NZPECC Team

NZPECC Board Members are active in developing ideas for, and leading, the NZPECC work programme. The Board Members are:

Dr Alan Bollard CNZM; PhD Auck; FRSNZ:  Chair

Adjunct Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, and inaugural Chair for Pacific Region Business. Alan is also a member of the Tertiary Education Commission, and Chair of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. He is NZ Governor of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, and was on the Organising Committee for NZ APEC 2021. He is a Director of China Construction Bank (NZ). Until 2024 he was Chair of the cross-university Centres for Asia-Pacific Excellence and Chair of the NZ Infrastructure Commission.
Previously, Alan was the Director of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research 1987-1994; Chairman of the New Zealand Commerce Commission from 1994 to 1998; and was the Secretary to the Treasury between 1998 and 2020.
Between 2002 and 2012 Alan was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, responsible for monetary policy and bank regulation, helping steer New Zealand through the global financial crisis. Bollard became the Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat based in Singapore, the world’s largest regional body that promotes trade, investment and sustainable growth in the Asia-Pacific, serving from 2012 to 2018.
He wrote a best-selling account of the GFC called Crisis: One Central Bank Governor and the Global Financial Collapse. He has published several novels: The Rough Mechanical and The Code-cracker and the Tai Chi Dancer. He has also written a biography of famous economist Bill Phillips, and two popular economics books Economists at War and Economists in the Cold War.

In 2012 he was honoured as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. He is a Fellow of the NZ Royal Society. He also has honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Auckland and Massey University

Dr Rob Scollay: Honorary Associate Professor in the Economics Department at the University of Auckland 

Former Director of the New Zealand APEC Study Centre. Rob has a long history of contributing research and policy analysis to the APEC process and also to the work of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), including as international coordinator of PECC’s Trade Policy Forum for several years. His recent research and publications have focused heavily on regional trade agreements and regional economic integration initiatives, including APEC, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and the proposed Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), as well as multilateral liberalisation and the global trade architecture. Dr. Scollay has also undertaken consultancies for the World Bank, UNCTAD, ESCAP, Asian Development Bank, Inter American Development Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat, the ASEAN Secretariat, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, and the Asia New Zealand Foundation, as well as various agencies of the New Zealand and Australian governments

Rory McLeod: Policy Consultant, Vice Chair

Rory McLeod is an independent consultant, working mostly on APEC issues. Until recently he was a Lead Advisor in the APEC Policy Team of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and worked on New Zealand’s hosting of APEC in 2021. Prior to that he was a Policy Director in the New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. His last responsibilities in that role covered policy advice on international economic issues, intellectual property and competition policy. Rory held several other roles in the Ministry including stints as Manager of the Standards and Sustainability Policy Group, the Intellectual Property and Competition Policy Teams and the Trade Remedies Group. Rory was Chair of APEC’s Economic Committee from 2014 to 2017. Rory also acted as New Zealand’s Lead IP Negotiator during the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations.

Professor Susy Frankel: FRSNZ, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University Wellington

Susy Frankel is a professor of law and Chair of Intellectual Property and International Trade, and director of the New Zealand Centre of International Economic Law, at Victoria University of Wellington. After practicing law in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, in 1997 Susy joined Victoria University of Wellington’s Faculty of Law and in 2008 was the first woman promoted to full professor in the faculty. From 2011 to 2020, she was chair of the Copyright Tribunal and from 2015 to 2017 she was the president of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property. She has taught in several law schools abroad, including as a Global Professor at New York University’s School of Law. Her scholarship focuses on international intellectual property and its nexus with the protection of indigenous peoples’ knowledge and innovation and on the relationship between intellectual property and international trade. In 2018, she was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Professor Frankel was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2020

Dr Tracey Epps: International Lawyer and Trade Policy Consultant

Dr Tracey Epps: International Lawyer and Trade Policy Consultant

Dr Epps is an international lawyer and policy consultant based in Wellington, New Zealand. Tracey has extensive experience working in international trade law and policy and has worked on a wide range of issues across academia, government (both in New Zealand and across the Pacific) and the private sector.
From 2009 to 2016, she worked in the Legal Division at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. During that time she worked as New Zealand’s lead Legal Counsel for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. From 2016 to 2021, Tracey headed the International Trade Law Practice at Chapman Tripp, a leading New Zealand law firm. Tracey holds a BA/LLB(Hons) from the University of Auckland and an LLM and SJD from the University of Toronto. She teaches international trade law at the Faculty of Law, University of Otago.

