Speakers
Speakers
We we lucky enough to have had the below speakers at our 2011 event. Information on 2012 speakers will be placed up here as soon as they are confirmed.
Rt. Hon. John Key
Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism John Key graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Canterbury University. He launched his investment banking career in New Zealand in the mid-1980s, and went on to work in Singapore, London, and Sydney for Merrill Lynch, becoming head of global foreign exchange and European bond and derivative trading. In 1999 Mr Key was invited to join the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In 2001, Mr Key returned to New Zealand. He was elected MP for Helensville in 2002, becoming National Party Leader in November 2006, and then Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism following the 2008 General Election.
Paul Richardson
Vice President – Accor, NZ & Fiji
Paul holds a Business degree and has more than 25 years experience in the hospitality and travel industry. Ten of these years were with Starwood Hotels where he held General Manager positions throughout the Asia Pacific region. In 2005 Paul joined Accor and in 2007 took up the position of Vice President for New Zealand and Fiji. During his time Accor has enjoyed extensive growth to become the largest hotel operator in the country. Paul currently oversees the operation of 35 hotels across a portfolio of nine brands – Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure, Ibis, All Seasons and Formule1 – as well as driving Accor's future developments in both countries. He is a Director of the New Zealand Hotel Council, the Tourism Industry Association, the Tainui Auckland Airport Hotel and a member of the New Zealand Tourism Board.
Khoon Goh
Head of Market Economics and Strategy – ANZ
Khoon has worked as an economist in various roles for over a decade, starting off in a private sector consulting firm in Auckland, and then moving to the public sector where he worked at both the New Zealand Treasury and the Reserve Bank. At the Treasury, he was the Manager of their Macroeconomic Forecasting team, and served as an Economic Advisor at the Reserve Bank. He returned to "the dark side", joining ANZ in 2006 as a Senior Economist. He was made Head of Market Economics and Strategy in July 2010. At ANZ, Khoon produces markets based economic research for the dealing room and bank clients, ranging from near term financial market developments to medium term economic issues. A large part of his time is spent discussing the global and domestic economic environment with clients and the implications of these on their businesses. Khoon has a Master of Commerce (Hons) degree from Auckland University.
Chris Mouat
Head of Asian Relationships – ANZ
Chris is responsible for coordinating the implementation of Institutional and Commercial New Zealand's Asian strategy. He is a central New Zealand point of contact for Relationship Managers requiring assistance with Asia related business and clients, helping ensure that we assist customers in their business flows between Asia and New Zealand. Chris also works closely with ANZ colleagues in ANZ Asia, ensuring better coordination in the execution of ANZ's super regional strategy, and with Asian companies looking to do business in China. Additionally Chris maintains close links with NZ government, semi-government and other groups working to further develop NZ's international trading capability and growth. Chris has spent most of his 20 year career in ANZ in the Asian region. Originally from Wellington, Chris joined the Bank in Melbourne in the Markets division following which he worked in Mumbai with ANZ Grindlays, in Taiwan as CEO of ANZ Taiwan, and in Melbourne in ANZ Trade Finance. From 2005 to end-2009 Chris was in Mainland China (Tianjin and Shanghai) where he worked with ANZ's two partner banks, Bank of Tianjin and Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank. He speaks fluent Mandarin. Chris' role reinforces the strengths ANZ has in supporting customers in Asia, which is one of our key points of difference from the other domestic banks operating in New Zealand, building on our product leadership and the market insights that we achieve through our scale and focus.
Kevin Bowler
CEO – Tourism New Zealand
Kevin Bowler joined Tourism New Zealand as Chief Executive in early 2010. He has marketing and business leadership experience spanning fast moving consumer goods, technology and media brands in New Zealand and overseas.
Most recently Kevin was CEO for Yahoo!Xtra, a joint venture between Yahoo!7 and Telecom. Under Kevin's leadership Yahoo!Xtra quickly became New Zealand's largest portal and in August 2009 overtook TradeMe to become New Zealand's most popular web homepage. Kevin has taken a leadership role in the digital communications industry chairing the NZ Interactive Advertising Bureau since 2008.
Before Yahoo!Xtra, Kevin spent several years with Telecom where he drove the marketing-led resurgence in mobile telecommunications with initiatives like T3G and $10txt, before moving on to lead marketing across Telecom's whole consumer business.
Kevin has worked in marketing and general management both in New Zealand with Unilever and NZ Dairy Foods, and in the UK with RHM Foods. He also has experience in advertising account management, including supporting Air New Zealand while at HDM Mattingly and Cadbury during his time with DDB.
Christopher Hur
Director – Pacifica Partners/Host Hotels
Christopher Hur is a Director at Pacifica Partners responsible for providing overall acquisitions and execution support to the platform. Based in Singapore, Pacifica Partners is a hotel investment fund established by an affiliate of GIC Real Estate and Host Hotels & Resorts. Previously, Christopher worked at Lehman Brothers in their investment banking and real estate private equity divisions in New York and Hong Kong. In a previous role, he oversaw a portfolio of small businesses including commercial and residential real estate for a non-profit institution. Christopher holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University
Norm Thompson
Deputy CEO – Air New Zealand
Norm Thompson joined Air New Zealand in 1968. He currently holds the role of Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Air New Zealand and is the Chairman of the Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand, the Air New Zealand Environment Trust, Altitude, the New Zealand Tourism Exchange and TAE. He is also a board member of UNICEF New Zealand.
Some of the key roles Norm has held at Air New Zealand prior to be being appointed to his current role include Group General Manager Short Haul Airlines (accountability for Domestic, Tasman and Pacific operations), Group General Manager Marketing, Network and Sales, Regional General Manager The Americas and Regional General Manager New Zealand and Pacific Islands.
Norm's recent executive education includes a business management programme at Stamford University in the United States and accreditation with the New Zealand Institute of Directors.
Craig Collins
CEO Australasia – Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels
Between 1994 and 2000, Craig was involved in numerous hotel, resort and golf course transactions throughout Australia. Many sales involved sourcing capital both locally and internationally. In 2000 he joined boutique Investment Bank Grant Samuel in Sydney.
In 2001, Craig was appointed Senior Vice President Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels Asia and subsequently promoted to Executive Vice President in 2004. Since relocating back to Australia Craig has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer Australasia. Over a seven year period based in Singapore Craig successfully concluded more than 20 city centre and resort hotel transactions in Singapore, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Vietnam. During this time he also built personal relationships with many high profile Asian investors and is now focussed on leveraging these relationships and importing Asian capital into Australia.
Since re-locating to Sydney in 2008 Craig has facilitated four of Australia's largest tourism real estate transactions as well as overseeing numerous other hotel and resort sales undertaken by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.