Chair – Productivity Commission Te Kōmihana Whai Hua o Aotearoa.

Ganesh is a first-generation New Zealander, born, bred, and educated in Te Whanganui a Tara. His interest in economics originally emanated from his love of numbers, which in turn arose out of his passion for cricket.

Ganesh is the current Chair of the Productivity Commission Te Kōmihana Whai Hua o Aotearoa. He was appointed to this role in December 2020 following 22 years as a Senior Economist at the consultancy Business and Economics Research Limited (BERL).

Prior to BERL, Ganesh acted as primary caregiver to his pre-school children while also employed as part-time lecturer at Victoria University.  Before children, Ganesh managed to explore some parts of the world – including working in England as a researcher in the House of Commons gaining experience with IMF and OECD economic models.  On his way home to Aotearoa he spent several months visiting family and ancestral lands across India.

Ganesh believes economics is fundamentally about people and their communities, and is best reflected in our collective role as kaitiaki o taonga.

Dougal’s experience as both a psychologist and a people leader informs his commitment to enhancing personal and organisational wellbeing.

Dougal has been working as a clinical psychologist for over 20 years and is the CEO of Umbrella Wellbeing. Dougal’s work providing psychological support to workplaces and employees has seen him assist an array of organisations, including government departments, private companies and the Sir John Kirwan Foundation. This work has taken him around the country and around the world, providing help to everyone from stressed-out bureaucrats in Wellington, to victims of car-jackings, to people living in a constant state of fear due to impending missile attacks.

Dougal has a passion for making psychology more accessible to the general public and has worked with the media in print, radio, and TV. His skill at translating expert psychological knowledge into accessible learning experiences contributes to Dougal’s training expertise, and his ability to support individual clients to make effective changes.

Dougal is also an Adjunct Teaching Fellow at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington in the School of Psychology clinical psychology training programme, where he contributes to the training of the next generation of clinical psychologists.

Previously, Dougal has worked in public mental health services providing psychological support to children, parents, and families. He also managed a large and diverse team through a time of significant growth and change in the business. He is a highly respected leader who brings this deep understanding of people to his facilitation, and now to his role as Umbrella CEO.

“Excellent facilitation. Very entertaining. Just the right tone for a serious subject.”

Mike Clark – Think Right

Mike Clark is an exceptional trainer.  Having experienced, worked in and with a huge range of business roles and focuses, Mike has an intuitive understanding for what needs doing in a business to move it forward.  His love of people and his perceptive ability to enable them to see what they can do to lift their game, gives him a definitive edge when training.

Mike is always working to expand his knowledge and experience and has an absolute love of learning. When working with people and businesses, his diverse experience and relentless focus on taking action has given him opportunity to present around the world. With an emphasis on being intentional towards empowering people to become exceptional, the programmes Mike has written and presented have connected across industries, age groups, roles and cultures.

Business people of all ages and roles relate well to Mike’s underlying message of resilience and action, responding positively to his recommendations and learning from experience that has them moving forward refocused, more effective and smarter.

Make it a great day

The PR Company

Daniel is a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of NZ and the Strategic Director at The PR Company. He is a vastly experienced public relations and marcomms practitioner whose insights are grounded in over 40 years of experience supporting clients to define their brand, tell their story and market themselves effectively.