Kea New Zealand is a not-for-profit global network operating across Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, the Middle East and the United Kingdom. It is governed by a global board led by its three Founding Directors. The board delegates day-to-day management of Kea to Global CEO, Dr. Sue Watson, based in Auckland, New Zealand.

Founding Directors

Sir Stephen Tindall (Chair) is founder of The Warehouse Group and co-founder and trustee of The Tindall Foundation. The Warehouse is New Zealand's largest non-food retailer with over 7,500 employees and revenues of NZ$1.7B. The Tindall Foundation seeks to fund not-for-profit organisations, assist New Zealanders in reaching their full potential, and help grow a stronger New Zealand. It is the largest private foundation by capital measurement in Australasia. Stephen co-founded the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development in 1999. He served on the Prime Minister's Enterprise Council during the Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley governments, then worked with Helen Clark's government on the Science and Innovation Advisory Board, and chaired the Growth and Innovation Advisory Council. Stephen is a founding and current board member of The New Zealand Institute. He holds honorary doctorates from AUT University and Massey University, and has received numerous awards including: NZ Herald 'Business Person of the Year' 1997, Deloitte/Management Magazine 'Executive of the Year' 1998, Peter Blake Leadership Award 2006, and the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM) in 2009. Through his investment company K1W1, Stephen has invested in over 100 New Zealand start-up companies focused on export through innovation and clean technology.
 

Professor David Teece is the Tusher Professor, University Of California, Berkeley.  He has an MA (first class honours) from the University of Canterbury and a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.  He is on the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania as well as on several corporate boards.  David has held teaching and research positions at Stanford and Oxford Universities and is on the Accenture list of the world's top 50 business intellectuals.  He has received numerous prizes, and four honorary doctorates, in recognition of his scholarly research and institution building contributions.  He is Executive Chairman of the Berkeley Research Group, an expert services firm which he co-founded in 2010.  His most recent book is “Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management,” Oxford University Press 2009.  David is involved in several New Zealand ventures in farming, forestry, viticulture (Mt Beautiful), engineering, and natural resources.
 

Directors

Bridget Liddell, based in New York, is General Partner of Fahrenheit Wellness Fund, a company which invests in food, beverage and personal care businesses in the US and in Australasia. She chairs the NZTE North America Beachhead Advisory Board which offers mentoring and consulting support to New Zealand businesses seeking access to the US market. Bridget is a Director and investor in a range of small private companies in the US and New Zealand. Bridget was formerly a Director of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and, prior to her departure from New Zealand, was CEO of University of Auckland Development, inaugural Chair of The ICEHOUSE, and a Director of listed companies, Fisher & Paykel Appliances and Sky City. She was a Harkness Fellow in 1998.

Chris Pickrill is the New Zealand Managing Director of The Shannon Company, a behavior change communications company. He has nearly 40 years’ general management, marketing and research experience in major New Zealand corporates and the government sector, including 15 years’ teaching and mentoring within the SME sector. Chris has an MA (hons) in economics from the University of Canterbury and is a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management and an Honorary Fellow of the College of Practitioners in Economic Development. He chairs the Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust,  is a Trustee of the Untouched World Foundation and  a Board Member of the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce.
 

Kerry Prendergast was Mayor of Wellington from 2001 to 2010. Since leaving that position she has moved into commercial governance. She is Chair of the new Crown entity, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA); Chair of the Tourism NZ Board; Chair of Netball Wellington Region, Executive Chair of the NZ International Arts Festival, on which she was a Trustee for 20 years; a Trustee of the New Zealand Community Trust; a member of the advisory board to the Auditor General. She is also on the board of publicly-listed Kirkaldie and Stains Ltd. Kerry has an MBA from Victoria University. She was given VUW’s inaugural MBA Leadership Award in 2010 and received a Distinguished Alumni Award from VUW in April 2011. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours she became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Before becoming Mayor, Kerry served on the Wellington City Council from 1989, including six years as Deputy Mayor. She was Vice President of Local Government New Zealand for 5 years. Kerry’s other Council appointments included Wellington International Airport Ltd, the Joe Aspell Trust, the Wellington Mayoral Forum and the Regional Land Transport Committee for Wellington Region. As Mayor, Kerry was patron of a large number of organisations including: NBR New Zealand Opera, Netball Wellington, Parent Help, Wellington Youth Orchestra, Skylight, Capital Vision Trust and Wellington-Xiamen Association.

