Angela has spent the past 20 years at the forefront of business and culture growth. She founded and led Consult Recruitment, one of NZ's most successful recruitment companies, through phases of substantial growth and success, earning recognition in the Deloitte Fast 50 Awards and the Deloitte Master of Growth Award, before successfully divesting the business to the STILL Group. She later founded LEAD Executive Search, which has since been incorporated into the Consult Group. With multiple leadership awards, business advisory roles, a few growth scars, and a healthy sense of humour and ambition, Angela now brings that same instinct for what actually makes a workplace work to her role as an independent judge for Best Places to Work, celebrating organisations that put people and culture first, and shining a light on what great workplaces and leadership actually look like in the real world.

Bridget is an experienced global leader who has built and led businesses in both the United States and New Zealand in recent years. She has held Chairperson, Director and CEO roles across a range of public and private sector entities.

Bridget is committed to innovation in our businesses and financial markets, and to responding as a nation to the challenges of climate change. She has worked with kiwi businesses, small and large, to deliver on these goals over a number of years. She is committed to the belief that, when we are at our best, our businesses are creative and bold and exciting, and can confidently aspire to be global leaders in their fields.

Unleashing the creativity and energy and enthusiasm of every member of the team is without doubt the primary route to business success. Those enterprises which can create a great employee experience will win in the marketplace, as well as creating a place where everyone can grow and learn and achieve their business and personal goals.

Carolyn Banks is the CEO of New Zealand Businesswomen and New Zealand Business Academy, two organisations dedicated to helping business owners and leaders grow with confidence, capability, and connection. Carolyn also serves on the EMA Members Advisory Board, giving her a unique perspective on the opportunities, challenges, and emerging trends shaping New Zealand businesses. Across these roles, she is passionate about helping organisations build stronger leaders, healthier workplace cultures, and sustainable pathways for growth. With expertise in strategic development, relationship management, leadership, and business growth, Carolyn's work centres on creating environments where people and businesses can reach their full potential. She believes that successful businesses are built on strong foundations: clear strategy, continuous learning, meaningful connections, and confident leadership.

Through these roles, Carolyn supports the development of business owners across New Zealand by providing access to practical learning, leadership development, business education, coaching, and powerful peer communities designed to help people thrive.

At the heart of everything Carolyn does is a simple belief: business is about people. She is passionate about helping business owners back themselves, invest in their own development, and build supportive communities around them. Through education, collaboration, and encouragement, she works to empower leaders to think bigger, lead better, and create positive impact within their businesses, families, and communities. Because when people grow, businesses grow, and when businesses grow, communities thrive.

David Downs BSc, CMInstD is a consultant and board director, with a portfolio of interests keeping him busy, across some key theme areas of technology for public good, healthcare and education. David is currently Chief Executive of Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao, an ambitious organisation marketing New Zealand to the world.

The organisations David is involved with are all about making Aotearoa New Zealand a better place – more productive, more innovative, more equitable and ultimately an even more special place to live. He is involved in business growth, marketing NZ and improving our access to innovation – David said BPTW ticks a lot of those boxes!

BPTW not only celebrates great initiatives and ideas, but helps share best-practices. With the world of work now radically different than it was even 5 years ago, there has never been a better time to learn how better to value your team, and get the best out of them. BPTW will help give us all new ideas on engagement and performance, and perhaps help NZ’s overall productivity.

James Hurman is a New Zealand-based entrepreneur, investor and advertising effectiveness expert. He is the founding partner of Previously Unavailable, a creative company that partners with, creates and invests into high-growth startup companies. James works with early-stage ventures to build ambitious brands and businesses through strategy and great storytelling. He said yes to being a BPTW™ judge because he believes how we treat our people defines what we can achieve. This programme shines a light on those lifting the standard of work and leadership in Aotearoa, NZ- and James is proud to be part of it. James believes deeply in the power of storytelling to shape culture - and workplaces are no exception. When we highlight the organisations where people thrive, we create a ripple effect across our business ecosystem. The best workplaces attract the best talent, drive innovation, and inspire others to lift their game. For James, it’s a privilege to put a spotlight on those who are leading the way and showing the world, what New Zealand businesses can be.

