SPEAKERS
Keri Brown
Chair - Energy Hardship Panel
Keri Brown (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Mahana) is a councillor at Hutt City Council where she has led work in homelessness, hardship and child outcomes, and a Hutt Valley DHB board member. She has a background in community and public service and was previously a senior national adviser for the Family Start programme, which works with whānau to improve children’s health, learning and relationships.
Peter Colacino
Infrastructure Policy and Strategy, Avista Strategy
Peter brings 20 years’ experience in infrastructure strategy and public policy in government, the private sector, academic advisory and industry.
He is an internationally recognised leader in infrastructure policy, most recently leading initiatives in infrastructure strategy, resilience and sector transformation policy. Prior to this Peter was Chief of Policy and Research for the Australian Government’s independent infrastructure advisor, Infrastructure Australia. Peter has led the development or authored more than 50 policy and planning documents including landmark documents, such as:
- 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan,
- 2019 and 2015 Australian Infrastructure Audits, and
- 2022 and 2021 Infrastructure Market Capacity Program.
Previously, Peter held senior roles in Australia’s private largest public transport operator, Keolis Downer, and motorway operator, Transurban. As well as leadership in operation of some of Australia’s largest transport networks, Peter was a senior project team member for major infrastructure projects, such as Northconnex, Hills M2 Upgrade, M5 West Widening and G:link.
Peter is has lead transformational change in the transport sector pioneering the deployment of integrated multimodal public transport through Newcastle Transport, and future mobility through innovative adoption of electric, autonomous and connected vehicles.
Geoff Cooper
General Manager - Strategy, New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga
Geoff has a background in global policy having worked for the United Nations, the United States Treasury and the Federal Reserve. He is a former Chief Economist for Auckland Council, where he worked on infrastructure, housing, regulation and financial policy. More recently, as Chief Economist at PwC, Geoff has contributed to the economic appraisal of a range of large infrastructure projects, including Wellington’s Let’s Get Wellington Moving programme, Auckland Light Rail, Hamilton to Auckland High Speed Rail and Queenstown’s Way to Go programme. Geoff holds a Master of Economics with First Class Honours from the University of Auckland and a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University.
Ross Copland
Chief Executive - New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga
Ross has experience in the design, procurement, financing, and delivery of infrastructure having worked in commercial construction and property on both sides of the Tasman. Ross holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with First Class Honours, a Bachelor of Commerce and an MBA.
Dr Juliano Denicol
Director - Megaproject Delivery Centre, University College London (UCL)
Dr Juliano Denicol is the Director of the Megaproject Delivery Centre at University College London (UCL) and Director of the UCL MBA in Major Infrastructure Delivery. Dr Denicol is the Global Head of the Megaprojects Special Interest Group (SIG) at the International Project Management Association (IPMA). As Global Head of the IPMA Megaprojects SIG, he coordinates a global platform with more than 70 countries to advance our understanding of megaproject delivery. Before joining UCL, Dr Denicol has worked as a supply chain management consultant at High Speed 2, the largest infrastructure project in Europe, and advisor to the European Commission on public procurement policies.
Dr Denicol’s work on megaprojects has been regarded of high global impact receiving multiple research awards.
Previous research included several iconic UK megaprojects: High Speed 1, Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, London 2012 Olympics, Crossrail, Thames Tideway Tunnel, and High Speed 2. He was Co-Investigator of Project X, a major research network that aims to improve major project delivery in the UK, established by nine universities in collaboration with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), and the Cabinet Office.
Shamubeel Eaqub
Partner – Sense Partners
Shamubeel Eaqub is an experienced economist who makes economics easy. Heis also an author, media commentator and a thought leading public speaker. He has over two decades of experience as an economist in Wellington, Melbourne and Auckland in leading international banks and consultancy. He is a partner at Sense Partners–a boutique economic consultancy. He holds a BCOM with Honors in Economics from Lincoln University and is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Edward Glaeser
Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Department of Economics - Harvard University.
