Will Reedy
CEO
Spark Health

• Leading New Zealand's largest digital health services provider
• Delivering Spark Health and Wellness Vision and Strategy
• Leading the Spark Health Squad in providing input into health and life science industry solutions across Spark Group
• Supporting key customers on their digital transformation journey to deliver better health outcomes
• Maintaining and developing key relationships with customers and partners
• Providing strategic advice to key customers
• Working with the Leadership Squad to consider acquisition and investment opportunities

I also continue to work as a doctor one day a week at Counties Manukau District Health Board.

Matt Shepherd
Senior Lecturer
School of Psychology, Massey University

Matt is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology and is a staff member on the Clinical Psychology programme based at the Massey Albany campus.  He is a registered Clinical Psychologist and has worked for several NGOs and the Auckland District Health Board (ADHB).  Matt is an active researcher and is part of the E-therapy team within the school of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland.  The team develops computer applications for the treatment of adolescent mental health disorders.  Matt’s area of research is exploring the applicability of these programmes for rangatahi and whānau.  Matt is Registered with the New Zealand Psychologists Board.

Jason Myers
CEO
New Zealand AIDS Foundation

Dr Jason Myers graduated from the University of Auckland in 2010. His postgraduate work focused on the social and cultural geographies of HIV and AIDS in New Zealand. For his honours degree, Jason explored media representations of homosexuality in New Zealand through the early years of the AIDS crisis. His PhD then went on to explore the worlds of gay men living with HIV in Auckland. Employing photo-elicitation and diary writing as novel methods for geographical enquiry at the time, the PhD was as much an exploration of method as it was one of theory. Jason’s research is published in a number of academic journals and edited book collections. 

Following a two-year palliative care research fellowship at University College London, Jason returned to New Zealand and began working as a Policy Officer at the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF). By 2014, he was managing the organisation’s International Development programme where he worked with community groups around the Pacific in an effort to improve the health and rights of gender and sexual minorities. 

In late 2014, Jason moved into a leadership role with development charity Oxfam New Zealand. Heading up the advocacy and campaigns function of the organisation he led work in climate change, gender justice and economic inequality in the Pacific. After honing his not-for-profit leadership skills, Jason followed his heart back to the NZAF in 2016 when he took up the role of Executive Director. He has led a transformation in NZAFs strategic approach to HIV prevention and built an organisation that is fit-for-purpose and financially sustainable as it embarks on a mission of ending new HIV transmissions in New Zealand by 2025.

Jonathan Godfrey
President
Blind Citizens NZ

Dr Jonathan Godfrey is National President of Blind Citizens NZ, a Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) that exists to give voice to the aspirations and lived experiences of blind, deafblind, low-vision and vision impaired people living in New Zealand. Blind Citizens NZ was formed in 1945, making it the oldest DPO in NZ. “Access to information continues to be one of the most critical issues for our members today.”

Jonathan is the proud father of three children. He and his partner have a lifestyle block that keeps the whole family physically active. “I’m in the best shape of my life.”

Jonathan was the first totally blind person in the world to gain full time employment as a lecturer in Statistics and is now a Senior Lecturer at Massey University in Palmerston North. “My job is easier for me to do today than it was ten years ago due to improvements in access to information. It’s also much harder to complete admin tasks because the IT systems have not improved.”

Kim Connolly-Stone
Policy Director
InternetNZ

Kim Connolly-Stone is the Policy Director at Internet NZ. InternetNZ is the home and guardian of the .nz domain name system, providing the infrastructure, security and support to keep it running. It helps New Zealanders harness the power of the Internet through community grants and research, and provides an Internet perspective on government policy and law reform. 

Kim has a government and legal background, with prior roles at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, TePuniKokiri and Kensington Swan.  She has worked in a wide range of areas including digital economy, intellectual property, mining health and safety and Treaty settlements.

Webinar facilitator:

Rebecca McBeth
HiNZ News Editor

Rebecca McBeth joined the HiNZ team as editor of eHealthNews.nz in January 2018. Rebecca was previously news editor at Digital Health Intelligence in London and prior to that, was the senior health reporter at The Christchurch Press, where she won a NZ Canon Media Award and a NZ Reporting Diversity award. Based in Auckland, she is committed to communicating news, experience and knowledge throughout New Zealand’s data and digital health sector.