The Network of Public Sector Communicators

Ali Tocker is Director of Tocker Associates Ltd who specialise in training design, conflict resolution, succession planning, financial management and improving workplace efficiency.

Ali's worked as a change manager and consultant for 15 years and her expertise range from strategic change and team conflict resolution through to business planning, team development, communication skills and individual coaching. Ali has worked with a variety of public sector, local government and private sector clients in all aspects of organisational development.

Guyon Espiner joined TVNZ in 2003 and took over as political editor from Mark Sainsbury in 2006. The role of TVNZ's political editor is to cover politics from the press gallery in parliament and to conduct the political interviews of the day.

Before joining TVNZ, Guyon spent ten years covering politics for a range of publications including Wellington's Evening Post and the Sunday Star Times.

Guyon was born in Christchurch and completed a BA at Canterbury University and a journalism qualification at Wellington Polytechnic. Despite spending the last few years in Television, Guyon is a self confessed fan of the written word and continues to express himself on paper, writing a political column in North & South magazine.

Howell James is Former Permanent Secretary for Government Communication, a position created in 2004, as part of recommendations made by an independent review (the "Phillis Review") of government communications. Howell is responsible for the strategy, coordination and effectiveness of government communication across Whitehall.

Howell's career began in media, first at Capital Radio, before helping to launch TVam, Britain's first commercial breakfast television channel. His other roles have included three years as a Special Adviser at the Cabinet Office, the Department of Employment and the Department of Trade and Industry; as a member of the BBC's Board of Management as Director of Corporate Affairs; Director of Corporate and Government Affairs at Cable & Wireless; and as Political Secretary to former Prime Minister John Major.

In 1997, Howell set up Brown Lloyd James, a Corporate PR company, with some friends before returning to the Cabinet Office in 2004 in his current position.

A career highlight for Howell has been putting the recommendations of the Phillis Review into practice, which saw two strong initiatives delivered: the Government Communication Network (GCN), established in 2005; and Engage, a strategic communication framework which puts the citizen at the centre of government communicators thinking.

Iain Rennie is currently the Deputy State Services Commissioner, a position he has held since February 2007. He will replace the present State Services Commissioner, Dr Mark Prebble who will retire from the Public Service at the end of June.

Iain Rennie has been in the Public Service since 1986. The majority of his career has been spent at The Treasury where he was Deputy Secretary to The Treasury for nine years prior to taking up the position of Deputy State Services Commissioner. He has participated in two secondments to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, as Acting Director for the Policy Advisory Group in 2004, and as an Economic Advisor from 1990 to 1993. He was also seconded to the Office of the Leader of the Opposition as Economic Advisor from 1989 to 1990.

Prior to taking up the SSC appointment he participated in the strategic leadership of the Treasury - providing advice to the Minister of Finance on microeconomic policy and fiscal management issues.

Joseph Peart is currently the programme leader in communication management at AUT University.

Some people refer to Joseph as the "Godfather" of PR in NZ for his role in professional development and education, for which he has twice received the PR Institute's President's Award.

One of Joseph's many accomplishments was setting up the Centre for Social Media. He has also been an industrial journalist, magazine editor, public affairs executive with Fletcher Challenge, and account director with Network PR.

Joseph now concentrates on curriculum development and communication research, including reputation auditing, benchmarking, brand-gap analysis and incremental change management.

Lynne Abbott is Head of Group Internal Communications for the Telecom Group. Lynne leads a team strongly focused on driving engagement, supporting culture change and improving understanding of strategy. With more than 20 years experience in a range of communications fields, Lynne sees the increasing use of social media tools as the biggest ever fundamental change in the communications industry.

Jenny Bridgen is the Strategic Communications Advisor for Postal Services, the largest business unit in New Zealand Post. Trained as a journalist, Jenny started at the Bank of New Zealand as their Publications Manager in 1996. Since then, she's worked overseas, in New Zealand government agencies and in the private sector. Jenny's diverse experience includes media and a focus on internal communications, including newsletter development.

Jeremy Lambert is the Director of Communications at MAF (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry). Jeremy joined MAF in 2005 as their Biosecurity Communications Manager. Since then he has led the development of communications strategies at a programme, group and organisational level.

Whilst his background is mainly in the area of social marketing, he's particularly interested in integrated communications strategy. Prior to joining MAF, Jeremy was working in communications consultancy and, until recently, was the Chair of the trust board for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation.

Jeremy is also a member the government's sustainability communications review board.

