MTANZ Speakers

Hon Simeon Brown is the Minister of Health, Minister for State Owned Enterprises and Minister for Auckland. He is the MP for Pakuranga. Prior to entering politics, Hon Simeon Brown completed Law and Commerce degrees at the University of Auckland and worked in Commercial Finance at the Bank of New Zealand, as well as serving as an elected Local Board member at Auckland Council.

Rt Hon Sir William (Bill) English is one of New Zealand’s most respected leaders, renowned for his transformative impact on economic policy and social investment. Serving the nation and the National Party for nearly three decades, Bill entered Parliament in 1990 and rose to become Finance Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and ultimately Prime Minister of New Zealand. As Finance Minister from 2008 to 2016, Bill guided the country through the Global Financial Crisis and the Christchurch earthquakes, returning the Government’s books to surplus and positioning New Zealand as one of the fastest-growing economies in the developed world. His tenure was marked by bold public sector reforms, innovative balance sheet management, and the pioneering Social Investment approach—an internationally recognised model for improving outcomes in health, education, and welfare. Bill became Prime Minister in 2016, focusing on building a fair and prosperous New Zealand that rewarded enterprise and cared for its most vulnerable citizens. Under his leadership, the National Party secured 44.4% of the vote in the 2017 general election, the highest of any party. Knighted in 2018 as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the state, Bill now applies his expertise in governance, finance, and social impact across commercial and philanthropic ventures. He is a director of Wesfarmers, one of Australia’s largest conglomerates, and Todd Corporation, and chairs Mt Cook Alpine Salmon. Through his consultancy, he advises governments and businesses in New Zealand and Australia on financial services, infrastructure, and social investment. With his family, he invests in social impact and data-driven enterprises serving the philanthropy and disability sectors, alongside interests in private primary production companies. Born in Lumsden in 1961, Bill studied Commerce at the University of Otago and English Literature at Victoria University before working as a Treasury analyst and returning to his family farm in Dipton. His career reflects a lifelong commitment to sound economic management, innovative policy, and improving lives through evidence-based solutions.

Experienced executive with a strong commercial focus and a diverse background in the health sector, spanning not-for-profit, public, and private organisations. Currently serving as the CEO of the NZ Medical Technology Association (MTANZ), she has previously held senior roles in procurement and supply chain, international business development, and clinical research. Beginning her career as a Registered Nurse, she continues to be driven by a passion for improving health outcomes and achieving equity, principles rooted in her early work in New Zealand public hospitals.

Catherine joined Pharmac as the Director, Medical Devices in August 2023. Catherine has held senior leadership roles in public and private healthcare organisations in Aotearoa, for more than 10 years, including as Executive Director Allied Health, Scientific and Technical at Capital and Coast District Health Board. Since then, she has led a broad portfolio at WorkSafe including leading the regulator’s contribution to reducing harm to people’s health from the work they do, including Carcinogens, Mentally Healthy Work, and Musculoskeletal Harm. Catherine is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service Managers, and originally trained as a Speech-language Therapist working clinically with people with a range of disabilities. Catherine also enjoys a governance career with Board Director roles at Mary Potter Hospice, and as Deputy Chair of the Stroke Foundation NZ.

Over 25 years’ experience in Regulatory Affairs and Quality Management Systems. Leanne’s area of expertise is across a range of regulations from Medical Devices, IVDs, Prescription and OTC medicine. She has worked in numerous industries involved in Dental and Orthodontic products, Blood Products, Surgical wound care products, Surgical preps, IVD kits and Pharmaceuticals. She started her career in quality, GMP, moving on to become a third-party auditor assessing ISO9000 quality systems in healthcare industries. Then moving to the USA, she transferred to Regulatory where shewas involved in IVD devices. Moving back to NZ 13 years later she has remained in Regulatory Affairs managing a team in Australia from New Zealand across a wide portfolio of Medical Devices and Medicines.She has been engaged in external associations such as MTAA in Australia; MTANZ in NZ and CHMP for OTC medicines in NZ. Holding a science degree in molecular biology and pharmacology and RAC certification in global regulatory affairs has led to a rewarding career in healthcare. Leanne focuses on pragmatic solutions to complex regulations to ensure patient care remains at the forefront of regulation. Current interests include regulatory intelligence and artificial intelligence.