John Stace joined Wright Stephenson & Company in 1965 serving in various New Zealand provinces and the UK. He established Harlock Stace Andrewes in 1975, an insurance broker based in Wellington. John moved to the UK in 1980 and established Stace Barr Limited in 1986, a company that subsequently became the then largest capital provider to Lloyd’s of London, managing £1 billion (circa 9% of Lloyd's market). John was a founding member of Lloyd's Market Board, member of the Council of Lloyd's 1995-1996, Deputy Chairman of Lloyd's in both years, and also spent time as a member of Lloyd's Regulatory Board. As founding CEO of Angerstein Underwriting Trust plc (now Amlin plc), John was Vice Chairman of Amlin plc when he retired from the Lloyd's Market in 2004. He returned to New Zealand in 2005 and now sits on the Board or holds directorships in: Triplejump (Deputy Chairman); Data Insurance Licensing Ltd (Chairman); 3R Group (Deputy Chairman); New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) Board Member, Equestrian Sports of New Zealand; World Class New Zealand (Advisory Board); The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK (Trustee). Previous directorships include: Genesis Energy and Methodware (Chairman).

Ross McConnell has served on Kea's Board of Directors since 2007 and was formerly CEO (2004 - 2007) and Executive Director (2010).  Under Ross' leadership, Kea expanded to connect with more than 30,000 Kiwis and 'friends of New Zealand' in over 170 countries. Ross has a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) from the University of Canterbury, and an MBA focusing on international business and entrepreneurship from the University of California, Berkeley.   Connect with Ross on LinkedIn.
 

John Lumsden is the chair of the New Zealand Standards Council, Moxie Communications Limited, and Virtual Expos New Zealand Limited.  He was President of the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce, and an establishment board member and director of Grow Wellington, the region’s economic development agency.  He has just chaired the Handsup Wellington Charitable Trust that helped a number of Christchurch businesses to re-establish themselves. Until early 2007 John was Chief Executive of the Meteorological Service of New Zealand Limited, a position he held from when it was established as a State Owned Enterprise in 1992.  He was an elected member of the Executive Council of the World Meteorological Organisation.  John’s work experience started with ICI in the UK, then Alcan in Jamaica and Canada, Unilever Canada, and Labatt Breweries of Canada.

Ex-Officio Directors

Richard Dellabarca, based in London, is Chair of Kea UK and Chief Financial Officer, Chi-X Global Inc.  He is the former Chief Financial Officer and co-founder of Staccato Communications Inc (formerly Artimi), a venture capital funded wireless semiconductor company that raised over $90m in six years. Prior to this, Richard was an investment banker for a number of years with BZW and then ABN AMRO, working in both New Zealand and Australia in M&A and Equity Capital Markets. He also spent two years at Coopers & Lybrand working in Corporate Tax. Richard has an MBA from Cambridge University and is qualified as a barrister and solicitor, and chartered accountant. 

Sharon Fraser is Chair of Kea China. Based in China’s and the World’s largest and fastest growing municipality of Chongqing since late 2009 as General Manager of the Intercontinental Chongqing Hotel, part of IHG Greater China management team. Prior to that Sharon was in Shanghai since 2005, where she took up the role of Chair in 2008. Her focus has been on helping Kea to get a strong foot hold in China by focusing on connecting Kiwi’s and “Friends of New Zealand” in this dynamic market place. Originally from Auckland Sharon has also lived and worked in Beijing, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia and NZ in various International Hotel Management positions. When not managing the Hotel and involved in Kea activities, Sharon volunteers with various local communities and organisations that focus on helping China’s less privileged.
 

Mark Smith is based in Sydney and has been a director of KEA in Australia for the past 5 years.  Mark owns and operates the commercial law firm ANZ Lawyers, which operates in both Australia and New Zealand.  He has an LL.B. and an MBA (Hons) from the University of Canterbury.  Mark’s legal practices include acting on a broad range of commercial legal work.  Mark’s specialist areas of work include capital markets work and mergers and acquisitions, particularly for small and medium sized businesses.  Mark has a special interest in assisting NZ based businesses to raise equity capital outside of NZ.

Phil Veal is Co-Chair of Kea North America, and a Partner at middle-market advisory firm Growfire, based in New York City. Phil launched management consulting company PIPC in the Americas, and helped build the company into a global project management services firm. Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH) acquired PIPC in 2010. Earlier, Phil spent five years at PA Consulting in London, Singapore and New York. He started his career with global engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald, working on projects in London and Hong Kong. Phil has a B.E. (Hons) in civil and structural engineering from the University of Canterbury.

Craig Donaldson is Royal Bank of Scotland’s North America Head of FX Global Financial Institutions. He has been running RBS North America’s FX Sales business (voted top 5 in North America by Euromoney) for the last five years, a business he help to built up from his arrival. He also globally manages RBS FX “Alpha Sales” business, with emphasis on derivative products. Craig also sits on a number of local Global Markets management committees for RBS North America and is Co-chair of Kea North America.