KiwiRail panel of advisers to include tourism industry heads.
KiwiRail has appointed a panel of advisers, including Tourism New Zealand chairwoman Dame Kerry Prendergast, former Tourism New Zealand head George Hickton and Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts.
Dame Kerry is a former mayor of Wellington, a former vice-president of Local Government New Zealand and holds an MBA from Victoria University. She chairs Tourism New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission.
Dame Kerry is also a director of Oceania Healthcare, Compass Health PHO, and NZ China Council, and a trustee of the Wellington International Arts Foundation, the New Zealand Community Trust, the Wellington Free Ambulance and the Victoria Foundation. She is an advisory board member of both the Phoenix Football Club and the NZ-US Council Advisory Board.
Raised in Whakatane, Roberts studied politics and history at university before working as a radio journalist. He also worked at Parliament, including three years with the Minister of Tourism. That was followed by management roles in the energy sector before joining Tourism New Zealand in 2012 as a general manager responsible for communications, government and industry relations. In 2014, Roberts moved to the Tourism Industry Association, as chief executive.
Mr Hickton has been involved in a wide variety of businesses during his career and is actively engaged as a director for a number of tourism and film-related companies. He chairs the boards of Hawkes Bay Tourism, Weta Workshop, the Miramar film group’s property company and Kapiti Island Nature Tours. He is also a past director of Hobbiton Movie Set tours and the Park Rd Post Production facility.
Mr Hickton spent 10 years as chief executive of Tourism New Zealand and was responsible for establishing New Zealand’s 100% pure marketing campaign.
Before joining the tourism industry Mr Hickton was chief executive of the New Zealand TAB for four years and was responsible for its major rebranding and expansion into sports betting. He came to the TAB after six years in the core public service, after having established both the New Zealand employment and income support services (now WINZ).
Earlier Mr Hickton spent 23 years in the motor industry in a wide variety of roles.
In 2012 he was inducted into the New Zealand Marketing Hall of Fame. In 2016 he was a recipient of the tourism industry’s Sir Jack Newman award for outstanding leadership.
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