John Fraser-Mackenzie is the CEO of the EMA, one of New Zealand’s longest-standing business support organisations. With a career spanning executive finance roles across HJ Heinz in Zimbabwe, Germany, and the UK, and leadership positions at Goodman Fielder and Metro Performance Glass, John brings deep commercial and operational expertise. He also previously owned Pacific Harvest, a sustainable seaweed company acquired by Ceres Organics in 2024. John is passionate about workplace culture as a driver of business success. He believes the Best Places to Work™ programme plays a critical role in recognising and inspiring people-first leadership across Aotearoa, and is proud to support its mission.

Kalyn approaches every day with a singular purpose; to show the world that thriving humans at work and commercial success, go hand-in-hand. Kalyn's career has exposed her to all kinds of high-performance workplaces, most notably when I was a Director at North American retail leader, Aritzia LP, and on the SLT leading up to its listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

We partner with organisations to adapt and perform in the new world of work.

When we as leaders are constantly aiming to create better and more innovative workplace practices, this ultimately results in greater outcomes for all stakeholders, including NZ Inc! Hearing directly from our people, celebrating stories, and creating a community provides the platform to do this. Beyond what's on the tin, I love that BPTW connects employee experience to customer experience and financial performance, and provides employers an opportunity to provide proof of what it's like to work in their organisation. Getting awesome people into our awesome orgs is one the most important thing we can all do!

With over 20 years of senior People leadership, Karly's expertise has been recognised with numerous awards including NZ HR Director of the Year in 2025 and HRD Hot List 2023 & 2024. She has also led the People function inside an NZ tech business through a Best Places to Work win in 2024. Karly is a proud supporter of BPTW™, aligned with her strong belief that culture is a company's biggest competitive advantage and that leadership is a behaviour, not a title. She's passionate about championing the organisations brave enough to hold a real standard for their people, and holding up their example for others to follow.

Exceptional workplaces treat culture as a genuine operating system and their biggest competitive advantage. The difference is consistency. It's leadership behaving the same way whether things are going well or under pressure, and a willingness to hold a standard even when it would be easier not to. This year, I'm looking forward to seeing organisations that can show that, not just describe their culture, but back it up with decisions and hold to a real standard even when the work is uncomfortable. These are the workplaces building higher-performance businesses deliberately.

Having led a People function through a Best Places to Work win myself, I know what it actually takes to earn that recognition. It's not a tick-box exercise. It's years of consistent, sometimes hard decisions about what kind of organisation you want to be. Most people's work is built to be safe, and safe is the most expensive setting a business can run on. Being a judge means I get to spotlight the organisations brave enough to do the harder thing, and hold up their standards.

Michael is a passionate advocate for the Kiwi tech sector, with a keen ability for spotting people’s super powers – their personalities, experience and skills – and unleashing their potential. With a career spanning 15 years at IBM across eight roles, working as a fractional CMO, and now as Co-Founder of Flux B2B, he offers deep experience and insight in growth strategy and leadership.  Michael's belief in people's innate drive to do great work underpins everything he does. As the Convenor of Judges for the NZ Marketing Awards, he's no stranger to recognising excellence and brings that same eye for impact and potential to the BPTW™ judging panel.

Mike is an internationally experienced chief executive and director with skills and capabilities primarily developed within the global energy sector. Mike has worked in business contexts covering both turnaround and growth in the corporate sector, and since 2016 has been involved as a director in NZ’s venture capital ecosystem.

Mike's purpose is to realise individual and organisational potential. He deliver's on that through a portfolio of gigs as an author, speaker, consultant and executive coach.

