Kenny Addison

NZ Country Manager, New Zealand
ELMO Cloud HR & Payroll

Kenny has been part of the ELMO team in New Zealand for several years. Originally from Scotland, Kenny brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his work in Learning & Development roles and extensive people management roles within Financial Services. Kenny works with key decision makers and senior management to deliver strategic HR solutions that are suited to automating and quantifying data in their organisations. By understanding the client’s specific needs, Kenny works to ensure that the most appropriate elements of the ELMO Cloud HR and Payroll platform are selected, implemented and integrated to optimise an organisation’s strategic HR success.

Toby Cooper

Head of People Experience
Kiwibank

Toby has worked in organisation development, learning and development, and knowledge management since 1994, both as a specialist and a leader. He has lead large work on culture change, leadership team effectiveness, leadership development, and diversity and inclusion, in a mixture of private and public sector organisations. His team at Kiwibank look after leadership development, inclusion, engagement, learning, culture, capability, and performance.

Estelle Curd

Group CRM, HR and Health & Safety Manager
Armstrong Motor Group

Estelle works in HR and H&S at New Zealand’s largest independent automotive organization, Armstrong Motor Group. Previous to this she worked in HR at both NZ and Pacific Steel. Estelle holds a master’s in business with her thesis findings on the aging workforce being published in national media. Estelle has also presented her findings overseas at an international academic conference. Estelle has held senior management positions since she was 23, and has a passion for culture and HR analytics.

Estelle has been a finalist for 5 HR awards including HR Manager and HR Generalist of the year, as well as the Walk the Talk diversity award.

Outside of work Estelle is an avid runner and currently holds the title of Miss Universe New Zealand.

Andrew Dennan

Group Talent Acquisition Manager
Synlait Milk

Andrew Dennan is Group Talent Acquisition Manager for Synlait Milk Limited based in Dunsandel, Canterbury. His responsibilities include Talent Acquisition, its strategy and execution, HR shared services, HRIS and people analytics.

Previous to this, he spent over a decade working in the Middle East and Asia for some of the regions largest businesses specialising in talent strategy & planning, talent acquisition and workforce analytics.

 He has built in-house talent acquisition functions for high growth global businesses like National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation; run regional recruitment operations via RPO for Bank of America in Hong Kong and managed and mentored high performing recruitment teams in 22 countries.

Before this, he spent 20 years trading and brokering in the global financial markets and was an early subject matter expert in the field of futures and options trading,

Andrew is a Chartered Member of both the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (UK) and the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand.

Karen Didovich

Group Human Resources Manager
Counties Manukau Health

Karen Didovich, an accomplished and seasoned senior professional manager, with HR expertise within healthcare and highly unionised, political environments. She has worked in the UK and NZ, beginning her HR career in the State Services Commission.  She has experience in delivering culture change; staff engagement; transformation; and workforce change within complex organisations.

She is an accredited mediator with the Alternative Disputes Resolution Group (UK) and an alumni of the NZ Leadership Institute Auckland University.

She currently leads the Human Resources Business Partnering and Advisory function for Counties Manukau District Health Board.  An organisation employing 8,700 staff.

Ryan Ghisi

General Manager, Global People Programs
Xero

Ryan has worked closely with executive teams and boards at many large international organisations on strategy and initiatives that drive employee attraction, engagement and retention. He has a passion for everything that impacts the employee experience, including recognition, wellness, culture, career and development, flexible working, remuneration and rewards and leadership.

Shehzad Lalwani

General Manager, Human Resources - Global Consumer & Food Services
Fonterra

Shehzad has over 15 years of work experience across the full spectrum of HR. He also has prior experience managing businesses, manpower across countries and industries in various blue chip companies. He is passionate about developing local talent and current areas of interest include future of workforce, agility of organization in digital world and incorporating cutting edge analytics in people domain.

Some Highlights:

• Fonterra CEO Achievement Award Winner 2015 for Change Management / Engagement in Middle East Africa business  where engagement moved from bottom quartile to top quartile result. 
• Special recognition NZ HR Diversity Awards for women employment in Fonterra Saudi Arabia

Shehzad has worked for Fonterra for over 5 years in Dubai, Singapore, and now in Auckland since last year. Previously he has worked in Chevron in Pakistan and Reckitt Benckiser in Middle East. 

Fiona Masson

Group Human Resources Manager
Lifewise NZ

Fiona Masson has a keen interest in enhancing positive outcomes through initiatives that improve individual and organisational effectiveness, performance, and capacity. She has led the Trusts (Lifewise, APT, MMN) through an era of significant change and improvement. In doing so, Fiona has transformed the HR function, earning credibility for the profession within the organisation in the process, and led a major organisational culture change programme. Fiona has worked across a range of industry sectors including commercial, government, and not-for-profit organisations. Fiona holds a Master of Arts (Hons) with endorsement in Occupational Psychology from Massey University, she is a Fellow of the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand, and was also a finalist for HR Generalist of the Year (2019). 

