People

NZWRI has a core team of 20 members who front our deliverables. NZWRI also has a strong membership of over 70 research experts across seven research groups. Together we produce research which is relevant to policy makers in business, government and the community.

Meet the team

Gail Pacheco
Director

Gail has considerable experience leading funded projects involving both academic and industry collaborations.

Email: gail.pacheco@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Lisa Meehan
Associate Director (Economics and Research)

Lisa’s experience spans international governmental organisations, the NZ public sector and economic consulting.

Email: lisa.meehan@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Alexander Plum
Senior Research Fellow, Leadership Team

Alex's research interests comprise labour economics and social welfare.

Email: alexander.plum@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Thomas Schober
Senior Research Fellow

Thomas' research interests comprise health, family, and labour economics.

Email: thomas.schober@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Leon Iusitini
Senior Research Fellow

Leon’s research interests include family economics, child development, and Pacific health and well-being.

Email: leon.iusitini@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Christopher Erwin
Research Fellow

Chris’ specialities include the economics of education, labour economics and more generally applied microeconomics.

Email: christopher.erwin@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Katherine Ravenswood
Leadership Team

Katherine’s expertise includes care/work regimes, gender and employee wellbeing, and inequality, power and voice at work.

Email: katherine.ravenswood@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Marcus Ho
Leadership Team

Marcus’ research and teaching themes lie at the nexus of wellbeing and performance, entrepreneurship and HRM.

Email: marcus.ho@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Antonio Dias Andrade
Leadership Team

Antonio leads the World Internet Project (NZ) longitudinal survey which analyses the attitudes toward the internet and its usage in New Zealand.

Email: antonio.dias@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Marjolein Lips-Wiersma
Leadership Team

Marjo leads the Map of Meaningful Work project, which creates a holistic development survey to guide meaningful work, lives and societies.

Email: marjo.lipswiersma@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Mary Hedges
Research Developer

Mary works in the areas of labour economics, behavioural economics and life-course econometric modelling.

Email: mary.hedges@aut.ac.nz

Tony Burton
Visiting Research Fellow

Tony was formerly at the New Zealand Treasury where he led the development of the Living Standards Framework. He is now a freelance writer and consultant.

Email: tony.burton@aut.ac.nz

Alexandra Turcu
Research Officer

Alex contributes to a range of research projects.

Email: alexandra.turcu@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Livvy Mitchell
Research Officer

Livvy contributes to a range of research projects. She works remotely from Wellington.

Email: livvy.mitchell@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Linda Tran
Research Officer

Linda contributes to a range of research projects.

Email: linda.tran@aut.ac.nz
Academic profile

Florian Fouquet
Visiting Researcher

Florian works in labour and education economics, with some interest in regional economics.

Email: florian.fouquet@aut.ac.nz

Tamara Tesolin
Institute Manager

Tamara looks after the day-to-day running of NZWRI. Her work days are Mondays, and Wednesdays - Fridays.

Email: tamara.tesolin@aut.ac.nz

Douglas Yee
Institute Administrator, Research Assistant

Douglas assists with the running of NZWRI and contributes to a range of research projects.

Email: douglas.yee@aut.ac.nz

Who we work with

Our team consists of a number of researchers, associates and project advisors.

Read more

Q+A with the team

We sat down with our members to ask questions about their career and what they enjoy doing to unwind in their spare time.

Read more

Contact us

For any general enquiries, please get in touch.

Contact us