Jennie is a skilled policy and regulatory professional with nearly 20 years experience in public policy. She’s highly regarded, and brings a strong combination of on-the-tools experience and the ability to lead and manage

Jennie has extensive experience shaping and stewarding regulatory systems. She has worked in the systems for COVID-19, competition, consumer law, financial markets, and telecommunications.

Joining MartinJenkins in 2022, Jennie had earlier been a policy manager in government, leading policy teams in the COVID-19 response and at the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment. Her work included supporting MBIE’s Policy Graduate Programme and Policy Capability Programme.

Jennie is known to many in government for her collaborative approach and sound advice. She’s recognised as a safe pair of hands in difficult, fast-paced settings.

Jennie is experienced at working with Ministers and Select Committees, and is adept at shaping and implementing government priorities.

She has considerable experience in competition and economic regulation. She spent four years leading competition policy advice for MBIE, including on cartel reforms and market study powers for the Commerce Commission. Earlier in her career she spent three years advising on telecommunications policy reforms.

Jennie also has experience in evaluation, government appointments, Budget bids, Crown entity monitoring, and economic development.

Examples of Jennie’s work

• COVID-19 – At the start of the pandemic Jennie was a manager in the strategic policy unit in the National Crisis Management Centre. She later established and led a policy team in MIQ. She also worked with an agency to evaluate its COVID-19 response, and worked on orders made under the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020.

• Regulatory strategy – She reviewed the operating model for regulatory impact analysis at the Treasury and also established regulatory charters for two regulatory systems, the competition system and the consumer and commercial system.

• Legislative reforms – Jennie has worked on several legislative reforms, from design through to implementation. This includes amendments to the Commerce Act, the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act, the Land Transport Act, Country of Origin food labelling legislation, and the Telecommunications Act.

• Competition and economic regulation – Jennie led the Competition and Consumer policy team at MBIE from 2016 to 2020. During this time she advised Ministers on cartel reforms, market studies, airport regulation, retail payment systems, and the Commerce Act. Earlier, from 2003 to 2007, she worked on a major review of telecommunications regulation, including the operational separation of Telecom.

• Financial markets policy – Jennie worked at the Financial Services Authority in the UK for four years after the global financial crisis, and so is experienced in financial markets regulations. Back home in Aotearoa, as part of the Financial Markets policy team at the Treasury, she also advised on financial stability, macro-prudential regulation, and loan-to-value ratios.

Jennie’s qualifications

Jennie has a BA with a major in Economics and an LLB (Bachelor of Laws), both from the University of Auckland.