Susie Hall is Reputation Manager for the NZ Army, where she's developing a strategic reputation management framework. Trained as a journalist, Susie has worked for over 20 years in media and corporate communications and held a range of senior roles within the public and private sectors. Susie has a keen interest in applying brand and marketing methodologies in the public sector and delivering organisational strategy.

Lindsay Jackson is Director of Powerhouse People which supplies services in executive recruitment and professional contracting across public, private, and not-for-profit organisations.

Lindsay's had extensive experience in the human resources sector including over 20 years experience in management and directorship roles within recruitment consultancies. She specialises in the areas of communications, general management and contracting and has successfully managed many large public and private sector change projects specifically from a staff transfer and recruitment perspective.

Lisa-Marie Richan directs New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's (NZTE's) Strategic Relations team. She works closely with private and public sector stakeholders such as major exporters and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. A former broadcast journalist, press secretary and government communications manager, Lisa-Marie has also worked in communications for companies such as Telecom. She joined NZTE in 2005 from her role as Head of External Affairs, Climate Change (Kyoto Protocol) Office.

Matt Lane has been at the State Services Commission for 2 years, where he is an Online Collaboration Specialist. Matt has completed a bachelor of arts in philosophy at the University of Otago, worked as a video-game tester in Montreal, and runs his own enterprise selling customised t-shirts online.

He's passionately interested in the impact that social media, the internet and technology are increasingly having on communications, traditional working hours, stationary solitary desktop computing, hierarchical chain of command structures and intellectual property.

Michael Webb joined New Zealand Police in 2000, after earlier public sector roles with The Treasury, Ministry of Health and Alcohol Advisory Council. Prior to entering the state services in 1996, Michael worked in legal practice as a solicitor and public law specialist for two high-profile law firms.

Michael's time with New Zealand Police has included managing the Policy Unit in the Office of the Commissioner, and a two-year role establishing a national alcohol and other drug coordination function. In 2005/06, Michael was appointed a Principal Adviser for a 'first principles' review of the Police Act 1958, which led to development of a new Policing Bill which is currently proceeding through its parliamentary phases. In mid 2008, Michael was appointed as Police's National Manager: Organisational Performance.

Mike Munro is a director of Munro Church Communications Ltd, which specialises in government relations, strategic media advice and communications management. Mike's key focus is in the government relations area, where he assists clients in establishing and maintaining contact with government, and provides clients with analysis of political issues relevant to their sectors.

Mike is the former chief press secretary to Prime Minister Helen Clark and has spent ten years in the parliamentary press gallery, giving him an unrivaled understanding of the political establishment.

Paul Rayner has spent the last 20 years building an eclectic CV: change management, operations management, strategic planning, HR, IT, and communications. His Human Resources work includes time as Head of HR Services for Bank of New Zealand and a period consulting at London Business School.

Since 2002 Paul has specialised in internal communications, advising the likes of Westpac and Inland Revenue on internal communications and change management. Through his company Working Words Paul now provides internal communications advice to a range of public sector organisations and corporations.

Ray Smith has worked in the public sector for more than 20 years. In July 2006, he took up the role of Deputy Chief Executive of Child, Youth and Family following the organisation's merger with the Ministry of Social Development. He leads a workforce of more than 2,700 staff who deliver statutory child protection and youth justice services.

Prior to this, Ray held a number of key roles in Work and Income. From 2001, as Deputy Chief Executive, he led the Ministry's implementation of several key initiatives such as Working for Families.

As National Commissioner from 1998 to 2001, Ray was responsible for the successful integration of Income Support and the Employment Service.

Sue MacArthur is a senior communications advisor with Inland Revenue. She was part of the KiwiSaver communications team for almost three years, responsible for the employee strategy and public information campaign. Before that she was part of the Working for Families team. Sue has held a variety of media, public consultation, marketing and team manager roles within the health and financial sectors in New Zealand and the UK. Most recently Sue has been co-ordinating Inland Revenue communications for Budget 2008 and personal income tax changes.

Tina Nixon is a seasoned communicator who has operated her own Wellington based PR consultancy for 7 years. A former Southlander, she trained as journalist and has worked in both print and radio, picking up some awards on the way. She is Ngai Tahu and has been involved in community development as a social worker for Invercargill prison, in public awareness and social marketing campaigns for ACC and more recently, Biosecurity New Zealand.

Tina has also been press secretary for Nick Smith and Georgina te Heu Heu, and is also a published non-fiction short story writer.