Speakers

Political

Barry Soper

He's been in Parliament longer than all of them so he's earned the right to be irreverent! Barry has been a journalist for nearly 50 years, with over 30 of them spent in the Parliamentary Press Gallery, making him the longest serving member of the gallery and the country’s most experienced political broadcast journalist. 

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Guyon Espiner

Guyon is a very experienced interviewer and facilitator and confident in a live environment. He has interviewed subjects from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, Economist and Climate Change Expert Lord Nicholas Stern, Australian Foreign Minister Steven Smith, India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, New Zealand Cabinet Ministers, the heads of the Reserve Bank and Treasury and New Zealand business leaders. He has worked on both the award winning Q+A (Best Current Affairs show at the Qantas Media Award in 2009) and Agenda and has extensive experience in print media both in NZ and overseas.

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Linda Clark

Linda Clark was one of New Zealand’s most influential journalists and interviewers when in 2006 she retired from Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon programme to take up studying for a law degree. A long time political editor, she is still in demand as a political commentator. These days she works at one of Wellington’s largest public law firms. Her clients include some of the country's biggest corporates and state owned enterprises.

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Phil O'Reilly

He is Chair of the Board of Business at OECD, based in Paris, which is the representative of businesses in OECD member states. Until recently he was a member of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation based in Geneva and a member of the APEC Business Advisory Council. He is involved in the work of the B20 - advising G20 leaders. 

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Rt. Hon Dame Jenny Shipley DCNZ

Dame Jenny Shipley retired from NZ politics in 2002 and returned to the private sector while still retaining her intense interest in the development of leaders in NZ and globally. She is an Independent Director of a number of companies in NZ and offshore. 

Sam Johnson

He has lived his life in the public eye and built a career doing service to others. His relentless energy to mobilise people around ideas has a magic ability in building movements that matter! Farm boy turned social entrepreneur, Sam’s kaupapa is using the power of the collective to overcome the bureaucratic - shifting our belief system about what is possible.

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Duncan Garner

Prior to this he co-hosted a number of political and news shows on TV3, and was a 3News political reporter and editor for over 10 years.

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Lance Burdett

With over 20 years of policing experience, 13 of those as a crisis negotiator, Lance combines advanced communication techniques, safety awareness, and personal resilience support practices for everyday use to keep ourselves safe.

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Michael Laws

Michael Laws has had a varied career as an MP, a mayor, a radio host, an author of three books and a columnist. Sometimes controversial, always honest - Michael calls it as he sees it. 

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