Hon Dr. Michael Cullen
Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Finance

Dr Michael Cullen is the Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, and one of Labour's longest serving MPs. He has been Finance Minister and Leader of the House since Labour took office in 1999.

He was first elected to Parliament in 1981 as the Member for St Kilda in Dunedin.

Dr Cullen has two daughters, a stepson and stepdaughter and is the proud grandfather of two.  He is married to Lowson Anne Collins, a primary school teacher and a former Labour MP.  Dr Cullen has New Zealand nationality but was born in London.  He emigrated here as a child.  His birthdate is 5 February, 1945.

Dr Cullen was made Senior Government Whip when Labour took office in 1984 and entered the Cabinet in 1987 as Minister of Social Welfare and Associate Minister of Finance.  He added Associate Minister of Health to his mix of portfolios in 1988 and in 1989 was made Associate Minister of Labour.

He became Deputy Leader in 1996 when Labour was in Opposition. His shadow portfolios in the opposition years included: Social Welfare, Accident Insurance and Finance.

Before entering Parliament, Dr Cullen was a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Otago. He did his MA at Canterbury University, was a UK Commonwealth Scholar and did his PhD at Edinburgh University. He has written two books: The Statistical Movement In Early Victorian Britain and Unlawfully Occupied.

The Minister likes to listen to music, read, play golf badly and renovate houses in his spare time.    

Hon Bill English
Deputy Leader & Finance Spokesman, National Party

Bill English is the Deputy Leader and Finance Spokesman for the National Party of New Zealand.  He entered Parliament in 1990 representing the rural electorate of Clutha-Southland. In 1996 he joined the Cabinet as a junior health and education minister. He became Minister of Health in the first MMP coalition government after the 1996 election. In February 1999 he became Minister of Finance and Minister of Revenue. Bill English held the position of Leader of the New Zealand National Party from October 2001 to October 2003 and Opposition Spokesman for Education from October 2003 to November 2006.  

Diana Crossan
Retirement Commissioner  

Diana Crossan has been the Retirement Commissioner since February 2003.  She came to the role after working extensively in the private and public sectors.

Her career started as a probation officer.  She held several senior roles in the public service and was in the set up team for Contact Energy.  For a short time, she was GM Hydro at Clyde and Roxburgh.

Her financial services industry experience began with AMP as Manager of Agency Development in 1997.  In 2000, she was appointed leader of an AMP team in the UK, charged with changing the distribution system in the AMP-owned financial services companies with a combined total of 4.1 million customers.

As well as being the Retirement Commissioner part time, Diana is on several boards in the private, public and community sectors.

One of the Retirement Commission's key roles is to lift the financial knowledge of New Zealanders aged five to 95.  The Commission is also responsible for providing advice to the Government regarding New Zealand's retirement income policies, and overseeing legislation regarding retirement villages.

Cathy Magiannis
Director KiwiSaver Programme, Inland Revenue

Cathy joined Inland Revenue (IR) in 2001 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). She then held a number of management positions in IR before becoming Director of the KiwiSaver Programme in 2005. 

Cathy's career spans both the public and private sectors.  Her career began in audit with one of the "Big 8" accountancy companies, for which she worked in New Zealand, Greece, Egypt and Indonesia. 

In the early 1990s Cathy was a member of the Treasury team responsible for the "Public Sector Management Reforms". She was closely involved in the development and delivery of the implementation strategies necessary to give effect to the Public Finance Act 1989 and its amendments. 

James Thier
Executive Director, Australian Ethical Investment Ltd

James has had academic experience as a researcher and has taught in the faculties of economics, environmental studies and geography at the University of New South Wales. He has held senior positions in local government and within peak bodies of the credit union movement. James is the company's business development manager. James is also a director of Australian Ethical Superannuation Pty Ltd and is on the board's investment and compliance committees. James was recently awarded a Churchill Fellowship to examine the mechanism of shareholder advocacy. 

Cathy Quinn
Commissioner, Securities Commission 

Cathy Quinn is a senior corporate partner at Minter Ellison Rudd Watts.  Cathy heads the firm's Mergers and Acquisitions and Private Equity Group.

