Todd McClay is the Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Forestry, Minister for Hunting and Fishing, Minister for Trade, and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs. He has been the MP for Rotorua since 2008.

Todd held several Ministerial roles in the Fifth National Government with portfolios including Trade, State-Owned Enterprises and Revenue.

Todd has previously been a diplomat and was the Cook Islands and Nuie Ambassador to the European Union. He has worked in business in Europe as well as government and public relations internationally.

Ben Burrowes is the Education Counsellor and Acting General Manager (International) of Education New Zealand (ENZ) Manapou ki te Ao.
In his Counsellor role, Ben leads bilateral education relationships across the region which underpin New Zealand's economic and diplomatic interests.
Ben is also responsible for leading ENZ’s team based in the region which is focused on profiling New Zealand as an education partner and ensuring international education contributes to New Zealand’s international relations goals.
Prior to joining ENZ in 2017, Ben worked in the public relations sector, supporting a range of New Zealand brands and Government agencies with their strategic communications and business development programmes across Asia. He has been based in Singapore since 2008.

Bicky Nguyen is the Cofounder & Business Development Director at CricketOne, the leading global supplier in cricket ingredients for the food and beverage industry. Their products are sold in 27 different countries across 4 continents, with recent expansion into retail business launching "Rec Rec" - a cricket tapioca cracker that has sold quickly almost 50k units across different countries. Her passion is to turn cricket based product into daily diet to tackle climate change and promote a sustainable way of living. Before the journey with CricketOne, she also founded another tech startup that implemented IoTs in agriculture to make it more predictable, increasing yield while optimizing the use the natural resources like soil and water. Bicky recently won the "“Liveability Challenge” funded by Temasek Foundation, classified as the largest sustainable and innovative award in Asia. She competed among 1000 other applications from over 100 countries, walking away with $1million demonstrating elements of world-leading sustainability, practicality, scalability, and impact-driven solutions.

Stephanie is a trade policy consultant with expertise in digital, services and agriculture trade, regional economic integration in the Asia-Pacific, the WTO, and inclusion in trade for women and small businesses. Formerly a New Zealand trade negotiator, including serving as chief agriculture negotiator during the intensive phase of the WTO Doha Round negotiations, Stephanie provides consulting services to a broad range of clients from the public and private sectors including international institutions such as the OECD and Asian Development Bank, and is a sought-after commentator on trade policy. She is the policy advisor to the New Zealand members of the APEC Business Advisory Council, and is co-founder of Global Trade Insights, a business offering executive education in trade policy around the world. Stephanie sits on the Board of the New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority and the Advisory Board of the Centres for Asia-Pacific Excellence.

Mike has been involved in the renewable / clean energy industry for more than 40 years with extensive international experience, particularly in the geothermal industry. He has been an independent consultant since 2002.
He spent over 25 years with GENZL involved in the geothermal industry, undertaking project developments in Indonesia, Japan, Africa, Latin America and the Mediterranean. He lived in Indonesia and Kenya during the early stages of their geothermal developments and, from 1995 to 2001, was based in the USA running a Rockefeller Foundation supported facility focused on early-stage finance and business development support for clean energy projects in emerging economies.
From 2009 to late 2016, Mike was a non-executive member of the board of Mercury NZ Ltd in New Zealand, a power utility with significant hydro and geothermal generation.

Experienced HR professional with a generalist HR background. Holds leadership role with corresponding accountabilities in all areas of HR. In current role as Head of People & Culture - Asia & Global Buildings, responsible for the Asia People & Culture operational team and ensures that HR strategies maximise business performance in measureable ways. This position partners and influences the Group Director, Asia Country Managing Directors and Country Managers, General Managers, Operations Managers and Section Managers as well as indirectly with other executives and managers across other Beca group of companies.

Specialties: Areas of expertise include strategy, leadership development, performance management, policy and procedures, employment relations, engagement, succession planning, workforce planning, remuneration, restructuring, retention and coaching. Accredited in the use of the Lominger Career Architect competency, StrengthsFinder, CEB/OPQ Personality & Ability Assessments, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator suite of instruments.

Guy Littlefair is an executive university leader with over 20 years’ focused experience in devising and implementing strategies, objectives and policies to tactically navigate complex change and effectively develop and manage the academic and research profiles, as well as the financial and Human Resources, within large and transdisciplinary Faculties and Divisions. Guy has an exceptional 30+ year record in industry, research and academia.

