Appointments to new CPIT Aoraki council

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has today announced the Ministerial appointments to the governing council of the new tertiary institution for Canterbury, which merges Aoraki Polytechnic and Christchurch Institute of Technology (CPIT).

The Ministerial appointees are Jenn Bestwick as Chair of the new institution, Janie Annear as Deputy Chair, and Elizabeth Hopkins and Stephen Collins as council members. 

Jenn Bestwick, the current Chair of CPIT, will become the Chair of the new organisation while Janie Annear, currently the Chair of Aoraki Polytechnic, will become the new organisation’s Deputy Chair. 

The new council will take over on 1 January 2016 when the newly formed organisation of CPIT Aoraki is established.

“I am confident that these four Ministerial appointees will provide high-quality governance and leadership to the new institution,” Mr Joyce says. “They are all well qualified and experienced for the role, and have invested their time and governance skills over the past 18 months to build a new sustainable Canterbury-wide tertiary organisation.”

The four other members of the new institution’s governing body are appointed by the council. They include existing CPIT council members Jane Cartwright, John Hunter and Lynne Harata Te Aika.  The council has also made a new appointment in Jeremy Boys, the former Chief Executive of PrimePort, Timaru who will join from 1 January 2016. 

“The new appointees will strengthen the regional outlook of the council and will effectively contribute to the successful leadership required to lead the newly formed Canterbury-wide organisation,” says Mr Joyce.

“These new appointments reflect the role of the new polytechnic as a truly regional entity focused on delivering skills for students and employers right across the region. It was important that the entire region was represented on the board, and this board reflects that. The new larger tertiary institution will provide Canterbury-wide access to high-quality vocational education.”

Profiles of the Ministerial appointees:

Ms Jenn Bestwick has been CPIT council Chair since 2010. Ms Bestwick’s professional career has been largely in strategy and business development.  Following a number of years in the health sector, she led the strategic consulting practice for KPMG in Auckland working extensively in the public and private sectors.  After a move to Christchurch, Ms Bestwick spent a number of years working with Ngāi Tahu where she was more recently General Manager, Strategy and Planning for Ngāi Tahu Holdings Group, the commercial arm of the iwi’s operations. Ms Bestwick is currently working with Environment Canterbury where she is Programme Director for the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, and is a member of the Board of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

Ms Janie Annear ONZM has been Chair of Aoraki Polytechnic since 2014. Ms Annear was the Mayor of the Timaru District for three terms and appointed as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to local government.  She is a qualified and experienced teacher and is now a professional director and businesswoman, with experience across a wide range of private sector, local government and central government roles.  Ms Annear is a Local Government Commissioner and her governance experience also includes civil defence and lottery distribution – as a board member of the Lottery Community Facilities and Significant Projects Funds.

Elizabeth Hopkins has been Deputy Chair of CPIT since 2010. Ms Hopkins is a specialist in scientific commercialisation, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology management and has held senior executive positions with several prominent biotechnology companies in New Zealand and overseas. She is a Director of both Innate Therapeutics and Buller Holdings Ltd, a Ministerial-appointed member of International Accreditation New Zealand, and a CPIT Council-appointed trustee of the CPIT Foundation. Ms Hopkins is Director of Research and Innovation for Lincoln University.

Stephen Collins has been a Ministerial appointee to CPIT council since 2010. Mr Collins established Collins Real Estate in 1972, which he developed to be the largest in its market before merging with Harcourts in 1985. Mr Collins is a Fellow of both the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand and New Zealand Institute of Management, and remains a director of Harcourts. His extensive governance experience includes Realestate.co.nz, the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce, the Canterbury Metropolitan Urban Development Strategy Committee and the Environment Canterbury Area Committee, Business New Zealand, Christchurch Heritage Trust, and the University of Canterbury Foundation. Mr Collins is a private investor in technologies and a real estate developer and investor.