Cathy is a member of the New Zealand Securities Commission and a member of the Government's Task Force on Capital Markets Development. 

Cathy has led a number of high profile trans-Tasman merger and acquisition transactions.

Cathy has been an author of a leading text on company and securities law matters, Morison's Company and Securities Law.  Cathy has also contributed to various education initiatives on company and securities law issues for the New Zealand Law Society.

David Benison
Government Actuary 

David Benison qualified as an actuary in England. His actuarial career has covered both life insurance and superannuation experience in UK, France and New Zealand.  He became Government Actuary in 2003.  He is based in Wellington and lives on a life style block at Pauatahanui.

Neil Padley
General Manager HR Corporate, Shared & Other Service, Air New Zealand

Neil is the GM of Corporate HR & Shared Services for Air New Zealand based in Auckland. The services offered by the HR Shared Services team include standard and specialist services e.g. payroll, sourcing inspiring people, remuneration, global mobility, organisational change management and HR Reporting to name just a few, as well as providing strategic HR services to a number of customer groups.

Neil is also responsible for all superannuation schemes across the group - currently 22 schemes including the award winning KoruSaver scheme. Neil is trustee for the UK pension scheme, the US 401K and the Air NZ Super scheme.

Neil has a degree in accounting, completed his CPA program and an MBA from the University of Southern Queensland, majoring in HR Strategy and Change Management. 

Phil O'Reilly
Chief Executive, Business New Zealand

Phil O'Reilly is Chief Executive of Business NZ, New Zealand's largest business advocacy organisation.

Phil has a background in business, advocacy and communications in enterprises in New Zealand and Australia.

During the 1980s he was Industrial Advocate, Auckland Employers Association Inc. In 1990 he became Executive Director of the Newspaper Publishers Association of NZ.  During this period he also served as Chairman of the NZ Advertising Standards Authority. In 2000 he was appointed Head of Employment Policy and Communication at Westpac Bank in Sydney before returning to New Zealand to his role at Business NZ.

He has an M.A. Hons in History from Auckland University, and has attended Stanford University and the Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

Phil O'Reilly is chair of the Commercialisation of Research Action Group and the Massey University Business Advisory Group and is joint chair of the Manufacturing Advisory Group and the Workplace Health & Safety Council. 

Phil is a member of the Growth & Innovation Advisory Board, the Ministerial Advisory Group on Trade, Hui Taumata Trust, the Maori Workforce Development Trust, the Workplace Productivity Reference Group, Business Capability Partnership Steering Committee, Skill New Zealand, and the Advisory Committee on Statistics, and is New Zealand's Employer Delegate to the International Organisation of Employers and the International Labour Conference. 

Peter Conway
Policy Director/Economist, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions

Peter Conway advises unions on economic issues.

Peter has been active in unions since 1977, when he became assistant secretary of the Canterbury, Westland, Nelson and Marlborough Clothing Trades Union. Peter also was been assistant national secretary of the New Zealand Distribution Workers Federation, an advocate for retail workers in the National Distribution Union, an educator with the Nurses Organisation and was also a director of Auckland's Yellow Bus Company. He was also a Coordinator of the Hounslow Trade Union Support Unit and Centre for the Unemployed in London for a period.

Peter's qualifications include a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration and an MA in Economics. He is on the Board of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and is Chair of Oxfam NZ. 

Paul Silk
Medley Global Advisors

Paul Silk is Director , Asia Pacific for Medley Global Advisors and brings over 20 years of experience in global financial markets to the group.  Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Silk was head of interest rate trading for the National Australia Bank in London which followed an extensive career in fixed income markets in Wellington, Sydney, and London including tenures at Bain and Co/Deutsche Bank as head of fixed interest trading in Australia and at Greenwich Natwest as head of German government bond trading.  For the past 5 years Mr Silk has represented MGA in the Asia Pacific region , building a network of relationships with Policymakers , Banks , Investment Banks , Hedge Funds and Asset Managers.