeks to improve infrastructure investment outcomes through better planning and decision-making. She also undertakes research to improve our understanding of infrastructure issues. Prior to this, she worked in the transport sector, contributing to the planning and economic appraisal of a range of transport projects, including mass transit, bus priority, cycleway, and pedestrian amenity improvement projects. Nadine holds a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington.

Adam is a lawyer by profession. He has held a variety of senior management roles in both the private and public sector, including chief executive roles in central and local government. He has led a variety of major projects including redevelopment of Eden Park for Rugby World Cup; New Dunedin Hospital; and most recently, Scott Base.

Emma is passionate about infrastructure and the vital role it plays in shaping communities and how we all live, work and play. A civil engineer, she has extensive experience in delivering complex and challenging projects such as the Puhoi to Warkworth Motorway and the Waterview Connection. In her previous role as Director of Te Tupu Ngātahi – Supporting Growth Programme, Emma became a strong advocate for the benefits in long term planning and route protection to navigate uncertainty. Emma has recently joined the NZ Transport Agency and has helped develop the multi-agency Auckland Rapid Transit Pathway. In her role as Director of the Te Ara Hauāuru – Northwest Busway project she is championing incremental investment and the decision-led approach to project development.

Sarah was appointed to the role in December 2022 and was previously the Authority’s General Manager Legal, Monitoring and Compliance. Sarah is a lawyer by background. She has spent most of her career in-house in corporates in both legal and non-legal roles and has also worked in large law firms. She has an interest in technology businesses and has held governance roles, including on the board of a technology start up.

A role he's held for nearly 10 years. In this role he leads the upfront investment planning for the Defence Estate Portfolio, including shaping long-term tenure footprint, operational policy, planning and strategic asset management. As SRO, Phil had oversight of the submission process for Infrastructure Priorities Programme.

Andy Hagan has worked in the public sector for nearly 20 years in a range or infrastructure policy and funding and financing roles, including as a member of the Executive Leadership Team at New Zealand Treasury. Prior to joining Te Waihanga, Andy was Director at project advisory consultancy HKA.  

Nadine Higgins (nee Chalmers-Ross) is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster with extensive experience across television, radio, newspapers and magazines. Nadine is renowned as a fiercely intelligent, articulate and engaging MC. Nadine is a qualified Financial Adviser and a Director of enable.me financial strategy & coaching Auckland Central. She is also a financial commentator for Today FM, doing daily commentary every evening. Nadine's worked for some of New Zealand's top shows including Morning Report, One News, NZI Business, Seven Sharp, Breakfast, The Sunday Star Times, and currently, The Project and The AM Show.   

Neil was elected New Plymouth District Mayor in 2016. He has a background in public and private infrastructure, strategy and communications. He has a BA in Political Science and Philosophy from Victoria University of Wellington, and attended the Macquarie Graduate School of Management to complete a Strategic Management Programme and Foundations of General Management. Neil is a member of New Zealand Institute of Directors and was an Accredited member of Public Relations Institute of New Zealand.

Raveen Jaduram has a Masters in Civil Engineering and over 30 years’ experience working in the water industry in New Zealand and Australia. Raveen brings deep institutional and systems knowledge of the infrastructure sector. His previous roles include chief executive of Watercare Services Limited and the Managing Director of Murrumbidgee Irrigation Limited, a private water company in Australia. 

Charles Marohn, known as “Chuck” to friends and colleagues, is the founder and president of Strong Towns. He is a land use planner and civil engineer with decades of experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota.

Peter Nunns has a background in infrastructure and transport economics, urban economics, and economic development. At the Commission, Peter has led the Economics team, helped to develop New Zealand’s first Infrastructure Strategy, and established the ongoing Research Insights series. He previously held roles in consultancy, and local and central government, including advisory work on a number of major infrastructure projects and programmes. He holds postgraduate degrees in economics and political science from the University of Auckland and an undergraduate degree in mathematics and political science from Williams College (Massachusetts).

Rebecca has worked across infrastructure investment and delivery in both the public and private sectors combining specialties across legal, procurement, commercial, delivery and assurance. She brings a pragmatic perspective to how infrastructure delivery is managed in practice and what system change is needed to help Government be a better client of infrastructure. Rebecca is a determined advocate for improvement and efficiency in the investment life cycle from asset management and good planning to project leadership.

Andrew is a senior programme and project leader in major infrastructure development and asset management, whose experience in the last twenty years has spanned general management and delivery accountability in renewable energy, correctional facilities, and transport. In that time he has developed successful growth and delivery strategies in those sectors, and led five of New Zealand’s eight wave 1 PPPs. Andrew leans towards performance outcome based contracting models where client prescription on inputs is reduced and risks are owned by the party best able to manage them. He is currently the National Manager Commercial Delivery at NZTA, overseeing the re-activation of the agencies PPP programme. He is excited about building lessons learned and best practice into the model.

Nicole Rosie is an experienced Chief Executive having over 20-years experience in Chief Executive and senior management roles across the public and private sector. Most recently the chief executive of NZTA Waka Kotahi, Nicole’s experience also includes 3 years as Chief Executive of Worksafe and senior executive roles in Fonterra, KiwiRail/Toll NZ, Vector and Fletcher Challenge Forests.  Nicole will commence in a new role as Chief Executive of the Australian National Heavy Vehicle Regulator from the end of June 2025. Over her five-year period in the NZTA role, NZ had significant changes in transport priorities with three government policy statements on transport (the government's 10 yr strategy documents) and significant pivots in transport priorities. NZTA’s role in leading planning, investment and delivery under the national land transport programme grew significantly with the programme under management increasing from around 11B over three years to 24B. NZTA also played a key role in managing the infrastructure impacts of COVID and in responding to NZ wettest year on record (2023), which significantly impacted transport and other infrastructure networks across the country. Transformation changes were also made in the regulatory and digital functions of NZTA with modern platforms put in place to manage pricing, tolling, public transport and network management and utilisation.  She has a Masters of Public Health in law and public health from Harvard University, which she attended as a NZ Fulbright scholar. A Master of Law from Auckland University jointly supervised by the medical and law schools and Law and Arts degrees from Otago University.

Jerome is an experienced senior leader in the public sector vertical infrastructure arena having held senior property leadership roles at Education, Land Information New Zealand and the Ministry of Justice. Jerome has been the senior responsible officer for a range of property initiatives, including public-private partnerships, weathertightness remediation, the Christchurch school rebuild programme, and a range of business cases associated with new courthouses and seismic strengthening. Jerome has led teams to successfully deliver pragmatic value for money projects, and with his strong infrastructure policy background understands how to make positive changes happen in the public sector. At the beginning of this year, he took up the role of Functional Chief Executive for School Property.

David is the Investment Manager of Endowments at Ngāi Tahu Holdings, the revenue-generating arm of the Ngāi Tahu tribe. He is a former Executive Director of operations at Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu retirement savings scheme, Whai Rawa Fund Limited. He commenced working for Te Rūnanga Group in October 2011. Prior to joining Whai Rawa, David worked in the finance and banking sectors in London for 20 years, holding positions within RBS/NatWest and HSBC Banks prior to his return to Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Since 2012, David has been a Director of Te Poho o Tamatea Ltd, a holdings company of Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke (Rūnanga). David is a member of the Leadership Group at Toitū Tahua: Centre for Sustainable Finance and a Grant Panel Member on Te Pūtea Whakamauru Para – the Waste Minimisation Fund at the Ministry for Environment. 

In 2015, David graduated from Massey University with a Master of Business Administration (MBA).