5 June 2019 at 9:00 am

Letter from the CE: Welcoming new ENZ whānau

Over the past year, ENZ has been working through a change process to ensure our organisational structure is aligned with the New Zealand International Education Strategy and the changing global operating environment for international education.

As a result, we have established some new and revised roles at ENZ. Please join me in welcoming them to the ENZ whānau.
International appointments include:

Lisa Futschek – General Manager, International
Lisa will be developing our international operations and integrating the work of all our international staff with the Partnership and Marketing team, in particular. Lisa has been with ENZ since 2013, after an 18-year diplomatic career with MFAT which included postings in Chile and Germany. At ENZ, Lisa has spearheaded initiatives such as the Generation Study Abroad and Go Overseas scholarships and Game on English; has championed the development of local language and tailored marketing materials; and has led the establishment of a permanent ENZ presence in Tokyo, Los Angeles and Bogota.

Amy Rutherford – Regional Director, Americas and Europe (based in Washington DC)
Amy joined ENZ back in April 2013 as the International Market Manager (IMM) for China. She subsequently picked up IMM responsibility for the USA and in that capacity spearheaded ENZ’s approach to North America. Since January 2016, Amy has been ENZ’s Senior Market Development Manager in the US, based initially in Los Angeles and now in Washington, DC. Amy joined ENZ with substantial experience in international education having worked for the International Office at the University of Otago and later for IFSA (a US third-party study abroad provider).

John Laxon – Regional Director – South and South East Asia Regions (based in Singapore).
John’s role has been expanded to encompass all of Asia including China, Japan and Korea. John had previously held responsibility for the South and South East Asian regions and the Middle East and has previously been based in Saudi Arabia. John has been with ENZ since 2014, having previously held roles at the Tertiary Education Commission, The Treasury and as a Ministerial Advisor.

Miranda Herbert – Director, Greater China
This China-based role will be responsible for managing, leading and supporting ENZ’s Greater China teams and leveraging opportunities with other NZ Inc agencies both in-market and New Zealand to promote New Zealand education. Miranda was previously the Deputy Director International at the University of Auckland (UoA) where she led UoA’s internationalisation work. Miranda’s leadership in transnational education projects and understanding of the Chinese student journey will be invaluable as we continue to evolve our ENZ China strategy. Miranda is a fluent Mandarin speaker, having graduated with a BA (Hons) in Chinese from the University of Waikato and spent four years living in China working in the education sector. Miranda will relocate to Beijing in July.


Sector and student-related appointments include:

Paul Irwin – General Manager, Partnerships and Marketing
Paul will be responsible for strengthening the connections between education providers and international students by bringing together ENZ’s international marketing, brand development, industry development and channels teams. Paul was previously General Manager Student Marketing, having joined ENZ from advertising agency FCB Wellington where he led the Wellington office for almost five years. He has extensive experience in marketing strategy, digital marketing, international marketing and team management, honed during the past 15 years in a range of management roles.

Laura Simpson – Director, Industry
Laura will be responsible for leading and managing initiatives to build the capability and capacity of New Zealand’s international education industry. Laura has a breadth of experience in the education and health sectors and is currently at the University of Auckland where she is the Associate Director for the MBA and Post Graduate Diploma programmes. Over her career, Laura has developed strengths in programme development and leading innovation and change in complex organisations, systems and teams. Laura will start on 8 July in our Auckland office.

Dan Smidt – Director, Channel Services & Partnerships
Dan joined ENZ in October 2017 on a two-year contract to revitalise and manage ENZ’s agent programme. This new role includes Dan’s previous responsibility for managing agents and developing our agent strategy, plus assumes responsibility for managing our events team and exploring channel partnership opportunities. A big focus in this role will be how we evolve and optimise our non-digital channels to improve impact and efficiencies while better meeting the changing needs of students, industry and agents. Dan will work closely with digital marketing teams to ensure all our non-digital channels are working efficiently alongside our digital channels and integrated with our data strategy.

Sahinde Pala – Director, Student Experience and Global Citizens
Sahinde will be managing the student experience (SX) and scholarships teams and shaping ENZ’s approach to Student Experience and Global Citizens within ENZ as well as with the education sector and government agency partners. Sahinde has been involved with ENZ’s student experience work for over three years, making important contributions to the development of NauMai NZ and the New Zealand International Education Strategy. From her time in ENZ’s Industry Development team, Sahinde brings great connections with education providers, peak bodies and regional agencies.

Grant McPhersonGrant McPherson

ENZ Chief Executive

 

 

 

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