Board of Directors

Simon Clarke - Chair

Our Chair, Simon Clarke is a professional Non Executive Director/Trustee and strategic advisor through his business, Matua Governance. His mission is to help organizations make a positive difference to the prosperity & sustainability of New Zealand’s environment, society & economy through strong governance, strategic direction and advice.

He is an experienced director, senior executive (CEO, CIO, GM) and commercial lawyer and has a number of other governance roles including being Chair of Priority One (WBOP Economic Development Agency), a Trustee of the Bay of Plenty Community Trust (BayTrust) and a Director of Dunedin based electricity lines business Aurora Energy.

Simon has an LLB/BA from the University of Otago and has completed the Advanced Management Programme at the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton Business School). He is a Chartered Member of the NZ Institute of Directors.

Simon is a Tauranga local and lives in Matua with his wife Kate and two teenage daughters. Outside of work he plays average golf & tennis and is a poor trout fisherman.

Julie Hardaker - Deputy Chair

Julie Hardaker is a lawyer, governance professional and the former Mayor of Hamilton. She is a Chartered Fellow of The Chartered Governance Institute. 

As well as practising law, Julie is chair of the Environmental Protection Authority, chair of Heads of Environmental Protection Authorities NZ/Australia, deputy chair of Governance New Zealand and Chair of Women on Boards Executive Committee. 

Julie also holds other government, private sector and community board roles.

Nick Lowe - Director

Nick Lowe has a strong commercial background with most of his executive career being predominantly in the retail industry.

Nick is Chair of Beds R Us Ltd in addition to his governance skills, will bring a strategic perspective to the board.

Jeremy Curragh - Director

Jeremy brings over 25 years of experience to his role as Managing Partner of the Findex Auckland Office and a Partner of the Performance Consulting team.   He has worked extensively across both the commercial, advisory and sporting sectors. 

Jeremy has experience across a diverse range of areas including strategy formulation with an innovation focus to achieve a competitive advantage, change management, governance, structuring, financial and risk management , organisational restructuring and growth management.
Over recent years Jeremy has completed several projects for NZ Rugby across a broad section of topics (see below)

Jeremy is a professional director and currently sits on several Boards in both the commercial and sporting sectors.

Adam Lynch - Director

Adam has spent his career in venue, event, and tourism management in both New Zealand and the UK, specialising in operations and logistics. This has included time at Spark Arena in Auckland, Vbase in Christchurch, Venues Wellington, and Hobbiton Movie Set. He now runs the NZ office of Reliance Risk, a risk and safety consultancy specialising in providing support to the venues, events, sport, and attractions sectors. 

Adam holds a LLB (Laws) from the UK and is currently working towards a Masters in Emergency Management.  He is a member of both the Business Continuity Institute and Institute of Directors and holds governance roles for Wellington based charity Vulnerable Support Charitable Trust and Matamata Primary School. 

Gareth Wallis - Director

Gareth has worked in local government in Auckland and Tauranga for more than 20 years in a variety of leadership roles. He came to Tauranga City Council initially from a senior business development role at Auckland Live; New Zealand’s largest performing arts organisation.

Gareth’s Council role covers libraries, community partnerships, arts and culture, venues (Baycourt and The Historic Village) and events, spaces and places, and council-controlled organisation governance. He has a strong focus on relationship building within the community, building successful and engaged teams, and ensuring processes create accountability and transparency in decision making. 

He has a background in the performing arts, event and production management, and also emergency management, in particular on a practical level as a Fire and Emergency New Zealand volunteer for nearly 20 years. 

Gareth and his partner were born and bred in Tauranga and have both loved moving back home with their two primary/intermediate school aged children.