Our Structure

Simon Moutter (Chair) is best known from his time as Managing Director of Spark New Zealand between 2012 and 2019. He led the reinvention of Telecom to Spark, to better reflect the fast-changing world of digital services in which the business now operates.  Simon returned to the company in mid-2012, having managed most parts of the former Telecom NZ as Chief Operating Officer during the years 2003-2008.  In the intervening years, he led Auckland International Airport as its Chief Executive for a period of four years in which he transformed the customer experience and delivered a significant uplift in its growth trajectory.

His leadership of Spark and Auckland Airport was recognised when he was named New Zealand CEO of the Year in the 2017 Deloitte Top 200 Awards.

Today Simon works as a Company Director and Operating Partner.  He is a Director of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Chairman of three privately owned companies – Smart Environmental Group, Les Mills International and Designer Wardrobe.  He works with the Management Teams of these companies to help accelerate their growth.

John Duncan (Deputy Chair) has extensive experience in global capital markets, banking and finance. He is a Deputy Chair of the Public Trust, Chair of the Northern Rescue Helicopter Limited, Trustee of Auckland’s Cornwall Park, and a former Housing New Zealand Board member and Chair of HLC.

Arihia Bennett (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi), of Kaiapoi, was the CEO of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu for almost 12 years, resigning from that position in 2024. She started her career in social work, and worked for Child, Youth & Family and for Barnados Aotearoa. From 1999 to 2002 she was a director of Ngāi Tahu Development Corporation, and then chair from 2002 to 2005. Ms Bennett was on the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Commission following the September 2010 earthquake.

She is a member of the Māori advisory panel to the Ombudsman's Office, and has served on New Zealand-China Council and the boards of Predator Free 2050 Ltd, Barnardos Aotearoa, and the Christchurch Women’s Refuge. In 2021 Ms Bennett was appointed chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group on the Government’s Response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 2019 terrorist attack on Christchurch mosques.

Jenn Bestwick, of Queenstown, has been the Chair of the Tertiary Education Commission and has been a government-appointed board member at Antarctica New Zealand, Ara Christchurch Polytechnic, Southern Response Earthquake Services, and Tourism New Zealand. She has experience in strategic planning and in senior strategy management roles across the health, tertiary education, natural resource management, science and research, and tourism sectors.

Alan Dent, of Wellington, was a Partner for 26 years at Deloitte NZ. He established and led the Deloitte Corporate Finance Wellington practice from 1990 to 2020 and he was a member of the Deloitte NZ Partner Board from 2000 to 2012. Mr Dent has provided commercial and financial advice across the public and private sectors, and he has led industry reform work in the social housing, health, and other sectors. He has been recognised as one of New Zealand’s leading valuation practitioners, having valued around $200 billion of shares, assets, and businesses, including the assets of Housing New Zealand and retirement villages and residential property development businesses.

John Bridgman (appointed to the Board effective 1 January 2022) has significant experience in engineering and project management roles across Australasia and Asia. John has held a variety of senior leadership positions and governance roles, including at global infrastructure building company AECOM (as Industry Director – Civil Infrastructure in Australia and as Managing Director for the New Zealand business), as well as governance roles on major infrastructure projects in New Zealand, Australia, Asia and the United Kingdom. John is the Chair of the City Rail Link Limited; and Director of Waka Kotahi – NZ Transport Agency.

Peter Jeffries, of Auckland, has extensive experience in the community housing sector. He became the manager in 1987 at CORT (Community of Refuge Trust), a Community Housing Provider in Auckland. He was then the Chair and then became the CEO to 2022. CORT now has more than 390 one and two bedroom properties, housing over 540 people. CORT owns over 310 of those properties and is building new homes.

Ceinwen McNeil, of Auckland, is an external affairs and government relations professional. Over the last decade, she has worked primarily in the design, engineering, and construction industries.

Her current roles include Director, Central and Local Government Relations Aurecon, and President of the Association of Consulting and Engineering NZ.

Fiona Mules, of Christchurch, was on the Kāinga Ora board from January 2023 to February 2024, when she resigned to prevent any perceived or potential conflicts of interest with other advisory work in the government infrastructure area. Her work does not now present any conflicts, and she brings relevant governance experience from that year of service and from her previous roles on the boards of Development Christchurch and the Lyttelton Port Company, which have had sizeable urban regeneration development activities.

She is also currently a director of Rural Livestock Ltd, and was previously a Director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and KiwiRail Holdings Ltd. She was on Treasury’s Capital Investment Panel, which considered requests for capital funding and advised Ministers on their merits from a whole-of-government perspective. Ms Mules is an experienced audit and risk committee chair