Chair

Jeremy Moon

“I believe design is the key to unlocking the future business potential of New Zealand. We’ve got a whole lot of design talent in New Zealand – the challenge is to plug this into businesses with good ideas and structures. The encouraging thing is that we’re getting consistently positive feedback from businesses about the approach.”

Jeremy is the CEO of merino outdoor clothing company Icebreaker. After graduating from Otago University with a Masters of Commerce in marketing, Jeremy established Icebreaker in 1995. Icebreaker clothing is now sold in 24 countries.

Icebreaker won the 2003 Design in Business award, and was listed on the Deloitte New Zealand ‘Fast 50’ for two years (2001, 2002).

Rick Wells

“If we are to compete with the rest of the world, design is critical. And that’s design in the holistic sense – product, brand, messages, supporting tools – everything we use to offer product to customers. Design is not just sketching drawings – it’s about businesses coming up with solutions to problems that they might not even know they have.”

Rick is the Chairman of Formway Furniture. He and a partner bought the 12-person, locally-focused company in 1981 and turned it into a global exporting business with over 200 staff by making design central to their business approach.

Rick is a member of the Furniture Association of New Zealand and has been involved with the New Zealand Furniture Exporters Group.

Jonathan Custance

“Creating experiences is critical for every kind of business all over the world today. No matter what your product, service or market, you are delivering your customers an experience. That’s why design is absolutely critical. At its essence, design is the strategic process to differentiate those experiences.”

Trained as an industrial designer, Jonathan founded the multi-discipline design consultancy CUSTANCE in 1985. Today the highly aclaimed practice has offices in Wellington and Sydney and undertakes diverse projects covering interior design, product design and architecture, with a focus on design for the work environment.

Following playing a key role in negotiating the merger between NZSID and AID into the Designer’s Institute of New Zealand and contributing on council for 5 years, Jonathan was honoured with a fellowship in 1990.

Stefan Preston

Stefan recently stepped down from a five and a half year stint as Chief Executive Officer of Bendon Group. During that period he oversaw the development of markets in Europe, North Amreica, Australasia and the Middle East from Bendon's New Zealand base.

Before Bendon, Stefan held CEO positions at Ubix, and Pacific Retail Group. His first CEO role was at Whitcoulls Group. He has an engineering degree and a MBA from Stanford University. Stefan is now working on a combination of advisory roles as well as developing an active investment portfolio in design oriented companies.

Brett Hewlett

Brett was appointed CEO of leading New Zealand healtcare company, Comvita in September 2005.

He has significant international business development experience, having worked in a number of roles in emerging and developed markets such as the eastern Mediterranean, the United Kingdom and Europe. He served 15 years of a 20-year career overseas with world-leading food packaging company, Tetra Pak and previously ran his own strategy consulting company. Brett has also been an active angel investor.

Brett has an MBA from the internationally renowned global business school, IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, and holds a Bachelor of Food Technology from Massey University.

Monika Conway

Monika is Director of Auckland based design consultancy Chalk; a company she founded in 2004 after returning to New Zealand from California where she spent a number of years working for two of the world’s largest and most prestigious design consultancies.

Monika began her career as an industrial designer at BMW subsidiary Designworks/USA, working across the company’s transportation and product design departments with clients including internationally recognised brands such as Boeing, Nokia, Gateway Computers, Siemens-Transportation, and John Deere.

She then moved to IDEO where she was appointed senior designer and project manager, working on projects for clients such as Palm, Proctor & Gamble, Pepsi, Eclipse Aviation, Intel, Hoover and Steelcase. Monika was an active facilitator for the education wing of IDEO, teaching the process of innovation.

Monika holds a Bachelor of Design, has won numerous design awards and has received patents for her innovations.

Rick Fala

Rick Fala has been Chief Executive of leading global shower and bathroomware company, Methven, since 1998 and Managing Director since 2001 when he led key management team members in the MBO of the Methven business.

A champion of good design, Rick plays a key role in delivering sustainable earnings and devising the international export strategy to drive new growth for the Methven Group.

Prior to joining Methven as Chief Financial Officer in 1996, Rick held a number of financial management roles with McKechnie PLC's New Zealand group companies and Ernst & Young.