Sarah Hogan is Deputy Chief Executive (Wellington) and Principal Economist at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER). She specialises in health and social sector research, bringing over 20 years of experience to her role. Her work focuses on health economics, methods of economic appraisal including cost-benefit analysis, and social investment. Before joining NZIER, she worked in the Office of the Chief Economist at the Ministry of Health, led a data analytics and insights team at Capital and Coast DHB, worked in health policy and research at Health Canada, and contributed to health technology assessment (HTA) reports for the Australian Medical Services Advisory Committee. She has taught several university courses on health economics and health policy.

Chris is the Group Manager of Medsafe, the medicine and medical device regulator in New Zealand. Chris is a registered pharmacist, including working in paediatric and neonatal pharmacy. He has completed post graduate qualifications in clinical pharmacy and public health. Chris joined Medsafe in 2006 and has experience in premarket pharmaceutical chemistry assessment and post market monitoring (pharmacovigilance). Chris has been Medsafe Group Manager since 2015.

Trent is a Professional Engineer, management consultant, and an international senior executive with career experience across a broad range of sectors that include technology and IT, education, and healthcare. He has served as a director on the Boards of several Private and Public organizations; both profit and not-for-profit, and is the Founder and Chair of a New Zealand charitable trust involved in community health and wellbeing. Trent is married, with four daughters and has family members who are doctors and medical specialists. He is passionate about the greater integration of community-led healthcare services with both the primary and secondary healthcare sectors. Through his current work in healthcare, Trent is focused on equitable, improved patient outcomes at a community level, and the delivery of world class, optimal healthcare for all New Zealanders. Trent currently serves as a cardiac consumer and patient voice on the following Government committees: Pharmac Reset Consumer and Patient Working Group National Cardiology Clinical Network Consumer & Whanau Committee Northern Region Cardiology Clinical Network Consumer & Whanau Committee

Natalie McMurtry joined Pharmac, New Zealand’s Drug and Medical Device Agency, as Chief Executive in September 2025. She is an experienced health care leader with more than 25 years’ experience as a frontline clinician and senior executive in Canada. Natalie began her career as a pediatric critical care pharmacist at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton before moving into senior leadership roles across the health system. She held executive positions with Alberta Health Services, including Vice President of Provincial Clinical Excellence, and served as Assistant Deputy Minister for Pharmaceutical and Supplementary Health Benefits with the Alberta Government. Most recently, she served as Chief Transition Officer for Alberta’s new Acute Care Agency. Her leadership also extended nationally and in the community. She served on the boards of the Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance and Canada’s Drug Agency. Natalie is a licensed pharmacist with degrees in pharmacy and business administration.

Before joining the New Zealand Private Surgical Hospital Association in May 2025, Chris was working as a business consultant. His varied career has included almost eight years as chief executive of Tourism Industry Aotearoa, and part-ownership of a respected research agency. He began his career as a radio journalist before working as a media advisor at Parliament. Chris then worked in Corporate Affairs in the energy and tourism sectors before taking on his first association head role with TIA, where he ably led the tourism industry through the COVID pandemic

Dr Tim Vines is the manager of the Therapeutics policy team at the Ministry of Health | Manatū Hauora. Tim moved to Aotearoa New Zealand from Canberra, Australia in 2019, having spent the previous 10 years working in the Australian Public Service. In Australia, Tim led a number of projects at the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia’s main public funder of health and medical research) involving clinical trials policy, the development of the national Human Research Ethics Application system, and the establishment of the Australian Research Integrity Committee. At the Ministry of Health, Tim leads the policy team that oversaw the passage of the Therapeutic Products Act in 2023. The team is now working on a new Medical Products Bill.

Aisling joined AROA in 2025 as General Counsel, bringing deep expertise in healthtech and healthcare law. With a career spanning leading firms and industry, she has advised some of New Zealand’s most prominent hea lth industry organisations on complex commercial, regulatory and compliance matters. Prior to AROA, Aisling held Special Counsel roles at Buddle Findlay and Claro, a specialist health law firm.

Andy Windsor is a Commercial Leader with over 25 years’ experience in General Management, Procurement and Supply Chain across a variety of regions. Andy recently joined Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora as National Director for Procurement, Supply Chain and Health Technology Management. Before leaving the UK in January 2023, Andy worked for the National Health Service (NHS) Supply Chain, where his team were responsible for the procurement and supply of over NZD9 billion of products and services. Prior to this period in the Public Sector Andy led Kimberly-Clark’s B2B business as Managing Director across Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa based in Dubai, UAE. Before the move into General Management Andy gained over 15 years of Supply Chain experience where he reached the position of Regional Procurement Director for Kimberly-Clark Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Andy earned his MBA at Henley Business School in the UK, and a Bachelor of Business Administration and International Business degree from Lancaster University, UK and ICADE University, Spain.