Council Profiles
Appointed by the Minister of Education
Vice-Chancellor
Elected by the Academic Staff
Elected by the General Staff
Elected by student body
Appointed after consultation with Business New Zealand
Appointed after consultation with the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
Elected by the Court of Convocation
Co-opted by the University Council
Officers of Council
The Officers of the Council are the Chancellor, the Pro-Chancellor (Deputy Chair), the Chair of the Finance Committee and the Vice-Chancellor.
Chancellor
The Chancellor is elected annually by the Council members.
Pro-Chancellor
The Pro-Chancellor is elected annually by the Council members.
Vice-Chancellor / Chief Executive
| Pat Walsh, MA Cant, PhD Minn Current Term of Office 2010 - 2013 Appointed by the University Council |
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| Previous Term(s) 2005-2009 |
Convenor, Finance Committee
| Roger N Taylor MNZM BA, MCom Cant Current Term of Office January 2013 - December 2016 Co-opted by the University Council |
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| Previous Term(s) 2011-2012 Co-opted by the University Council |
Council Member Profiles
The Constitution of Council 2012, originally promulgated in the University of Victoria notice 1990 pursuant to section 168 of the Education Amendment Act 1990, [The New Zealand Gazette, Issue No. 159 of 13 September 1990) was amended by the Minister of Tertiary Education [The New Zealand Gazette, Issue No. 61 of 3 June 2010].
In accordance with the current Constitution, membership of the Council as at February 2012 is as follows:
a) Appointed by the Minister of Education
| David Chamberlain, BEc Macquarie, FIAA, FNZSA, MInstD Current Term of Office 1 June 2009 - 31 May 2013 |
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| Previous Term(s) None |
David Chamberlain is currently Head of Bancassurance at Kiwibank. Prior to this position he worked as an independent consulting actuary for over 10 years and has over 20 years commercial experience in the financial services sector.
David is a Director of the New Zealand Blood Service, a Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and a member of the Institute of Directors. He has a Bachelor of Economics from Macquarie University in Sydney and has previously assisted the Institute of Actuaries of Australia with its education process as a volunteer.
| Victoria Heine, LLM Chic, BSc, LLB (Hons) Current Term of Office 20 March 2012 - 5 March 2016 |
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| Previous Term(s) None |
Ms Heine is a partner at the Wellington branch of Chapman Tripp. She is a lawyer with background in public and administrative law, and regulatory litigation and enforcement. Ms Heine is a graduate of Victoria University of Wellington where she completed degrees in law and biochemistry. In 1996 she won a Fulbright Scholarship to study law and economics at the University of Chicago.
| John Selby, BCom Otago Current Term of Office 20 March 2012 - 5 March 2016 |
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| Previous Term(s) None |
Mr Selby is a chartered accountant who recently retired from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and has experience working with audit and risk committees, boards and senior executives. Mr Selby has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Auckland, is a chartered accountant and a member of the Institute of Directors.
b) The Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington
Appointed by the University Council.
| Pat Walsh, MA Cant, PhD Minn Current Term of Office 2010 - 2013 |
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| Previous Term(s) 2005-2009 Vice-Chancellor |
Pat Walsh was appointed a Lecturer in Industrial Relations at Victoria in 1981. Since then, he has served as Associate Dean in the Faculty of Commerce and Administration, Head of the Victoria Management School and Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Commerce and Administration, and Pro Vice-Chancellor Research. He was appointed Professor of Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations in 1999 and was for many years leader of a major Foundation for Research, Science and Technology project analysing industrial relations in New Zealand. He is the author of numerous articles and several books. In 2011 he was appointed as Chair of Universities New Zealand.
Pat was first appointed Vice-Chancellor in 2005.
c) Elected by the Academic Staff
| Megan Clark, MSc Current Term of Office 2011 - 2014 |
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| Previous Term(s) None |
Associate Professor Megan Clark was a student at Victoria University in the late 1960s graduating with a BSc in Mathematics. She began her career secondary teaching at Wellington Girls' College. In 1970 she returned to Victoria University for an Honours degree and at the end of that year was appointed as a Junior Lecturer in the Mathematics Department. She completed an MSc during her first few years of employment at VUW and has remained on the academic staff here for the whole of the rest of her career apart from a year overseas in 1980 at the end of which she was re-appointed by VUW.
