Assembly of Investment Chairs

Conference hosts

Sebastian Gehricke, Director CEFGroup, Otago Business School

Dr Sebastian Gehricke the Director of the Climate and Energy Finance Group (CEFGroup) and a senior lecturer at the University of Otago - running events and pursing research and teaching in sustainable finance, reporting and investments.  

In 2022, he was awarded an early-career researcher award for his accomplishments and leading sustainable finance education at Otago.  

Dr Gehricke is a strong advocate for transitioning toward a sustainable future. He actively communicates with and supports the private and public sectors, eagerly sharing his knowledge through media, executive training and speaking at industry and community events

Craig Stobo, Taumata, Otago Business School; Associate Member CFA Society NZ; CFInstD

Educated at the University of Otago and Wharton Business School, Craig Stobo has worked as a diplomat, economist, investment banker, and CEO. He has authored reports for the government on the taxation of investment income, chaired the government’s International Financial Services Development group in 2010, and chaired the Establishment Board of the Local Government Funding Agency in 2011. Craig is a professional director and entrepreneur.

In addition to chairing Precinct Properties, Craig is chairman of the New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) and Chair of NZ Windfarms. He is also a director for a number of private companies including Saturn Portfolio Management, Elevation Capital Management and Biomarine Limited.

Paula Steed, Chief Operations Officer, NZ Super Fund

Paula joined the Guardians in July 2021, from ASB Bank where she was the Chief Internal Auditor. Paula has 25 years’ experience in financial services and banking, starting her career as an auditor with professional services firm Deloitte and holding various executive finance and general management roles with AMP, ANZ and ASB. Paula is a Chartered Accountant and has a BCA majoring in Accounting and Commercial Law from Victoria University.

Conference speakers

Joe Fowler, Deputy Chief Executive, Social Investment Agency

Joe Fowler Deputy Chief Executive Investment and Commissioning. Joe joined SIA in late 2024 to set up the agency’s commissioning and investment functions.  Joe’s role is to lead the establishment and operation of the Social Investment Fund, to demonstrate social investment in practice. Joe was previously at Manatū Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage, managing Covid regeneration funding and investments, including funding for commemorations, historical research and oral histories. Prior to this role, Joe was at Oranga Tamariki, where he was General Manager Commissioning for four years. In this role, he worked with iwi, Māori, non-governmental organisations, and internal stakeholders to completely redesign the agency’s procurement approach.

Dr. Hao Liang, Singapore Management University

Dr. Hao Liang is a Professor of Finance, the Academic Director of the Singapore Green Finance Centre, and the Co-Lead of the Sustainable Business Research Peak at Singapore Management University (SMU). He holds the Ho Bee Professorship in Sustainability Management and has been awarded the BNP Paribas Fellowship, DBS Sustainability Fellowship, and Lee Kong Chian Fellowship.

He is a research member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and an extramural fellow at Tilburg University, where he received his PhD in Finance and won the university-wide Best Dissertation Award in 2015.

Additionally, he serves on the Steering Committee of the Impact & Sustainable Finance Faculty Consortium, the board of Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment, the Scientific Committee of the Geneva Centre for Philanthropy, the Technical Committee for Sustainable Finance of Enterprise Singapore, the ESG Advisory Group of World Federation of Exchanges, and has been nominated to the China ESG 30 Forum by Caixin Magazine.

Dr. Liang's research interests include sustainable finance, impact investing, corporate finance, and governance. He is the Section Editor (Finance & Business Ethics) for the Journal of Business Ethics, an Associate Editor for Management Science, Journal of Business Research, Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies, and British Accounting Review, and serves on the editorial review board of the Strategic Management Journal.

Professor Liang received the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability Emerging Scholar Award in 2020 and has twice won the prestigious Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing (2014 & 2019). At SMU, he teaches Sustainable Finance, Entrepreneurial Finance, Corporate Finance, and Applied Econometrics at the undergraduate, master’s, DBA, executive, and PhD levels. He frequently contributes to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and the Oxford Business Law Blog, among other media outlets.

Steven Moe, Parry Field Lawyers

Steven Moe is a Partner at Parry Field Lawyers which has 100 staff across 5 offices and leading their impact team with a focus on “for purpose” organisations centred around impact. He is a facilitator on governance for the Institute of Directors and hosts their governance podcast Board Matters, is on the Charities Services sector group giving input to the regulator, the XRB Advisory Panel and has worked as a lawyer for 25 years including 11 years overseas based in Tokyo, London and Sydney. Since 2016 he has been based back in New Zealand and hosts seeds podcast which has a focus on people doing inspiring things.

Shane Varn, Portfolio Manager, NZ Super Fund

Shane Varn is a Portfolio Manager at the NZ Super Fund. He has led analytics teams in both investment management and cross industry consulting. At the NZ Super Fund, his responsibilities cover active and passive equities and fixed income, including the Fund’s domestic equity machine learning strategy. Shane prior’s work in institutional investing was at the Florida State government pension Fund in their Global Equities asset class.

Lori Luke, Acorn Foundation

Lori Luke moved to New Zealand from the US in 2009 and is a dual citizen. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University, majoring in Economics and German Studies and spent 20 years in executive roles in marketing and business management for large USA corporations. Lori has served as CEO at Acorn Foundation, Western Bay of Plenty for seven years and is the Chair for CFANZ, the network that supports the 18 Community Foundations found around New Zealand. The network now has over $300M in donor funds and stewards over $1.5B in future funds for community benefit.

Helmut Modlik, Te Runanga O Toa Ranatira

Helmut is an experienced director, executive, and consultant with extensive experience across the private and public sector and with specialist skills in business and economic development, strategic planning, change management, and finance. Helmut’s work over the last 20 years has focused on chief executive leadership of private sector company mergers, turnarounds, and business improvements. Since 2020 Helmut has been CEO of Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, with executive and governance responsibilities across a broad range of social and commercial enterprises.

