WorkSafe is a Crown agency; we have a governance board. Board members are appointed by the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety.

Members of our Board have backgrounds in New Zealand’s work health and safety environment, including work illness and occupational disease, public sector governance, central government processes, worker and business perspectives, administration of work health and safety legislation and risk management frameworks, and business generally.

Jennifer Kerr - Chair

Jennifer Kerr is a professional director who has extensive senior executive experience, predominantly in human resources management, in New Zealand and overseas.

Jennifer has strong skills and experience in leadership, change management, stakeholder relations and international business.

Her current governance roles include Chair of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Deputy Chair of Callaghan Innovation, director of Waipa Networks Limited, director of Eke Panuku Development Auckland and member of the New Zealand Police Assurance and Risk Committee. 

Bill Moran - Deputy Chair

Bill Moran has significant experience in the public sector, particularly in business transformation leadership, and economic and financial expertise. He currently holds governance roles with government, private sector, and not-for-profit organisations. Bill worked at the New Zealand Treasury for 30 years, and is now the Chair of Sport New Zealand, High Performance Sport New Zealand and the New Zealand Sports Foundation. He is deputy Chair of Community Trust South and a director of Pioneer Energy, Southern Generation, Invest South, Youthtown, and Sky City Charitable Trust Queenstown. He is also an independent member of the Audit and Finance Committee of the Queenstown Lakes District Council. In 2019 he was awarded a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to State, Sport, and Youth.

Kristen Thompson

Kristen Thompson is a lawyer with a background in employment, health and safety, and personal injury law, predominantly for unions and injured workers.  She has previously worked as a litigator and advisor to a number of not-for-profit incorporated societies and charities.  She has also worked as a health and safety policy analyst for the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.  She also sits on a number of other boards. 

Pauline Lockett 

Pauline has a wide range of governance and commercial experience from being a partner in PriceWaterhouseCoopers for 20 years and then moving into governance positions. She was appointed in 2017 as an independent Director of the Ngati Te Whiti Whenua Topu by the Maori Land Court and was subsequently appointed by the Trustees as Chairperson of the Trust from 2018 to 2020. Pauline is a Board member of the Taranaki District Health Board since 2010 and was the Chairperson from 2013 to 2019. She is also the Chairperson of the Board responsible for the distribution of funds from the Waitara Perpetual Fund. Prior to these governance roles, Pauline was a Director of Landcorp Farming Limited where she chaired its Audit and Due Diligence Committee. She was also a Director of the New Zealand Health Partnerships where she chaired its Finance, Audit and Risk Committee. 

Bill Newson 

Bill is the National Secretary of E tū, New Zealand’s largest private sector union, which represents working people employed across a range of industries. He has longstanding senior governance experience as a Board member of Competenz Industry Training Organisation, a founder and trustee of Apprentice Training NZ, and was a member of the ‘Work Related Health Advisory Group’ advising the Worksafe board on occupational health. Bill is a current Board member of Waihanga Ara Rau (the Construction and Infrastructure WDC), CHASNZ (Construction Health and Safety NZ), a member of the Construction Accord Steering Group (ASG) and MATES in Construction, a Trust that intervenes in the issue of mental health in the construction industry. Bill has a strong personal commitment to workplace health and safety grounded in personal experience, and believes employee participation is at the heart of an effective workplace health and safety programme. 

Lois Hutchinson

Lois has over 30 years’ senior management experience in the public sector in the areas of social justice regulation as the statutory decision maker for the Video Recordings Authority and Deputy Chief Censor at the Office of Film and Literature Classification; in health as General Manager, Hospital Services at Midcentral DHB; and transport as Chief Executive of the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC). Working in these sectors, Lois developed particular expertise in the delivery of mandated services, both domestic and international, that operate to avoid or reduce harms to people and organisational operating environments.  

Through her work at TAIC and alongside associated international treaty organisations, Lois also has expertise in organisational strategy and performance with a focus on assessment of safe systems operations in the aviation, rail and maritime sectors. 

Lois is currently the Deputy Chairperson of the Radiation Safety Advisory Council. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety (Hon.) and holds degrees of Master of Public Policy from Victoria University of Wellington, and Master of Science Managing Organisational Performance from Cranfield University, UK. 

Mark Leslie

Mark is passionate about health and safety, which he believes should always be at the heart of every operation, as everyone should be supported to get home safe every night.

He is the CEO of Pāmu (Landcorp Farming Limited), and has held various influential roles throughout his career, including operations, logistics, and quality assurance, together with technology and product development. Before joining Pāmu, he served as the Chief Operations Officer at Silver Fern Farms and spent nearly two decades at Fonterra.

His extensive experience has been recognised through various board and ministerial advisory roles. He is currently also serving as a director on the board of Safer Farms, which is about supporting farming leaders and workers to protect each other from preventable harm.

Growing up on a dairy farm in Reporoa on the North Island’s Central Plateau, Mark has a deep understanding of the agricultural sector and its safety challenges.