Who we are

Kerry Prendergast - Chair

Kerry Prendergast is the former Mayor of Wellington and former Vice-President of Local Government New Zealand and holds an MBA from Victoria University.

Kerry is currently Chair of the Environmental Protection Authority, Tourism New Zealand, and New Zealand Film Commission. 

She is a Director of Oceania Healthcare, Compass Health PHO and NZ China Council, and a Trustee of the New Zealand Community Trust, National Army Museum, the Wellington Free Ambulance Board and the Victoria Foundation.  Kerry is also a Board member of the Phoenix Football Club and the NZ-US Council Advisory Board. She is a member of the  New Zealand Conservation Authority, a shareholder of IKE GPS and Patron of Mary Potter Hospice

Kerry was awarded a CNZM in 2011 for her services to local government, and is a distinguished Alumni of Victoria University.  In July 2016 Kerry was also awarded a Lifetime Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to Local Government.

Richard Leggat - Deputy Chair

Richard has a varied background across business, marketing and e-commerce. He is now a full-time director.

Richard is the chairman of NZ Cycle Trail Inc, the entity charged with ensuring the success and sustainability of the government's national cycle trail initiative. He is also on the boards of Cycling NZ, Snow Sports New Zealand, New Zealand Post and Education New Zealand and Panuku Development Auckland.

Richard, who was first appointed to the New Zealand Tourism Board on 1 February 2010, was reappointed for a third term that expires on 10 April 2018 and was appointed Deputy Chair in December 2013.

Raewyn Idoine

Raewyn is currently a Director of the New Zealand Blood Service, Chair of the Southern Regional Health and Disability Ethics Committee and Advisor Marketing and Vocational Strategy for Lincoln University.  She has significant experience at a senior level in the education, tourism and health sectors, having been Independent Chair of the Local Government Industry Training Organisation, Stakeholder Engagement Manager for the Tertiary Education Commission and a board member of Learning State (the state sector industry training organisation).

Involved in a number of successful business start-ups, Raewyn established the Sir George Seymour National College of Tourism and Travel, with 6 campus, over 1000 students per year and an impressive 94% student employment rate. She has won both the New Zealand Tourism Award and the TVNZ Marketing Award.

Raewyn was appointed to the board for a three year term commencing in August 2015.

Mike O'Donnell 

Mike "MOD" O'Donnell is Chief Commercial Officer of Work.

He is also a director of Radio NZ, online global music company Serato, software company Raygun, online booking company Timely and IP Marketing Agency G2G Knowhow. He is also advisor to Ruapehu Alpine Lifts Limited. MOD is a weekly business columnist for Fairfax Media. He was previously the chairman of Positively Wellington Tourism and has managed several online travel businesses.

MOD was re-appointed to the New Zealand Tourism Board on 16 December 2016 for another three-year term ending 15 December 2019.

Chris Parkin

Wellington businessman and patron of the arts, Chris Parkin, is the owner of New Zealand's only boutique art hotel, Museum Art Hotel in Wellington. Formerly an investment banker, Chris was a Wellington City Councillor for nine years before retiring in 2004.

Chris is Chairman of Wellington Venues Ltd and Chairman of Te Whaia Services. In the 2011 Queen’s Birthday honours list he was awarded a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the arts and business.

Chris was appointed to the New Zealand Tourism Board in December 2013 and was appointed for a second term from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018.

Jan Hunt

Jan is a director at Skyline Enterprises and Jumping New Zealand. Previously she was a Board member of the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce and worked as a General Manager at Millbrook Resort, Sky City Hotel & Convention Centre, and Millennium Queenstown.

Jan was appointed to the New Zealand Tourism Board in June 2017.

John Thorburn

John is Chief Executive of InterCity Group and was previously the Chief Executive of Ngai Tahu Tourism. John is also Director of Intercity Group Australia Pty Limited. He has held senior positions in a range of industries, including manufacturing, marketing and telecommunications. John has also held previous board positions with the New Zealand Tourism Industry Aotearoa and the New Zealand Conservation Authority.

John was appointed to the New Zealand Tourism Board on August 2015 for a three-year term.

Jamie Tuuta

Jamie is the Māori Trustee and CEO of Te Tumu Paeroa. Te Tumu Paeroa protects and enhances Maori land and assets, administering 100,000 hectares of land throughout the country and managing a variety of investment interests.

He has held a range of governance positions in the following sectors: iwi development, agribusiness, fishing, investment, health, Māori development, tourism and education. He is currently a director of Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd, Wools of New Zealand and Taranaki Investment Management Ltd. He is also the Chair of Te Ohu Kaimoana Trustee Ltd.

Jamie is also a recipient of the 2010 Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leadership Award and in 2016 received the Young Māori Business Leader Award at the Aotearoa NZ Māori Business Leaders Awards. 

Jamie was first appointed to the New Zealand Tourism Board in March 2013 and was reappointed for a second term that ends in August 2018.

Leah McDonald

Leah McDonald is Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive and Board Secretary.

Email Leah in the first instance to get in touch with any of Tourism New Zealand's Board members.