Cristhian Delgado, University of Otago

Electronic Engineer and PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He specializes in the creation of tools based on digital image analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) for agricultural monitoring. He received his bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia, and holds a master’s degree in engineering from the same institution. His notable achievements include receiving prestigious awards, such as the Google Inc. Scholarship in 2023 and first place in the Space for Planet Earth Challenge 2024.

Sian Orr, Portfolio Manager, NZ Super Fund

Sian is a Portfolio Manager (PM) in the Private Equity team at the Guardians of the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZSF). Sian joined NZSF in 2019 and in her role as a PM she is responsible for driving the implementation of active strategies across the global portfolio. This includes researching, originating and onboarding new investments/co-investments, optimising existing investments and developing and maintaining key industry relationships. Sian is the lead PM responsible for the new design and implementation of the firms global PE buyout program. As a PM, Sian has governance responsibilities and holds numerous LPAC board seats for the Fund’s investments.

Malcom Johns, Chief Executive, Genesis Energy

Malcolm Johns is the current Chief Executive of Genesis Energy, having joined in 2023 from his previous role as Chief Executive of Christchurch Airport. He is Convenor of the Climate Leaders Coalition and served as Chair of the APEC Business Advisory Council, leading the regional trade policy task force for climate change. Malcolm was also previously the Chief Executive of InterCity Group and held several governance roles within New Zealand’s transport, infrastructure, and tourism sectors.

Joanna Silver, Head of Sustainable Economic Development, Westpac New Zealand

Joanna Silver Executive Director – Head of Sustainable Economic Development, Westpac New Zealand. Joanna has recently been appointed as the Head of Sustainable Economic Development, Westpac New Zealand. In this role she leads the bank’s strategic growth initiatives, which aim to support projects that generate environmental and social benefits. Her new job builds on the many years she has dedicated to driving Westpac’s transition growth strategy, having previously served as Head of Sustainable Finance. In this role, Joanna spearheaded the development of sustainable lending programmes at the bank, including sustainable farm and business loans and sustainable bonds. Joanna has also played a key role in shaping Westpac’s sustainable finance strategy and has been an active contributor to the development of the broader sustainable debt market in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Under her leadership, Westpac has been recognised as KangaNews’ NZ Sustainability Debt House of the Year for five consecutive years. Before joining Westpac, Joanna advised CEOs and Boards of major companies on commercialising sustainability and navigating climate-related policy, markets, and risk. Joanna also led the development of global environmental markets infrastructure and was a financial services lawyer.

Sam Stubbs, Simplicity

Sam Stubbs is the co-founder of Simplicity, one of NZ’s fastest growing KiwiSaver plans. Simplicity is a nonprofit KiwiSaver and Investment Fund Manager that gives 15% of all fees to charity and invests with a conscience. Sam was previously CEO of Tower Investments. He was MD of Hanover Group and worked for Goldman Sachs in London and Hong Kong. He has also worked for NatWest Markets, Fay, Richwhite and IBM. He has been a Board Member of the Financial Services Council, and a member of the Government Taskforce on Financial Services. Sam has an MA (Hons) in Politics from the University of Auckland. He is a father of two and has no time for any hobbies! He dreams of Simplicity and sailing around the world.

Rob Buchanan, CEO, Channel Infrastructure NZ Limited

Rob is Channel Infrastructure’s CEO. With a passion for helping energy and infrastructure companies create value while navigating challenging strategic issues and changing industry dynamics, Rob is excited about taking forward the company’s plans for growth, which will deliver further value to Channel’s shareholders. Prior to Manawa Energy, Rob had a 20-year career in investment banking, advising companies in New Zealand, Australia and Europe most recently as Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Forsyth Barr New Zealand. Prior to this Rob has worked in investment banking (ABN AMRO) across Australasia/Europe. Rob holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Business (Distinction) from the University of Otago and completed an Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership from MIT Sloan School of Business.

Mark Butcher, Chief Executive, New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency

Mark was appointed chief executive of the New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) in 2014. His prior role was as treasurer at Auckland Council where he led the establishment of the treasury and finance functions at the time of the amalgamation of eight councils into one organisation. Mark has also held senior trading and sales roles across derivative, interest-rate and debt products with domestic banks and in the institutional wealth-management sector as chief investment officer at Perpetual Capital and general manager at Alliance Bernstein New Zealand. Mark holds several investment governance roles including chair of Waikato-Tainui Group Investment Committee, a member of the nominating committee for appointments to the board of New Zealand Superannuation Fund and a board member of the New Zealand Financial Markets Association He was a former director of LGFA, Civic Financial Services, INFINZ and the New Plymouth Perpetual Investment Fund. Mark holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Auckland University, is a chartered member of the Institute of Directors, a fellow of INFINZ and a CFA charter holder.

David Kandziora, Alvarium Wealth

David is responsible for leading the investment strategy, asset allocation, portfolio construction, and manager selection across Alvarium's managed accounts. He works with traditional and alternative asset classes across both public and private markets.

John Hepburn, Māpua Wealth

John is a Senior Investment Consultant with Mapua Wealth, focused on investment strategy and private markets research. With 15+ years’ experience in Auckland and London, John specialises in private equity fund investments, co-investments, consulting, and governance. Formerly a Portfolio Manager at NZ Superannuation Fund, John managed a global private equity portfolio, sourcing and executing opportunities worldwide. His career spans roles at Mercer, ANZ Investments, Stamford Associates, and FirstEnergy Capital. John holds a Bachelor of Business from Auckland University of Technology and is a CFA Charterholder.