She is the author of numerous articles, book chapters and one textbook. Her specialist academic area is mathematics education focussing on issues around diversity and more recently, transition across educational boundaries in mathematics. In 1991 she was appointed as the New Zealand representative on the International Commission for Mathematical Instruction for 4 years and from 1990-1991 she was the Minister of Education's representative on the NZEI Ethics Committee while from 1991 to 1992 she was appointed to the Minister of Education's Policy Advisory Group for Mathematics. In 1993 she was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Medal for services to Education and in 1994 she received a Royal Society Medal for services to Science Education. In 2000 she was a British Council visitor to the UK.
| Charles Daugherty, ONZM, FRSNZ, AB Middlebury, PhD Montana Current Term of Office 2013-2016 |
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Previous Term(s) |
Charles Daugherty has been a member of VUW academic staff since 1982 and is presently Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Professor of Ecology. He has previously served as Acting Dean of Science and Head of the School of Biological Sciences. He has held academic appointments at Pennsylvania State University, the University of Illinois, Northern Michigan University, and the University of Montana.
Professor Daugherty leads VUW’s contribution to the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution. His research interests focus on the ecology, genetics, and conservation of indigenous New Zealand animals. He is presently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, and he has been a member of the Marsden Council, the International Advisory Board of the World Congress of Herpetology, and the Board of Trustees of WWF-NZ.
Professor of Religious Studies at Victoria University since 1994. Professor Morris is Programme Director of Religious Studies and the author and editor of books on the bible, religion and politics, religion in Malaysia and New Zealand, religion, modernity and post-modernity, New Zealand spiritual poetry, religion and the environment, tradition in the contemporary world, and an encyclopaedia of religion. He has been awarded a Montana prize, short-listed for another and the 2007 International Council of Christians and Jews Peace Through Dialogue Gold Medal for his contributions of national and international interfaith understanding.
Professor Morris has been active at Victoria on school, faculty, university and union committees and was the Convener of the review panel for the Review of Social Work. He is currently chair of the board of a New Zealand charity, the co-president of the New Zealand Council of Christians and Jews, and the author of the recent Statement of Religious Diversity in New Zealand.
Prior to joining Victoria University, Professor Morris was at Lancaster University from 1980-1984. He has held visiting professorships of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Boston University, and the University of Queensland. His research areas are in religion and politics, religion and morality, theories of religion, contemporary Judaism and the contemporary challenges to religion.
d) Elected by the General Staff
| Dr Theresa Sawicka Current Term of Office May 2013 - December 2014 |
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| Previous Term(s) None |
Dr Theresa Sawicka has had a long association with Victoria. In the early 1970s, she graduated with a BA Honours degree in Anthropology. She went on to study at the University of Auckland for a PhD on the ‘Polish Children’ who were invited to New Zealand in 1944 by Prime Minister, Peter Fraser. She maintains a close connection with the Polish community in Wellington.
Her academic and administrative career has encompassed a varied portfolio of roles including teaching, research and management. Currently, she has two roles, one as the Manager of the Faculty of Graduate Research (FGR) and another as Manager in the Research Office where she is charged with a wide range of research management responsibilities supporting the University’s research strategy, including the PBRF evaluation of staff research. The FGR is Victoria's Grad School and as manager she is responsible for oversight of the quality of the PhD. Together with the FGR Board, she and her team create policy and provide a professional development programme that support PhD candidates and their supervisors at Victoria.
Theresa is also a qualified Feldenkrais practitioner, a member of the Feldenkrais Guild executive in NZ and a member of the Australian Training and Accreditation Board
e) Elected by the student body
| David Alsop Current Term of Office: 2013 |
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| Previous Term(s) None |
David Alsop is currently completing a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Commercial Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, International Relations and Film. He is also working towards an Honours degree in Political Science.