Shirvani Mudaly

Chief People Officer
Vend

Shirvani leads both the IT team and People and Culture team at Vend. She is committed to developing leadership capability, driving engagement and ensuring Vend continues to be an amazing place to work.

Joining Vend in 2018, Shirvani has a wealth of HR experience gained from previous roles at Logical CSI (now IBM), Bank of New Zealand, and more recently as Chief People Officer at Yellow. Shirvani has a significant background in change management and culture transformation.

Shirvani and her husband are proud parents of two incredible girls and dedicate all their spare time to them. 

Claire McManus

Regional HR Director - APAC
Edelman

Claire has been with Edelman for 14 years. She is a commercially astute human resources leader combining people management, business relationships and leadership skills gained from over 20 years in brand-led multinational environments.

Claire is committed to working with operational management and leadership to build and develop high performers and potential future leaders. Her specialties include organizational review, design and implementation, leadership management and coaching.

Jane Parker

HRM and Employment Relations, School of Management
Massey University

Jane is Professor of Employment Relations and Human Resource Management in the School of Management. Her research focuses on comparative employment relations, equality and diversity developments at work, employee consultation, (strategic) HRM, labour market analysis and trade union strategy. Jane was Senior Research Fellow at the Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) in the University of Warwick's Business School before joining AUT as Senior Lecturer Above the Bar in 2008. She has many publications including international journal articles, books, book chapters, commissioned reports and conference proceedings. She received the highest grade in the 2012 TEC PBRF research round and was HRINZ's 2017 NZ HR Researcher of the Year. Jane is also part of the winning Research Team of the Year at the HRINZ 2019 HR Awards.

Before leaving Warwick, Jane served as the UK National Coordinator and Contributing Editor to the European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO), and as a contributor to the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO). She is co-editor in chief of the Labour and Industry journal and co-director of the Massey University People, Organisation, Work and Employment Research (MPOWER) Group.

Charlotte Parkhill

Partner
Kensington Swan

Charlotte is a partner in our employment team. She helps her clients deal with complex employment issues, and carries out workplace investigations into bullying, fraud and harassment.

Charlotte assists a wide range of international companies, New Zealand corporates, SMEs and other organisations on any issues that arise with their employees, including personal grievances, restraints of trade and restructures.

Charlotte has extensive experience with assisting clients with compliance with the Holidays Act and issues that arise under the Human Rights Act. Her background as a criminal prosecutor also provides specialist expertise in carrying out investigations into matters such as fraud, bullying, harassment and theft.

Charlotte is committed to achieving commercial outcomes to difficult employment issues through understanding her client’s business objectives and how they want to manage their people.

Charlotte is ranked in Chambers Asia-Pacific 2018 directory as a Recognised Practitioner for Employment lawyers in New Zealand. Charlotte also sits on the Board of Directors for the Chamber of Commerce.

Digna Toresen

HR Director, New Zealand
IBM

With a wealth of Commercial HR business knowledge & expertise across dynamic countries and cultures, Digna takes a pro active approach to leading HR & Business best practice. With the strategic ability to think globally & act locally, She leads with the key to change, management & guidance at the executive level.

General Manager Human Resources and company Director at IBM NZ, Digna also contributes her skills to the board of Arthritis NZ as Vice President, the Professional Conduct Committee for the Board at Physio NZ and Chairs multiple committees. Holding a Degree in Applied Management with a Double Major is Human Resources (Dist) & Strategic Management (Dist), Digna facilitates the need for decisions through data, and the reality of the people impact through engagement.

On a personal level, Digna understands the balance of life & work having raised 3 kids while managing diverse strategic roles across the Asia Pacific region.

James Warren

Special Counsel
Kensington Swan

James is an employment law specialist experienced supporting organisations in both the UK and New Zealand with workforce change, employee relations and disputes, and the employment issues arising out of commercial transactions.

James has been consistently recommended in the Legal 500 and has been described in various editions as a "clear thinking adviser" providing "great customer service" and as having a "vast knowledge of employment law".

He advises a range of clients in various industries with domestic and international footprints, having a particular interest in the technology, media and retail sectors.

James is regularly instructed on multi-jurisdictional projects and business transformations, complex reorganisations and the implementation of global policies. He is also an approachable and responsive advocate when dealing with disputes, grievances and claims, focused on delivering practical and commercial solutions.

Katie Williams

Head of HR Centres of Expertise
Vodafone NZ

Katie is the Head of HR Centres of Expertise at Vodafone New Zealand, and is responsible for leading the Human Resources team to create an engaging and inclusive workplace. Katie joined Vodafone New Zealand in 2008 and has held a variety of roles including HR Business Partner, Head of Organisational Development, and Talent and Capability Manager.

Prior to joining Vodafone New Zealand, Katie has worked across Australasia and Europe in a range of industries including agri-chemicals, petrochemicals, finance, law, manufacturing and retail.

Katie has a Master’s degree in Science with honours, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial and Organisations Psychology with distinction from the University of Canterbury.

Outside of work, Katie is a keen yoga enthusiast, and enjoys spending time at the beach with her husband and young family.