Dr Mia Mikic, Trade Economist

Mia is a trade economist with a keen interest in sustainable development and with a proven track record and experience in academia and international civil service. She is Chair of the Board of the Friends of Multilateralism Group,  a member of the Board of Advisors for the Trade Policy Research Forum and the Advisory Board of the Center on Inclusive Trade and Development, Georgetown Law, USA. She is also a Research Associate at The University of Waikato and Advisor at Large for the ARTNeT. Previously, she served as Director of the Trade, Investment and Innovation Division in UN ESCAP and held various academic positions in Croatia and New Zealand prior to joining the UN in 2005.

Mia has designed, run and/or served as a resource person for over 40 regional or national trade policy, trade negotiation, and the WTO-related courses organized by UN ESCAP, FAO, WTO and UNCTAD. These courses have benefited government officials across Asia-Pacific, NGO representatives, academics and analysts. She has also worked as a consultant, advisor or topic expert for the APEC and ASEAN secretariats, the UN, World Bank, UNCTAD, and various governments.

Dr Peter Stevens, Chief Executive, GS1 New Zealand

Peter has been Chief Executive of GS1 New Zealand since 2004, sits on the GS1 Global Advisory Council and is a founding director of GS1 in Asia-Pacific. Peter has expanded GS1’s role to serve many sectors of the New Zealand economy, including fast moving consumer goods, DIY/hardware, healthcare, agribusiness, government and cross-border trade. He has a particular interest in the impact of non-tariff barriers and is an associate board member of the NZ International Trade Forum. Peter’s other roles include being a member of the NZ public healthcare system’s programme to adopt standards for products, a Director of the largest disability services business in NZ Enable Ltd and Chair of the Victoria University School of Business & Government Advisory Board. 

Before joining GS1, Peter worked in senior roles at KPMG Consulting, Standards New Zealand and Apple Computer NZ. He has served as a statutory board member for the national standards body, a Senior Lecturer in IT marketing at Victoria University of Wellington & an Adjunct Professor in Information Systems & Computing at Unitec.

Professor Jason Mika, Auckland University

Jason is Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Kahungunu. Jason has just taken up his appointment as Professor in the Business School, Management and International Business at Auckland University. Prior to this he was a professor of Māori business at Te Raupapa Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, in Hamilton, New Zealand. He retains strong links with Waikato.

 Jason’s research, teaching, writing, and practice centres on Indigenous business philosophy in multiple sites, sectors, and scales, including Indigenous trade, tourism, agribusiness, and the marine economy. In 2015, Jason completed a PhD in Māori entrepreneurship at Massey University. In 2019, Jason was a Fulbright-Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga senior scholar at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment and the University of Arizona’s Native Nations Institute. Jason is a member of the Academy of Management, Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, and Te Apārangi Royal Society of New Zealand. Prior to academia, Jason was a management consultant and policy analyst in Māori economic development. Jason’s research has influenced several areas of public policy, including trade, environment, and statistics.

Robyn Henderson, Policy Director MBIE

Robyn Henderson has worked in a range of different policy areas since joining the Ministry of Economic Development in 2003. She is currently a Policy Director in the Science and Space  branch of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, following stints as a Policy Director in the Digital Economy and Economic Development policy areas of the Ministry. Robyn has previously managed policy teams working on industry policy, just transitions, media and broadcasting, and tourism. Prior to joining MED, Robyn worked in financial research roles in London, Singapore and Melbourne. She has a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Canterbury.

Andrew Jenks, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Andrew is the Manager of the APEC Policy Division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.   He is currently  NZ’s APEC  Senior Official. Andrew is a senior diplomat, lawyer, negotiator and manager. Andrew has represented NZ in several countries as Ambassador, including Sweden and Spain.

He has over ten years’ experience as an international lawyer focussing on international trade, environment and law of the sea issues. He has led sensitive trade negotiations on behalf of the Government of New Zealand.

Yvonne Lucas, Executive Director NZPECC

Yvonne had a long career in the public service including in the Treasury, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economic Development (MED), and the Ministry of Health. Her work was largely focused on international trade and economic negotiations including CER, the Trans Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement, APEC (she was NZ’s first representative on the Committee on Trade and Investment), several bilateral free trade agreements including the China NZ FTA and the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). She was the lead negotiator for health under the latter. Her areas of responsibility while a Policy Director in the Ministry of Economic Development included working with the international infrastructure on standards and conformity assessment to facilitate trade. She served on the JASANZ Board. She also served as the Director of Tourism.