Edward Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University, where he has taught microeconomic theory, and occasionally urban and public economics, since 1992. He has served as Director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. He has published dozens of papers on cities economic growth, law, and economics. In particular, his work has focused on the determinants of city growth and the role of cities as centers of idea transmission. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1992. His books include Cities, Agglomeration, and Spatial Equilibrium (Oxford University Press, 2008), Rethinking Federal Housing Policy (American Enterprise Institute Press, 2008), Triumph of the City (Penguin Press, 2011), and Survival of the City: Mass Flourishing in an Age of Social Isolation (Penguin Press, 2021).
Tim Grafton
Chief Executive - Insurance Council NZ
Tim Grafton became Chief Executive of the Insurance Council in November 2012. Tim has extensive experience in providing strategic, policy and communications advice to public and private sector leaders. He was an executive director of a leading market research company prior to taking up his position with ICNZ.
Tim has a strong understanding of the machinery of government, having been an adviser to former Prime Ministers and Ministers of Finance as well as leading private companies. He has extensive knowledge of post-disaster recovery issues and insurance regulation. He is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors and holds several governance roles. He is Vice-President of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations, Chairs the Code Compliance Committee of the Fair Insurance Code, is the former Chair of the Representative Users Group of the Deep South Science Challenge which focuses on research to adapt to climate change, and is on the New Zealand Advisory Board of the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance and the Advisory Board of Victoria University of Wellington’s Chair in the Economics of Disasters and Climate Change.
Judy Kavanagh
Director Inquiries - Strategy, New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga
Judy is an economist with a background in public policy and regulation, and has worked for the Ministries of Health and Education and the New Zealand Productivity Commission. She has worked on health sector prioritisation, the roll out of ultrafast broadband to schools and has conducted Productivity Commission inquiries into land and infrastructure for housing, the productivity of the public sector and the quality of New Zealand’s regulatory institutions. Judy has a Master of Economics and a Post Graduate Diploma in Health Economics.
Nick Leggett
Cheif Executive, Infrastructure New Zealand
Nick Leggett was appointed Chief Executive of Infrastructure New Zealand in April 2023. Previously Chief Executive of the trucking industry peak body, Transporting New Zealand, Nick’s professional career has always centred around the need for excellent infrastructure. As Mayor of Porirua between 2010-2016 he understands power of great infrastructure to power opportunities and provide a bedrock for economic growth and social progress.
Blake Lepper
General Manager - Infrastructure Delivery, New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga
Blake has a background in the delivery of major infrastructure projects. He has hands on experience across the project lifecycle including in strategic planning, business case development, design management, procurement, and commissioning. He is a passionate advocate for getting better value from our infrastructure investment by ensuring the Government is an intelligent client of infrastructure and is designing and delivering our projects in a coordinated and coherent way. He joined Te Waihanga after a number of years supporting the Government on the recovery and regeneration of Christchurch following the 2010/2011 earthquakes and has lead our advisory work across the health and transport sectors. Blake holds degrees in Physics and Law from Otago University.
Amanda Millar
Founder & CEO
Amanda is a multi-award winning bastion of New Zealand journalism and public speaking. She’s well recognised for reporting and presenting on current affairs shows 60 minutes and 20/20 for which she earned the title of New Zealand’s Best Current Affairs Reporter 3 times and New Zealand’s Best Interviewer 7 times (in a row). Amanda’s experience has taught her that nothing is more compelling than someone who is real.
Gail Pacheco
Professor of Economics and Director NZ Work Research Institute AUT
Gail is a Professor of Economics and Director of the NZ Work Research Institute at AUT. Her research focusses on labour and health research themes, leading large-scale funded projects involving both academic and public sector collaborations. She has also received funding from the Health Research Council and the MBIE Endeavour fund. In 2018, Professor Pacheco was awarded the NZIER Economics Award. She was a Commissioner at the NZ Productivity Commission 2019-2022 and in 2019 also received the AUT Medal (AUT’s top award) for her research, scholarship and application of integrated data to help inform social policy and wellbeing.
