Roger Kerr, Executive Director

When awarding Roger Kerr the NZIER Qantas Economics Award in 2001, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research chairman Michael Walls said:

"No single individual has done more over the last 15 years to persuade important parts of the business sector to support economic policies which, though often contrary to the interests of individual firms, were in the interests of the country as a whole."

Roger Kerr is the Executive Director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable. He has spent much of his career working to improve the quality of economic policy debate in New Zealand.

As well as the NZIER Qantas Economics Award, Roger was presented with the Tasman Medal by the Melbourne-based Tasman Institute in 1994 in recognition of his contribution to public policy. He is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management (FNZIM).

Roger is widely published both in New Zealand and abroad, and is often approached to provide his insight on issues in the media.

He is often invited as a guest speaker by a diverse range of organisations.

Before his present role, Roger was a senior figure in both the New Zealand Treasury and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He was a director of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand from 1986 to 1994, a member of the Council of Victoria University of Wellington from 1995 to 1999, and a member of the Group Board of Colonial Limited in Melbourne from 1996 to 2000.

Roger holds an MA (Honours, First Class) from the University of Canterbury and a BCA from Victoria University of Wellington.

A recent speech in which Roger outlined the principles of the New Zealand Business Roundtable can be found here: The New Zealand Business Roundtable: Same Principles, New Directions.

Roger's email address is rkerr@nzbr.org.nz