Page last updated: 22 March 2023

Board and governance

About our board

The FMA was established by the Financial Markets Authority Act 2011. The Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs is responsible for the FMA. The Minister sends us an annual Letter of Expectations. Our current Minister is the Hon Dr Duncan Webb.

The Crown Entities Act 2004 sets out the collective and individual duties of the FMA Board and its members. The Board is the governing body of FMA. The Board’s focus is generally on the critical strategic and regulatory policy issues that determine the overall success of FMA.

The Board has two advisory committees:

The Audit and Risk Committee, which considers internal controls, accounting policies, and risk management. It also approves financial statements, and helps with the scope, objectives and functions of external and internal audits

The People, Performance and Remuneration Committee, which oversees FMA’s performance, remuneration, development and engagement systems, including setting the Chief Executive’s remuneration and key performance indicators.

In accordance with the State Sector Commission guidelines, the Board periodically reviews its own role and overall performance, its processes and procedures, the use of supporting Committees and Divisions and the performance of each Board member.

The remuneration of the FMA Board members is determined by the Remuneration Authority.

FMA Board

Mark Todd: Chairman LLB Hons

Mark has over 25 years’ experience in financial markets regulation, including as a partner at a major law firm and through holding governance roles with both listed and unlisted companies. He co-founded Anti-Money Laundering Solutions and chaired Mint Asset Management. He was also the Customer Advocate at Westpac New Zealand.

Current term expires May 2024.

Vanessa Stoddard
Member, BCom/LLB (Hons), PG Dip in Prof Ethics

Vanessa is a Director of Channel Infrastructure, OneFortyOne Plantations Pty Ltd and a member of the board of Te Whatu Ora. She also holds other charitable and advisory governance roles. She was previously a senior executive at Air New Zealand and CEO of Carter Holt Harvey Packaging Australia.

Current term expiry February 2024.

Sue Chetwin: Board Member

Sue has more than 12 years’ experience working for and on behalf of consumers and is the former CEO of Consumer New Zealand. She is a strong supporter of financial regulations that encourage innovation while protecting consumer interests. She chairs the Government’s review of drug buying agency PHARMAC and is a member of the Law Society Independent Steering Group Committee considering the terms of reference for the statutory framework for legal services. She is also a director of Food Standards Australia NZ. Her experience includes 25 years in journalism including editing the Sunday News, Sunday Star Times and Herald on Sunday.

Current term expiry November 2025.

Prasanna Gai: Board Member, B.Ec (Hons), M.Phil, D.Phil

Prasanna is Professor of Macroeconomics and Head of the Departments of Economics and Accounting & Finance at the University of Auckland. He brings over 25 years of experience in financial market issues from academic and high-level policy roles. Prasanna is a Senior Research Fellow at the Deutsche Bundesbank and an Academic Adviser to the Bank of Canada. He has previously served as Special Adviser to the Governor of the Bank of Canada, Senior Adviser at the Bank of England, and Member of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board. He was also Professor of Economics at the Australian National University and a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

Current term ends April 2023.

Elizabeth Longworth: Board Member, LLM

Elizabeth has over 20 years’ legal experience, predominantly in commercial, banking and technology law, as well as international governance and development expertise. She has specialties in information policies and disclosure, risk management, ESG, ethics and ADR. As the Executive Director of UNESCO, Paris, Elizabeth had strategic and oversight responsibilities across the organisation. She was the Director of the UN office for disaster risk reduction, Geneva. Previous NZ roles include Sector Director at Industry New Zealand and In-house Counsel at the Reserve Bank.

She chairs the FMA Audit and Risk Committee. Current term expires July 2023.

Christopher Swasbrook: Board Member, BCom

Christopher has more than 25 years’ experience in stockbroking and funds management. He is currently the Managing Director of Elevation Capital Management Limited, Director of NZX-listed New Zealand Rural Land Company, NZX-listed Allied Farmers Limited, Bethunes Investments Limited and SwimTastic Limited. He is also a Member of NZ Markets Disciplinary Tribunal (since 2013) and a Member of the NZX Listing Sub-Committee (since 2008). He was previously a Partner at Goldman Sachs JBWere.

Current term ends June 2024.

Kendall Flutey: Board Member

Kendall is the co-Founder and co-CEO of Banqer, a financial education company that delivers experiential software to develop financial literacy and capability in their learners. She is also a Commissioner to the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme, and a member of the Digital Council for Aotearoa.

Current term expires February 2027.

Mark Weenink: Board Member

Mark is an experienced corporate lawyer and was most recently General Counsel at Westpac New Zealand. Prior to joining Westpac, Mr Weenink held various positions, including Managing Partner at Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, and Head of Legal at Challenger Asset Management in Sydney.

Current term expires February 2027.

Steven Bardy: Member

Steven is a senior executive with extensive experience as a regulator and advisor in financial services and financial services regulation. He consults on financial services regulation to the World Bank and is a senior advisor to Principia Advisory, a European based global leader in ethics consulting. He was previously Managing Director of Promontory Australia, an IBM company, and a senior executive leader at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. He was also the inaugural chair of the Assessment Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and an ASIC representative on the IOSCO Board. His earlier career included working in the finance and tax practices of the Australia and US offices of an international law firm, holding ministerial advisor positions across a number of portfolios in the Victorian Government, holding senior risk and compliance positions in an Australasian Bank, and strategy consulting in both Australia and Europe.

Current term expires February 2027.