Guy Littlefair is an internationally experienced and skilled higher education senior leader, an accomplished industry professional, and a research active full Professor. Currently at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in New Zealand as the Pro Vice-Chancellor (PVC) International and the Dean of the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies. Previously at Deakin University, he was PVC for Industry and Strategic Partnerships, interim Executive Dean and the Dean of Engineering. Guy is internationally regarded as an authority in the field of advanced manufacturing. With his outstanding industry credentials his focus is a commitment to serving a university that will support business growth and the prosperity and wellbeing of the communities it serves, through an enterprise focussed experience for students to set them apart in the employment market; and a focus on innovative research and development aligned to the needs of industry. His recent work as a public voice on the future of the higher education landscape is noteworthy in considering the value of industry partnerships, university relevance in contemporary society, the concept of inclusive excellence an the future of International / Transnational education.

Huzaifa Mohsinally is a professionally qualified senior business leader with over a decade of experience across a range of industries such as FMCG, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, healthcare and plastics manufacturing. He has experience working on highly complex projects for his customers like Fonterra and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. In his current role as Export Business Manager for Goodman Fielder New Zealand, Huzaifa looks after a multi-million dollar portfolio spanning 11 global markets across South East Asia, the Pacific and the wider APAC region. Huzaifa’s focus is to help Goodman Fielder diversify its dairy exports global footprint and ASEAN is key to that. Huzaifa’s expertise is in creating and transforming teams into high-performing ones that tackle the big and challenging opportunities organisations face. Huzaifa holds an Executive MBA from Massey University, a Bachelor of Engineering Honours from the University of Waikato and a New Zealand Diploma in Engineering from Waikato Institute of Technology.

Toeolesulusulu Professor Damon Salesa is the Vice-Chancellor of Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau – Auckland University of Technology (AUT). He leads a university of over 28,000 students and 4,000 staff – one of the largest universities in New Zealand.

Damon is a prize-winning scholar, specialising in history, society, and politics in New Zealand and the other Pacific Islands. After obtaining his MA with First Class Honours at the University of Auckland, he completed his doctoral studies at University of Oxford, UK. He is the author and editor of many books and academic articles including Island Time: New Zealand’s Pacific Futures and Racial Crossings: Race, Intermarriage and the Victorian British Empire, which won the international Ernest Scot Prize in 2012 and recently published a book titled An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and currently serves on their council.

Previously, he has been Pro Vice-Chancellor Pacific at the University of Auckland, where he was also Co-Head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa (School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies). He worked at the University of Michigan for 10 years, including in roles as Director of the Asian Pacific Islander American Studies Program and as an Associate Professor in the History Department and Program in American Culture.

Damon retains strong connections to many of Auckland’s communities, especially in South Auckland. A passionate teacher and educator, he has been an innovator at the interface between schools and universities and has been an important leader and supporter of the work of schools, in pedagogy, curriculum and governance leadership roles in education, research, and community.

Simon Tucker is Director of Global Sustainability, Stakeholder Affairs and Trade at Fonterra. In this role he leads teams responsible for Fonterra’s global trade strategy, its corporate sustainability, environmental partnerships and community and social investment programmes, the company’s relationships with local and central government in New Zealand and with foreign governments, and Fonterra’s industry partners.

Simon has spent over twelve years in the New Zealand dairy industry including in leadership roles at DairyNZ, the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand and with Fonterra’s US-based business. During his career, Simon has also spent considerable time working for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade with assignments in Tehran, Washington and as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Canada. He also spent several years working in Parliament as adviser to the Minister for Trade.

Grant joined the company in 2014 and has worked hard to champion our diverse range of technology, to meet the expectations of a dynamic international dairy industry. He has a background in dairy farming and has an exceptional understanding of global markets. He knows that products made for New Zealand conditions may not suit other markets.

That is why Grant has worked closely with our research and development team to make sure our product offering matches the expectations and conditions of each of our key global markets. That included making modifications to our milking and plant systems to suit 24-hour farming operations which are extensive in key markets such as US, Russia, China and the UK. A major part of the company’s business growth success has been its ability to act swiftly, to ensure our customers receive a product that is reliable, robust and high performing, no matter where in the world they are. Grant believes it’s this can-do attitude, throughout the company, which saw Waikato Milking Systems win the Auckland/Waikato Supreme Exporter of the Year Award in 2016. Grant draws upon his experience working for an international business for more 25 years, to successfully manage the company’s global sales team, helping them achieve their required results. He lives in New Zealand but manages to move around the globe to spend quality time with his sales team and his dealer network at key times of the year. Developing the company’s dealer network is a top priority and Grant makes the time to interview potential partners for the business in new and emerging markets. He knows that dealers are the life blood of the company and dealer expansion is critical to its business growth.