Speakers (in order of appearance)

Penny Hulse, Deputy Mayor of Auckland

Penny Hulse brings more than 18 years of local government experience to the role. Penny was first elected to the Waitakere Community Board in 1992 before being elected Chair of the Board in 1994. In 1995 she was elected as a Waitakere City Councillor and as a Trustee of the Waitakere Licensing Trust.

Since then she has served as a Chair on a range of committees including the Healthy City Committee, Safe Community, Environmental Management, City Develoment, Community and Public Health Committee.

Penny’s special areas of interest are Climate Change, Sustainable City Development, Environmental Advocvacy, Community Develoment and Youth. She is Chair of the Auckland Plan Committee and Deputy Chair of the CCO Strategy Review Sub-Committee.

Pamela Jones Harbour, Partner, Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP

Former Federal Trade Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour is a partner in Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.’s antitrust and competition practice. Pamela heads the firm’s Privacy, Competition and Data Protection practice group. She is well recognized for her knowledge of evolving areas of competition and consumer protection law, including privacy and data security issues.

Pamela served on the Federal Trade Commission from 2003 until April 2010. Prior to serving on the Commission, Pamela was an antitrust partner at a New York firm. She previously spent a decade working in the New York Attorney General’s Office, including as Deputy Attorney General, where she investigated and prosecuted a variety of antitrust and consumer protection violations.

During her nearly seven years as a Commissioner, Pamela was instrumental in shaping an ambitious Federal Trade Commission agenda that encompassed a wide variety of competition and consumer protection issues affecting virtually every economic sector. Before joining the FTC, Pamela successfully prosecuted numerous national price-fixing conspiracies as a top litigator in the New York Attorney General’s office, including serving as lead counsel in several multi-state cases and arguing a resale price maintenance (RPM) case, State Oil v. Khan, on behalf of 35 states before the U.S. Supreme Court. During that time, Pamela was chief of the Office’s 150-attorney Public Advocacy Division.

Pamela is recognized internationally for her leadership in the emerging field of privacy and data security. She was the 2010 recipient of the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s (EPIC’s) “Champion of Freedom Award” for her defense of consumer privacy as an FTC Commissioner. In 2011, Pamela was appointed as Co-Chair of the Legal Working Group of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) – a non-profit organization led by a broad coalition of industry practitioners, corporations, and associations, whose mission is to promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance with cloud computing. As a key member of the U.S. delegation to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summits, she was directly involved in representing U.S. interests during negotiation and future implementation of a global privacy framework related to cross-border data transfers.

Professor Allan Bell and Philippa Smith, World Internet Project NZ

Allan Bell is Professor of Language & Communication at AUT, and Director of the World Internet Project New Zealand. He is head of AUT’s Institute of Culture, Discourse & Communication. For many years he led a dual career combining academic research with journalism and communications consultancy. He has published several books and many articles on media, communication and language, and on social and linguistic aspects of the internet. He is Editor of the international Journal of Sociolinguistics.

Philippa Smith, a researcher with an interest in media and new media technologies, has been with AUT’s Institute of Culture, Discourse & Communication since 2003.  As a member of the WIPNZ project team
Philippa has attended several WIP international partners’ meetings, this year held in Dubai. She is a member of the Association of Internet Researchers and has a particular interest in the affects of Internet genres such as blogs,  e-lists and  social networking sites  on the way we communicate. Philippa recently submitted her PhD thesis which examines the construction of New Zealand identity through computer mediated communication.

Hon Steven Joyce, Minister

Hon Steven Joyce is Minister for Economic Development; Minister of Science and Innovation; Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment; and Associate Minister of Finance.

After completing a zoology degree at Massey University, Steven started his first radio station, Energy FM, in his home town of New Plymouth, at age 21.  Along with two business partners, he built up The RadioWorks over 17 years until, as a listed public company, it consisted of 22 local radio stations and four national radio networks.  In 2000/2001 RadioWorks was purchased by Canadian company Canwest.  Steven retired as Managing Director in April 2001 on his 38th birthday.

He chaired the National Party’s Campaign Review after the 2002 election, and then its major Strategic Review which led to a full reorganisation of the Party.  He took on the role of the Party’s first General Manager, and led it through to the 2005 election.  He managed the 2005 election campaign.

Steven was Chief Executive of NZAX-listed Jasons Travel Media Limited, a tourism marketing company,  for two years from August 2006.  He has also been a director and Chairman of Taranaki-based hospital bed manufacturing and export company Howard Wright Limited, and a consultant to National Leader John Key.

Steven chaired the National Party’s successful 2008 national election campaign and was also elected as a list MP at the same election.  He was then appointed as a Minister in the new Cabinet.
Steven spends his spare time developing his lifestyle property north of Auckland, where he lives with his family.

David Shearer, Leader of the Oppostion

David Shearer is the leader of the New Zealand Labour Party. H first entered Parliament in June 2009 after winning a by-election for the seat of Mt Albert. He was elected Labour Leader on 13 December 2011. Born and raised in Auckland, Mr Shearer has spent most of his career working in the areas of international humanitarian affairs and conflict resolution.

Mr Shearer has led large-scale relief and reconstruction operations for the United Nations in Liberia, Rwanda, Albania, Belgrade, and Afghanistan. He headed the humanitarian office in Jerusalem covering the West Bank and Gaza and led the humanitarian operation in Lebanon during the war in 2006. Between 2007 and 2009 Mr Shearer was responsible for leading the UN’s reconstruction programme in Iraq. He has also conducted various assignments for Save the Children Fund and the International Crisis Group and  while with the International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote extensively on conflict resolution.

David Shearer and his wife Anuschka Meyer were named New Zealanders of the Year by the New Zealand Herald  and in 1993, Mr Shearer was awarded a MBE in the UK honours list for his work running one of the largest aid operations in Somalia.

Judge David Harvey, District Court Judge

Judge David Harvey was appointed as a District Court Judge in 1989. He has been closely involved with Information Technology initiatives involving the Judiciary undertaken by the former Department of Justice and the present Department for Courts, including the development of trial management software.

In addition to his Judicial duties, Judge Harvey is consultant editor for Butterworths “Electronic Business and Technology Law” and a member of the Editorial Board for Butterworths “Technology Law Forum”.

Judge Harvey is a part-time lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Auckland, teaching Law and Information Technology. He has written extensively in the field of law and technology and has presented a number of papers to conferences both in New Zealand and overseas on related topics. He was Chair of the Copyright Tribunal (2002 – 2008) and has had published a book on the law and networked systems entitled internet.law.nz – Selected Issues , now in its third edition. He has recently been conferred a PhD degree.