Speakers

Sir Bill English was Minister of Finance from October 2008 to December 2016 and Prime Minister of New Zealand in 2017. He held ministerial roles in finance, health, education, housing and revenue since his election to Parliament in 1990. As finance minister he oversaw targets and performance improvement across the public sector and a successful fiscal consolidation.
While in government, Bill English developed Social Investment, a policy innovation for dealing with complex needs of the most vulnerable families and communities. He sponsored development of the IDI, a world leading repository of linked public service data designed for use by social scientists and non-government organisations.

Since leaving politics in 2018, Bill with others founded ImpactLab which measures social return on investment for charities and philanthropy funders. His family own Manawanui, which uses digital tools to support self-direction for people with chronic disabilities. He is also an investor in technology businesses enabling improved social impact. Bill sits on the board of Wesfarmers Ltd, Paul Ramsay Foundation, Todd Corporation and other private companies.

Mara is an Economist and Decision Analyst and holds degrees from Bocconi University in Milan and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research is motivated by a desire to improve decision making in government, with a special interest and extensive expertise in the field of healthcare. Mara is one of the lead developers of the STAR toolkit, a socio-technical approach sponsored by the Health Foundation to improve resource allocation in healthcare organisations.

Mara has worked extensively with managers of the English and the Italian National Health Systems. She has also consulted for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in Ontario (Canada), the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence and the (then) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England, NATO and the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Carl Bakker is an economic and financial consultant with an intimate involvement in New Zealand’s social bonds. He has worked for the New Zealand Treasury for 25 years, managing and leading issues across several social sectors and in commercial areas, and been an independent consultant for the last 15 years.
In 2016 he was asked by the government to lead cross agency work that subsequently delivered two social impact bonds. Following the launch of those bonds in 2017 Carl was asked to chair the financial intermediary for the Reduction in Youth Reoffending in South Auckland social bond, established by the Genesis Youth Trust.
This paper combines his close involvement in the ongoing operation and development of the bond related services with his economic, evaluation and policy expertise.

David grew up in Glasgow, Scotland and has worked in Community Development and Young People’s Services in Glasgow, Belfast, North Tyneside and Newcastle upon Tyne. David was a Team Manager at Newcastle Youth Offending Team for 12 years, where he managed a range of multi-disciplinary services for young people at risk. David specialised in Court Work, Restorative Justice, and Education, Training and Employment support initiatives. Prior to this David worked as a Prevention Manager at North Tyneside Youth Offending Team for 11 years. David has developed a network of pan European partners sharing practice and ideas across a range of criminal justice activities and has directed the academic research partnership between Newcastle Youth Offending Team and Northumbria University. He qualified in the Advanced Diploma in Practice Education and Development (Social Work) in 2003 and has a strong commitment to Social Work education and training, teaching on a number of Criminology, Law and Social Policy modules. David is an Associate Partner of the Centre for Crime and Policing at Northumbria University and a founding Director of The Skill Mill Limited. David is currently Managing Director of The Skill Mill Limited with teams across England and in Tallinn, Estonia. He is also vice Chair of the EU Commission’s Co-operation in Science and Technology Action "Multi-disciplinary innovation for social change”.

Glenn is an analytics and behaviour measurement specialist who holds a PhD in quantitative behavioural psychology and is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society. For more than 20 years, Glenn has worked to understand behaviour through the digital collection of behavioural data, distilling practical, meaningful insights from a variety of data sets.

Glenn also has a background in technology. He founded and led an online psychometric assessment provider that offers recruitment solutions internationally. Earlier, he worked with Microsoft in London for over five years evaluating machine learning outcomes in the context of online search (Bing). Technically, Glenn is experienced with very large datasets, and is comfortable using a range of analysis tools to deliver robust, meaningful insights and solutions.

In an academic context, Glenn has lectured in postgraduate-level research methods and statistics, e-business, and behavioural psychology.

Glenn’s work lies at the confluence of his interests in psychology, technology, and data science.

Ko Manaia tōku maunga
Ko Whāngarei Terenga paraoa tōku moana
Ko Ngatoki mata whāorua tōku waka
Ko Ngapuhi, Ngatiwhatua Kaipara, Ngatiwai tōku iwi (my Iwi affiliation)
Ko Patuharakeke tōku hāpu
Ko Takahiwai tōku marae
Ko Rangiora tōku whare
No Orakei ahau
Ko Rob Woodley tōku ingoa
No reira tena koutou tena koutou tena tatou katoa

After 28 years of experience in the NZ Police (rank of Sergeant), with 22 years of dedicated service as the Founder of the Genesis Youth Trust, Rob's leadership journey has included growing Genesis Youth Trust from one social worker to over forty multi-disciplined staff who rehabilitate youth offenders across South and East Auckland. The Trust have worked with over 4000 rangatahi (young people) and their whanau(families) since the year 2000, with an average of 60% of rangatahi not re-offending post our programme. On behalf of the Genesis team, Rob received an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to Youth and NZ Police in 2015 as a result of this important mahi (work).

In 2021 Rob completed a Masters in Advanced Leadership Practice at Massey University (with distinction). In October 2022 he became General Manager of the new Blues Charitable Trust (based at Blues Rugby HQ). This trust utilises High Performance Sports and the notion of Leadership to empower young emerging leaders to make good choices for great life outcomes. Rob is leading the start-up phase of this new charitable trust, focussing on designing and delivering a Blues Youth Leadership programmes to over 300 emerging leaders annually, utilising the Blues players, staff and alumni to share their experiences and life lessons. He has also loved coaching over 30 sporting teams and a leading professional working Covers Band over 25 years.

Anne-Maree O’Connor is Head of Sustainable Investment at the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZ Super Fund). She is responsible for the development and oversight of the Guardians’ Sustainable Finance Strategy which includes integrating environmental, social and governance considerations across the NZ Super Fund’s investments. Anne-Maree was a Commissioner on the Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (Liechtenstein Initiative) supported by the UN during its mandate. She was a member of the NZ Sustainable Finance Forum and represents NZSF on the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund initiative on climate change. Anne-Maree is a past board member of the RI Association Australasia and a recipient of the Women of Influence 2017 award for Board and Management.

Anne-Maree has over 20 years of RI experience in senior roles including Managing Director of CoreRatings and Associate Director RI at Aviva’s Morley Fund Management.