Stephen England-Hall, Chief Executive 

Stephen joined Tourism New Zealand as Chief Executive on 3 April 2017. Before joining Tourism New Zealand Stephen was Chief Executive Officer of Loyalty New Zealand, the company behind New Zealand’s customer loyalty and data coalition, Fly Buys, and the analytics business LAB360.

Stephen has extensive international experience working as a senior executive of world leading digital marketing, data and technology companies in the UK and North America.

Stephen is also a Board member of the New Zealand China Council Board and the Tourism Industry Association and The New Zealand Story. As the Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive Stephen also sits on the New Zealand Screen Production Grant Panel and Significant Economic Benefits Verification Panel.

Stephen was a trustee and Board member of New Zealand data charity Figure NZ, a founding member of the New Zealand Data Futures think tank, a member of the Data Futures Partnership and served as a member of several Cambridge University Advisory Boards.

Stephen holds an MBA from Cambridge University.

René de Monchy, Director of Trade, PR and Major Events

René de Monchy joined Tourism New Zealand in August 2015 as Director of Trade, PR and Major Events. René brings 15 years' global experience in consumer-led businesses including local and international marketing roles for Fonterra and Heineken and most recently as Marketing Director at Asia Pacific Breweries in Singapore.

René manages Tourism New Zealand’s global trade and PR activity including leading offshore trade teams, the business and premium sectors, trade marketing along with international PR and major events.

Sue Parcell, General Manager Finance, IT and Strategy 

Sue Parcell is responsible for managing and leading the financial and accounting functions of Tourism New Zealand, while also managing our IT infrastructure. She also oversees the performance reporting function.

Sue has had considerable experience in the tourism industry and this includes senior finance and general management roles.  Prior to this she worked in finance roles in business services in New Zealand and overseas.

Rebecca Ingram, General Manager NZ Government & Industry Relations, Tourism New Zealand

Rebecca has recently been appointed General Manager NZ Government & Industry Relations.

Previously, Rebecca was responsible for overseeing Tourism New Zealand's international PR activity, including the international media programme, and work to leverage major events. She led TNZ’s film tourism work, building on the highly successful Middle-earth legacy and positioning New Zealand as the best place in the world for visitors to experience a living film set.

Rebecca has more than ten years of experience in marketing and communications, with significant experience leading and developing successful public relations campaigns and large scale events during her time at both Telecom and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

Natalie Haines, General Manager, People and Culture

Leah McDonald, Executive Assistant to Chief Executive

Leah joined Tourism New Zealand in 2008 and in 2012 was appointed to the role of Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive and Board Secretariat.

Before joining Tourism New Zealand, Leah lived offshore from 1995 to 2008 (Florida, London and Sydney) supporting Senior Executives across various sectors, including Australia’s leading medical defence organisation and medical indemnity insurance provider and the largest housing association in the United Kingdom.

Bjoern Spreitzer, General Manager Americas and Europe

Born in Munich, Bjoern has a background in international business & destination marketing. After roles with a media publishing house and a destination marketing agency in Munich, Germany, Bjoern joined Tourism New Zealand in November 2006 as Country Manager Germany.

Bjoern has worked in various roles at TNZ since, including Trade Manager Europe based in London, Business Development Manager and most recently as International Business Events Manager based in Auckland.

In February Tourism New Zealand appointed Bjoern to the role of General Manager Americas and Europe where he oversees Tourism New Zealand's strategy and activities in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France and Latin America.

Gregg Wafelbakker, General Manager Asia

Gregg Wafelbakker is based in Shanghai and oversees Tourism New Zealand' strategy and activities in the Asian markets including China, Japan, Korea, South and South East Asia.

Gregg has spent most of his career in sales, marketing and leadership positions in the food and beverage industry with roles based in New Zealand, North America, Asia and Europe.

Prior to joining TNZ in 2017, Gregg was General Manager China for Westland Milk Products based in Shanghai.

Lisa Gardiner, Business Events and Premium Manager

Lisa joined Tourism New Zealand in 2015 and is responsible for overseeing Tourism New Zealand's activity to attract more international business delegates and premium travellers to New Zealand. 

Lisa holds a strong background in marketing, business development and digital innovation from working both domestically and internationally for global brands such as BP, Skype and Microsoft.

Lauren Vosper, General Manager PR and Major Events

Lauren is responsible for overseeing Tourism New Zealand's international PR activity, including the international media programme, and work to leverage major events.

Lauren has managed PR, major events, content and influencer partnerships for some of the biggest brands in the world, around the world. Her experience includes both in-house and agency based roles across a number of sectors in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America working with brands such as adidas, Air New Zealand, Virgin, MINI, Vodafone, Telstra, Absolut, Sony and Volkswagen.

Prior to joining Tourism New Zealand in 2017, Lauren was Head of Global PR for Icebreaker based in Auckland.

Emil Petrov, Strategy Manager

Emil joined Tourism New Zealand in 2016 after previous roles in consulting, technology start-ups and at Spark New Zealand.

Born in Bulgaria, Emil has spent most of his professional life in New Zealand and USA, and brings experience in strategy, product management, and data analytics.

As Strategy Manager Emil leads the strategic planning process for Tourism New Zealand’s offshore markets and onshore functions, as well as strategy development and special projects.

Emil holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.