David Rankin
Chief Executive, Eke Panuku, Development Auckland
David has spent most of his career working in the public sector in Auckland and as a life-long member himself, he enjoys seeing transformation across the city.
Originally a law graduate, he joined Auckland City Council in 1989 where he worked in various roles including Industrial Relations Manager and Finance Director, a role which included the Auckland City Council’s large property holdings. He was then appointed Chief Executive in 2005. Following the Auckland Council amalgamation in 2010 he became Chief Executive of Auckland Council Property Limited before Eke Panuku Development Auckland’s establishment in 2015.David has worked on urban regeneration throughout government career. He understands that creating amazing places where people can thrive takes a holistic approach where many different disciplines and view-points contribute to the bigger picture. Along with a strong commercial development strategy,
David is a firm believer that investment in public amenity and a place-based, tailored approach underpins successful urban regeneration. From experience, David knows that a ’one size fits all’ approach wont cut it with Aucklanders.
Developing relationships between significant private and public sector partners, he has been extensively involved in the transformation of some of the most loved parts of Auckland since the mid- 1990s, including Britomart precinct and the waterfront. Most recently, as Chief Executive of Eke Panuku, David leads Auckland Council’s first urban regeneration agency. Working across specific neighborhoods in Auckland, David has led a strategic approach that sees the Council partner with private sector, government, iwi and the third sector to deliver a wide range of regenerative outcomes for Auckland.
Nick Rogers QSO
Natural Hazards and Risk Reduction Specialist
Nick Rogers is a natural disaster specialist, having attended just about every natural disaster in New Zealand since Abbotsford in 1979. Nick has worked on infrastructure projects in New Zealand and overseas including American Samoa, Kiribati, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sabah, Samoa, Sarawak, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Vietnam.
In 2010 Nick led a team advising Government on retreat and adaptation options following the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence of 2010 to 2011. This included providing the evidence base for more than 20,000 people retreating from the “residential red zone” on the Canterbury plains, and “building back better” in areas labelled TC2 and TC3. Of even greater note, however, the work allowed more than 130,000 homeowners to get their lives back quickly by not requiring any reporting to obtain building consents (the green zone).
A Director of Tonkin + Taylor from 1990 to 2010, Nick was a Board member of Waka Kotaki (NZTA) from 2013 to 2019. Nick was made a Companion of the Queens Service Order in 2013 for his work in natural disaster damage assessment.
A strong proponent of not rushing in the recreate the past after natural disaster strikes, Nick shares his thoughts about the need to look to the future when thinking about building back our broken infrastructure. In some cases, the best thing to do might just be not building back at all.
Nicole Rosie
CEO - Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
Nicole Rosie joined Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency as Chief Executive in February 2020.
Prior to her appointment, Nicole was the CE of Worksafe for three years. She has more than two decades of senior executive experience across the public and private sectors. This includes a range of industries and functions, such as transport and commercial firms including Toll NZ and Fonterra.
Nicole is passionate about making a difference and sees the land transport system and the critical roles Waka Kotahi plays across infrastructure, regulation and safety as being at the heart of a successful New Zealand.
Francesco Saibene
Managing Director - Ghella Limited
Francesco Saibene has a Masters in Structural Civil Engineer with over 15 years’ experience working on significant infrastructures’ delivery over four continents.
Francesco is the Managing Director of Ghella Limited, the New Zealand subsidiary of Rome-based Ghella SpA, currently delivering the 1.2 Billion Watercare’s Central Interceptor Project.
He has extensive experience in innovative and successful infrastructure procurement and delivery.
David Stolz
Assistant Co-ordinator General, Office of the Co-ordinator General
David’s career spans over 30 years in the private and government sectors, and across diverse areas including resources, telecommunications, banking, and insurance.