Since 2010 David has been a tutor in the School of Economics and Finance. He is currently the Duty/Head Tutor in first-year Economics papers, and has also tutored first- and second-year Finance papers. David has previously worked in the Select Committee Office as a member of the Meeting Support team.
f) Appointed after consultation with the NZ Council of Trade Unions
| Brenda Pilott BA Hons Essex, Dip London Convenor, Vice Chancellor's Performance Review Committee Current Term of Office May 2012 - April 2016 |
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| Previous Term(s) May 2008 - April 2012 |
Brenda Pilott is National Secretary of the Public Service Association, New Zealand’s largest trade union. Prior to joining the PSA in 2004, she was a public servant for 11 years, working mainly in social policy, including 5 years as General Manager Policy at the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services. She was Women’s Refuge national coordinator for four years. A qualified librarian, Brenda Pilott worked in libraries in local government in New Zealand and the UK, and at the Parliamentary Library.
She has a range of governance experience, including being a current member of the management board of the Institute of Public Administration New Zealand; and was a Board member of the Local Government Industry Training Organisation, 2005-7. She was appointed as a director of Learning State Ltd, the public sector industry training organisation, in 2010. Brenda Pilott was born and educated in England and emigrated to New Zealand in 1980.
g) Appointed after consultation with Business NZ
Charles Finny has been with the public policy firm Saunders Unsworth since 1 July 2010. He was CEO of the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce from January 2005 to June 2010. Prior to that, he had 22 years experience in international trade, economics and diplomacy having served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Prime Minister's Department. He has worked in Singapore, Beijing and Taipei. Charles Chairs Education New Zealand and is on the Boards of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, the New Zealand Film Commission, and Kawarau Estate Limited.
Charles part owns a wine company Kawarau Estate which exports wine to Australia, US, UK, Canada, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea.
h) Elected by the Court of Convocation
| CHANCELLOR, Ian D McKinnon, QSO, JP, BCom, DipEd Current Term of Office 2011 - 2014 |
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| Previous Term(s) 2003-2006 Elected by the Court of Convocation 2007-2010 Elected by the Court of Convocation 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Pro-Chancellor 2011, 2012 Chancellor |
Ian McKinnon was a student at VUW in the 1960s, graduating with a BCom in Economics. He also served on the Students’ Association Executive, becoming Men’s Vice-President in 1966.
Mr McKinnon’s career was first in the independent school sector. He taught at King’s College in Auckland, where he was also a boarding housemaster, and then at Eton College in the UK, where he subsequently returned as Lower Master, cf Deputy Headmaster, in 1988. He was Headmaster of Wanganui Collegiate School from 1980 – 1988 and Scots College, 1992 – 2002, in today’s terms being also CEO at both schools. During his time in the school sector he served on various government committees and also on both the Executive of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools, of which he was President 1998 – 2000, and the Executive of the Independent Schools Council.
Following his time as a Head, he set up an Education Consultancy advising schools. In addition he was Chair of the Wellington College of Education for two years, in the period leading to its merger with the University in January 2005, and Chair of The Correspondence School for three years during its restructure.
Further, he has served and continues to serve on various other bodies, including for a number of years the Waitangi (now Link) Foundation for UK – NZ relations. For his work in the UK on the NZ 1990 Commemorations he was awarded the NZ 1990 Commemoration Medal. He received the QSO in 1991 for services to NZ in the UK and in 1992 was made a Freeman of the City of London. In 2005 he became a Distinguished Alumnus of Auckland University. He is a Justice of the Peace.
Mr McKinnon has been a Wellington City Councillor since 2004 and became Deputy Mayor in 2007.
| Helen Sutch, MPhil Oxf, MA Convenor, Governance Commitee Current Term of Office 2011 - 2014 |
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| Previous Term(s) 2008-2010 Co-opted by the Council 2010, 2011, 2012 Pro-Chancellor |
Helen Sutch was a student at Victoria from 1963-67, member of the VUWSA Executive 1963-64, NZUSA Vice-President 1965-66, and represented Victoria at women’s hockey 1963-66. She was active in the Drama Club and Committee on Vietnam, and organised a teach-in on Vietnam at VUW in 1966. She obtained from Victoria an MA with first class honours, received an MPhil in Economics at Oxford in 1970, and returned to VUW in 1971-72 to lecture in Economics.
