As a peak business advocacy group and a public policy think tank, BusinessNZ and The New Zealand Initiative are New Zealand’s pre-eminent business membership organisations that both follow and contribute to New Zealand’s debates.

Join us for a lunchtime conversation with their leaders Kirk Hope and Oliver Hartwich on domestic and international challenges.

Kirk and Oliver will be assessing the Government’s proclaimed ‘year of delivery’. They will share their unfiltered views on Brexit, the direction of the Reserve Bank, their predictions for the 2020 elections in New Zealand and the US and the state of the global economy.

About the speakers

Kirk Hope is Chief Executive of BusinessNZ. Before joining BusinessNZ, Kirk was Chief Executive of the New Zealand Bankers' Association, Executive Director of the Financial Services Federation and has previously held a range of senior positions at Westpac. A qualified barrister and solicitor, Kirk holds a Master's degree in law and a Bachelor and Post-Graduate Honours degree in political science. For five years he was a member of the Commercial and Business Law Committee of the New Zealand Law Society.

Oliver Hartwich is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Before joining The New Zealand Initiative, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, the Chief Economist at Policy Exchange in London, and an advisor in the UK House of Lords. Oliver holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Business administration and a PhD in Law from Bochum University in Germany.

Venue: Auckland 

Please contact Chelsy at chelsy.blair@nzinitiative.org.nz for further information. For more information about being a member please visit our Membership page.