His employment with the Queensland Government includes roles focussed on economic development, policy, and industry development. As Assistant Coordinator-General since March 2014, he has led development approval assessment for complex projects. A key component of this work has been the strategic development of Queensland’s twelve State Development Areas, including leading the declaration and growth of four of these areas.
David also leads the development of the Coordinator-General’s industrial land holdings including land in Gladstone, Abbot Point and Townsville.
Belinda Storey
Senior Research Fellow - New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute
Belinda conducts research on the impact of escalating climate hazards on infrastructure, real estate, banking and insurance. As Managing Director of Climate Sigma, Belinda has developed a new model for valuing property under climate change called “climate leases” and in 2017 she coined the term “insurance retreat”.
Belinda Storey is Managing Director of Climate Sigma and Whakahura: Extreme Events and the Emergence of Climate Change, a five year, $10M research programme funded by MBIE. Her research in this programme couples rainfall and river flow models with investment criteria to determine how extreme rainfall events affect the financial viability of river-based infrastructure.
In May 2022 Belinda was named Wellingtonian of the Year for Science and Technology in recognition of her work in pricing climate risk.
Roger Sutton
Chief Executive, EA Networks
He was previously the CEO of Orion in Christchurch including during the 2011 earthquakes. Following the quakes, he took the role of CEO of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, the organisation that oversaw the rebuild of Christchurch.
He has also held a variety of Directorships in New Zealand and Australian companies in the energy arena.
Roger is currently the CEO of EA Networks, who provide the electricity infrastructure to the Mid Canterbury region.
Gabrielle Trainor
Acting Chair, Infrastructure Australia
Gabrielle Trainor chairs the Construction Industry Culture Taskforce, a collaboration between the construction industry and the NSW and Victorian governments, supported by a team of academic researchers. The aim of the Taskforce is to make a step change in the culture of the industry through the government procurement process.
Gabrielle is a non-executive director and advisor whose experience covers twenty-five years on a wide range of boards in the public and private sectors. She has conducted several reviews for governments, including on governance and organisational culture.
Her background is as a lawyer, journalist and public sector executive and she had a long career in issues management and public policy.
Gabrielle’s current appointments include as Interim Chair of Infrastructure Australia, a board member of the Major Transport Infrastructure Authority (Vic), director of Built Group Pty Ltd and the Western Parkland City Authority. She is a commissioner of the AFL, a trustee of the Charlie Perkins Trust, an adviser to Gadens and a director of listed investment company WAM Global.
Coralie Williams
Director, Project Advisory and Evaluation – Infrastructure Australia
Coralie and her team have a birds eye view of the major infrastructure pipeline across sectors, across the country, and as such are uniquely placed to identify and promote best practice approaches to infrastructure planning and delivery and highlight and share lessons learned, lifting the standard of evidence and driving informed, evidence-based decision-making.
In this role Coralie draws upon her experience working in diverse capital planning, economics and policy roles across the NSW government (agency and central government) and the private sector (economic and public policy consulting). She is an economist by trade with a love for econometrics and social policy, and a passion for using infrastructure as a mechanism to improve outcomes and drive positive, sustainable change for people across the country.
Coralie is an active member of Infrastructure Australia's Reconciliation Action Plan working group, Data Governance committee, and Sustainability and Resilience working group, and is a member of numerous external working groups and committees.
Hon Dr Megan Woods
Member for Wigram, Labour Party
Dr Christian Zammit
Hydrologist - NIWA
Christian is a hydrologist with a MSc in small scale hydrology (University Joseph Fourier- France) and PhD in Soil Physics (University Joseph Fourier- France). His research interests include developing improved methods for making hydrological predictions in ungauged catchments, understanding the spatial variability in hydrological response through measurement, conceptualisation and modelling of surface water and groundwater flow across landscape and temporal scales, snow hydrology and uncertainty quantification in decision making process in water resource and weather related hazard.
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