Adrienne von Tunzelmann

Adrienne von Tunzelmann QSO CFInstD is the firm’s Principal.
She has an extensive public sector background spanning senior executive positions, policy leadership in key areas of Government, and roles in inter-government negotiations. She has a depth of experience in governance, having held a number of challenging board roles and being a Chartered Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. She was awarded the Queen's Service Order in 2016 for her contributions to community and governance.

Consulting
Drawing on her familiarity with government process and policy, much of Adrienne’s consulting work relates to governance and policy review in central and local government. She has, for example, undertaken a review of board procedure for a large crown agency and had key roles in independent reviews of significant areas of public policy.

Among her special interests are how organisations work with their stakeholders and manage stakeholder relationships, and voluntary and community sector issues. A feature of her work has been the development and implementation of approaches to partnership between public bodies and community organisations.

Governance
Adrienne is a Chartered Fellow of the NZ Institute of Directors. Her move into governance has seen her serve as a Director on the board of Pharmac (the NZ Government’s pharmaceutical management agency) and trustee of the Bay of Plenty Community Trust where she chaired the Audit and Research Committees. She has had governance roles in a range of voluntary and professional organisations including her past roles as President of the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce, trustee on the University of Waikato Foundation, long-standing Chair of the New Zealand Women's Refuge Foundation and President of the New Zealand Institute of Public Administration.

Her current governance roles include the Council of Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi where she sits on the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee and Appointments Committee; the board of Osteoporosis New Zealand, the board of Age Concern New Zealand (the national body for the network of independent Age Concern member councils, branches and associates operating throughout the country) where she is current Vice President; and the board of Age Concern Tauranga. She is also Patron of the Tauranga Community Housing Trust.

Adrienne is also a member of Pharmac's Consumer Advisory Committee. Pharmac is the New Zealand government agency for deciding which pharmaceuticals to publicly fund and is expanding its role into the management of hospital medical devices.

Mentoring aspiring board directors, especially talented young women, is something Adrienne enjoys.

Parliament
Adrienne has unusually in-depth expertise in the institution of Parliament and Westminster-style legislatures, having held the positions of Head of the Select Committee Office and Deputy Clerk of the NZ House of Representatives, during which she spent time on attachment to the British House of Commons. She has since participated in a number of Speaker-commissioned reviews of parliamentary administration and expenditure.

Commercial
She has a good understanding of the commercial regulatory environment. Having undertaken ground-breaking work on corporate social responsibility in New Zealand (her book on the subject was published by the Institute of Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington), she has maintained an up-to-date knowledge of shifts in business practice towards 'main-streaming' the social and stakeholder dimensions of business enterprise.

Her understanding of the business environment has been enhanced at the practical level by her work with the Chamber of Commerce which has included five years on the Tauranga Chamber board, two as President.

Qualifications
Adrienne has a First Class Honours degree in Economics from the University of Canterbury and a Master of Public Policy (with Distinction) from Victoria University of Wellington. She holds the Institute of Directors' Certificate in Company Directorship and is a graduate of advanced management programmes in New Zealand and overseas (including executive management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management).

Outside work …
… Adrienne sits on a number of committees in a volunteer capacity. She is a keen and reasonably adept house-renovator, dedicated Pilates student, movie-goer and book fan, and co-guardian to a family of cats.

She can be contacted at adrienne@mdl.co.nz