Bronwen Horton - Chair & Founder

Written by NZBWN. Posted in Our Board.

Joined the board: May 2020B Horton large size

Role: Chair & Founder

Length of time with the Network: 11 years

For over a decade Bronwen has been the friendly, reassuring face thousands of relieved kiwi women have seen when they’ve walked into their first NZBWN meeting.  

Dedicated and generous, with an energy that we suspect is powered by Pineapple Lumps, Bronwen has proudly watched the network grow from 50 to 2,000 members.

Bronwen is passionate about helping women develop and grow, clocking up 10,000 voluntary hours in the process. For her the network has always had a social purpose and her vision continues to enrich the careers and lives of thousands of kiwi women by bringing them together to learn, connect and be inspired. The 2013 UK New Zealander of the Year and one of only 100 women in the world honoured in Washington for her work on the economic power of women has been described by the media as a ‘thought leader’ and radical change agent.’

Both in London and the UK she is committed to supporting her community. One of those many occasions was helping to raise over £2 million for her hometown of Christchurch following the devastating 2011 earthquake.

Her background includes expertise in wealth management, business change project management, financial advisory, tax and private banking. She is a consummate networker and relationship manager, who has led and developed cross-border teams, global projects and business growth

Brought up in Christchurch, Bronwen studied law and commerce at the University of Canterbury before moving to the UK in 2007. She is married to fellow Kiwi Mike, and is currently a Financial Planner at Killik & Co., Investment House in Mayfair, London. 

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Diane Berry - IT & Systems

Written by NZBWN. Posted in Our Board.

Joined the board: May 2020Diane Berry 33

Role: IT & Systems Director 

Length of time with the network: New member 2020

Diane is a leader in data science (machine learning and artificial intelligence), advanced analytics and engineering solutions.  Her career has focused on applied math and information technology (IT) across industry and academia. At present, she is the Senior Manager in Data Science at Bain & Company and leads the Advanced Analytics Delivery Group in London.

At Bain, she advises on data and analytic strategies, analytic use case process to learn, build and scale solutions, and leads engineering development of advanced analytics solutions with tangible results.  She ensures the right problems are solved and solutions are adopted. Diane regularly presents on advanced analytics topics.

Prior to joining Bain, Diane had an intervening period in academia at University College of London (UCL) in applying novel techniques in data science and statistics to medical research, which included investigating patterns in DNA. She has co-authored some 28 papers published in academic journals, such as Lancet and Nature Genetics.   

The first part of her career was 9+ years IT industry and where she gained extensive software engineering and database development experience. She has worked for JP Morgan Chase and HSBC as well as commodity derivatives trading house.

Diane’s personal mission is to motivate, inspire and keep women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) careers. She believes this can be done through collaborating broadly, experience sharing and learning from all. 

Diane has a PhD in Statistics and MSc in Statistical Science from UCL, London and Bachelor of Technology in Information Engineering from Massey University, New Zealand.  She grew up in Tawa (on the flat), Wellington, New Zealand.  

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Fiona Macdonald - Programme & Events

Written by NZBWN. Posted in Our Board.

Joined the Board: May 2020FionaMcDonald

Role: Programme & Events Director

Length of time with the network: 4 years

Fiona is an events and tourism specialist. As Senior Manager, Business Events at VisitBritain, Fiona delivers on the UK government’s strategy to grow international business events in the UK under the government-wide ‘GREAT Britain’ campaign.

Fiona leads an international marketing campaign a targeting the events industry which includes a busy event programme of international tradeshows and conferences and regularly speaking at events industry forums. 

At Reed Exhibitions – one of the world’s largest events companies and a FTSE-100 – Fiona delivered on an ambitious global growth strategy for the Travel Division with double-digit revenue growth. Through new launches and acquisitions, the Division doubled in size with 14 new events in 11 countries, including the international expansion of well-known events including World Travel Market, one of the UK’s largest trade events with 50,000 travel professionals. 

Fiona’s career started at the NZ Ministry of Tourism (now MBIE), giving tourism policy and research advice to the then Tourism Minister, Prime Minister John Key, working on a number of nationally-important tourism projects including the national cycleway.

Passionate about female empowerment and leadership, Fiona is excited to develop one of the most critical elements of the Network – its events and programmes – to enable the NZBWN community create powerful, personal connections.

Fiona grew up in Timaru, with a Bachelors and Masters degrees from Otago University. She’s lived in in London for nine years and loves travelling and the outdoors – especially snowboarding and mountain biking.

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