BRIAN GAYNOR
Investment analyst, business journalist and commentator.

ANDREW LITTLE
National secretary of New Zealand’s largest private-sector -union, the EPMU.

PHIL O’REILLY
Business New Zealand CEO.

PAULA REBSTOCK
Commerce Commission chair; former general manager of policy at the Department of Labour and economic advisor in the Department of the Prime Minister and cabinet.

PITA SHARPLES
Maori Party co-leader and academic; built New Zealand’s first intertribal marae for urban Maori, and was inaugural leader of the Race Relations Office.

BRUCE SHEPPARD
Shareholder activist, chairman of the New Zealand Shareholders Association.

DAVID SKILLING
Chief executive of think tank The New Zealand Institute and -previously principal advisor at the New Zealand Treasury.

SARAH TROTMAN
Small business champion; mana-ging director of Sarah Trotman and Associates, which runs the Small Business Expo.


ONES TO WATCH — EMERGING INFLUENCERS

RAY AVERY
Scientist and entrepreneur; founder CEO of Medicine Mondiale, an organisation that helps developing countries establish locally managed sustainable healthcare.

ANDREW BAGNALL
Founded Gullivers Travel in 1976; now Life Pharmacy investor.

CLAUDIA BATTEN
Sold her software company, Massive Inc, which downloads ads into online video games, to Microsoft for up to US$400 million in 2006.

CARMEL FISHER
Managing director of boutique fund manager Fisher Funds Management, which she set up in 1998.

ROD DRURY
High-tech entrepreneur and early-stage investor; was named 2006 Hi Tech Entrepreneur of the Year, founded and sold Aftermail and is a former CTO of Advantage Group.

GEORGE GOULD
Chairman of Gould Holdings, qualified lawyer with a background in investment banking, independent director of Christchurch lines company Orion.

CRAIG NORGATE
PGG Wrightson director and former Fonterra chief executive.

ADRIAN ORR
Chief executive of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and former Reserve Bank deputy governor.

HENRY TAIT
The nephew of John Todd and a director of Todd Capital, also a co-founder of companies Snow-planet, Connovation and Sparkbox.

ANDREW WEST
Chief executive of AgResearch since 2004 and former chair of the Tertiary Education Commission.


OUTSIDE THE TENT — INFLUENTIAL, BUT RESIDING OFFSHORE

JAN CAMERON
Reclusive founder of outdoor clothing and equipment brand Kathmandu. Moved to Tasmania after selling the company in 2006 and is pursuing philanthropic projects .

ALLAN GIBBS
One of New Zealand’s richest men, he ran a merchant bank in the 80s and bought and sold Telecom. His company Gibbs Technologies makes the Aquada amphibious vehicle.

JOHN HOOD
Rhodes scholar who spent 19 years with Fletcher Challenge. Hood became vice-chancellor of the University of Auckland in 1999 and in 2004 was named vice-chancellor of Oxford University.

DAVID KIRK
Trained in medicine at Otago, a Rhodes scholar, a former Fletcher Challenge man, and former All Black captain. Now Australia based as CEO of Fairfax.

CHRIS LIDDELL
Matamata-born with a doctorate from Oxford, he is a former CEO of Carter Holt Harvey. Now the Seattle-based CFO of Microsoft.

BRIDGET LIDDELL
Other half of the dynamic Lidell duo; chairs New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s US Beachhead programme. Also a New Zealand Superannuation Fund director.

DOUG MYERS
Headed Lion Nathan and the Business Roundtable during the 1980s reforms. Left New Zealand for London in 2000 and is now a philanthropist, who has given $1 million to Auckland University for a new business school.

RALPH NORRIS
The former ASB and Air New Zealand chief executive is now the Sydney-based CEO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

BRYAN PEACE
In 1984 founded Peace Software, a global leader in providing software for deregulating utilities. Was named New Zealand Technology Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002 and now lives in Miami, Florida.

KEVIN ROBERTS
New York-based worldwide CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, ad-man Roberts is famed for his passionate advocacy of New Zealand and rugby.

DAVID TEECE
Economist and business school professor at the University of California, Berkley; one of America’s busiest expert witnesses; instrumental in founding Kea (Kiwi Expatriates Abroad).