Her professional grounding is as a public economist with a strong interest in social and poverty issues. After working in the UK Government Economic Service on policy and research on urban poverty, Ms Sutch joined the NZ Treasury in the mid-1970s, and then worked at the OECD from 1981-85. She returned to become economic adviser to the Prime Minister in late 1985, and later Director of Policy and Research and Chief Labour Market Adviser in the Labour Department, where her team contributed analysis on Treaty, immigration, pay equity and other issues for the Royal Commission on Social Policy.
In 1989 she took the Advanced Management (CEO) Program at the Harvard Business School before joining the World Bank (1989-2007), first in francophone Africa, and then in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, where she contributed to a wide range of macro-fiscal and institutional reforms and was also a member of the Bank’s Board on Women in Development. After three years in Warsaw working on governance issues in Poland and the Baltics she became manager in 2000 for Public Sector Governance strategy, programs and knowledge management Bank-wide, before moving to the East Asia and Pacific region in late 2003. Ms Sutch returned to Wellington in 2004 where she now works on her own account, with a continuing involvement in PNG and East Timor.
| Peter Walls, ONZM, DPhil Oxf, BMus MA (Hons) Well Current Term of 2013-2016 |
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| Previous Term(s) None |
Peter taught for many years at Victoria University, first in the English Department and then for 24 years in the School of Music. He has been chairing the Tertiary Education Commission’s Creative and Performing Arts panel in the PBRF exercise since its inception, and was a member of the equivalent panel in the UK’s Research Assessment Exercise (2008). As Chief Executive of the NZSO for nearly a decade, Peter has worked productively with other arts organizations, with government and with the business community. Peter has also held posts as Deputy Chair of the NZSO, member of the NZ Institute of Directors and member of the Health Sponsorship Council.
Rosemary Barrington was a tutor in the Sociology Department at VUW from 1969 - 1970, and again from 1974-76. From 1980-84 she was a research fellow at the Institute of Criminology VUW.
In 1986-89 Ms Barrington was Director of the Government Research Unit at Parliament and then in 1989 went into the Prime Minister’s Department.
In 1989-92 Ms Barrington moved to the Hutt City Council, becoming Group Manager Community Services. She was then appointed General Manager Culture and Recreation at the Wellington City Council from 1992-96. From 1996 to 2000, she held the position of Chief Executive Officer for the Horowhenua District Council.
Until recently, Ms Barrington was a senior policy analyst in the office of the Hon Pete Hodgson. She is now a consultant in local government and transport.
Rosemary was chair of the Finance Committee in 2001.
i) Co-opted by the University Council
| Roger N Taylor, MNZM, BA, MCom (Cant) Convenor, Finance Committee Current Term of Office February 2011 - January 2013 |
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| Previous Term(s) None |
Roger Taylor is a former financial consulting partner with Ernst and Young. He has specialised in providing financial advice and litigation support on price setting and valuations for infrastructural businesses and on behalf of the government. He has been an advisor to a number of government departments and agencies.
Roger is a director of a number of companies in the electricity and port sectors. He has also been a board member of a wide range of public sector organisations including The Open Polytechnic, the Wellington College of Education, Te Kura the Correspondence school as well as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company.
Graeme Mitchell is a chartered accountant, recently retired from Deloitte, Wellington where he was an Audit and Assurance Partner for over 28 years. He was responsible for leading the audits of large entities in the public and private sectors, covering a wide range of business activities.
Graeme completed his tertiary education in economics at Stirling University, Scotland, and has lived in Wellington for 32 years.
He is Honorary Consul General for Norway, a director of Barnardos New Zealand, a Trustee of the Karori Sanctuary Trust, and a board member of the National provident Fund and the Accounting Standards Review Board. Graeme is also Chair of the audit committees of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Science and Innovation, and a board member of the External Reporting Board and the NZ Audit and Assurance Standards Board.