Mike know's from personal experience that human workplaces deliver much better economic, social and environmental outcomes. Best places to work is a forum where our best practices and lessons from real-life experiences can be curated and shared so we can all accelerate human workplaces at a scale that makes a difference beyond the individual organisation.

Rob is Board chair of Simplicity NZ and Revolut NZ. From 2022 to 2025, Rob was CEO of NZ's sovereign venture capital fund NZ Growth Capital Partners. Prior to that, he was CEO of the Financial Markets Authority for nearly 8 years and before moving to NZ was in a variety of roles and locations with Merrill Lynch. Rob's an enthusiastic investor and participant in NZ's VC and start-up sector and a member of AngelHQ in Wellington.

For the employer, I want to see support for and development of their people. A caring environment that nonetheless expects and gets full effort and consistently excellent performance.

I am fascinated by people and what makes them who they are. In the workplace, I want to provide a setting in which people are motivated to do their best work and where they feel supported and valued.

Sam is the Director of the University of Canterbury's Kōawa Studios - an 11-hectare digital production, film, and creative-technology precinct that is home to more than 500 emerging digital production creatives - and an Executive Producer with a career spanning international screen production, digital innovation, and creative leadership. She works at the intersection of creativity, commerce, and technology, championing emerging production tools to ensure Aotearoa remains globally connected while staying proudly distinctive. Sam is deeply committed to empowering the next generation of talent through storytelling, technology, and purposeful partnerships that build a more inclusive and sustainable screen ecosystem. She brings this same values-driven approach to the BPTW™ judging panel, recognising that exceptional work environments are powerful enablers of excellence, creativity, and wellbeing. For Sam, floating all boats higher means showcasing the richness of Aotearoa's work culture to the world and amplifying the stories that make us proud to live and work here.

Vanessa Sorenson is a respected New Zealand technology leader with more than three decades of experience driving business growth and digital transformation. She most recently served as Managing Director of Microsoft New Zealand and Chief Partner Officer for Australia and New Zealand, where she led partner strategy and helped organisations harness cloud and emerging technologies to achieve impact at scale. Prior to Microsoft, Vanessa built a successful career at Spark New Zealand, progressing through senior leadership roles over more than 20 years. She is widely recognised for her commitment to diversity and inclusion in the technology sector, actively championing initiatives that support Māori, Pasifika and women in STEM. A passionate advocate for innovation and leadership development, Vanessa brings a practical, values-driven perspective, with a strong focus on impact, inclusivity, and real-world outcomes.

Exceptional workplaces are defined by trust, strong leadership, and a genuine commitment to people’s growth and wellbeing. They create environments where individuals feel valued, included, and empowered to do their best work. Vanessa is particularly looking forward to seeing how organisations are innovating to build inclusive cultures and deliver meaningful impact for both their people and their communities.

Vanessa is passionate about the role workplaces play in shaping people’s lives and unlocking potential. The opportunity to support and recognise organisations that are committed to building inclusive, high-performing cultures strongly aligns with her values. She was inspired to contribute her perspective and help highlight what great workplace experiences look like in practice.

Wendy is an executive coach, leadership adviser, and innovation consultant who has held senior roles at Apple, FT.com, and Pearson, and coached more than 300 leaders across four continents. Returning to New Zealand, she led the University of Auckland's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, became Global COO of a high-growth fintech, and today she helps founders and executive teams achieve what they once thought was beyond reach through her consulting business, Accelerate Impact, alongside serving as Chief Customer Officer of medtech startup Cannulight.

The best workplaces do not just talk about culture, they build the conditions where everyone can think bigger, contribute fully, and do their most creative work. Wendy looks forward to seeing organisations that can demonstrate the real-world difference that makes, for their people and their results.

New Zealand has a productivity problem, and great workplace culture is a significant part of the solution. When people feel trusted, valued, and creatively free, they innovate, and that ripple effect across our business ecosystem is exactly what Aotearoa needs right now.