Board of Commissioners

Minister of Tertiary Education and Skills

Our ELT:

• is responsible for our performance and the outcomes we achieve
• meets weekly to discuss organisational issues and risks, and make decisions on our strategy, policy and practice
• the ELT provides advice and information to the Board of Commissioners and to our Ministers.

Tim Fowler, Chief Executive

“I'm truly privileged to do this job. I get to work with a superb group of people in a sector that makes a real difference to New Zealand and New Zealanders.”

Tim has been our Chief Executive since April 2013. He was previously Deputy Chief Executive, Quality Assurance at the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. Tim has held leadership positions in Australia and New Zealand in both the private and university sectors, after starting his career in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Tim has an Honours Degree from Victoria University of Wellington, a Masters from the East-West Center and the University of Hawaii, and executive education from INSEAD and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Gillian Dudgeon, Deputy Chief Executive, Delivery Directorate

“I am excited and privileged to be part of a team which is focused on improving the lifelong learning experiences of every New Zealander.” 

As Deputy Chief Executive of our Delivery Directorate, Gillian oversees our customer-facing unit, and leads the teams responsible for implementation and delivery of our products and services, relationship management, negotiation, performance management and monitoring. 

Gillian joined TEC in July 2018, and prior to this she spent four years with the Earthquake Commission as their Chief Risk Officer and led the Internal Partners team. She has also held executive roles at ANZ and the National Bank across customer-facing, product management, IT and risk management teams.

John Soulis, Deputy Chief Executive, Corporate and Finance Directorate

“My first impression of the TEC is of an organisation with focused and enthusiastic people who are passionate about making a positive difference to the tertiary education sector in New Zealand.” 

As our Deputy Chief Executive Corporate and Finance, John has oversight of a large financial management function, including external auditing of tertiary education organisations. His team coordinates and manages TEC human resources, organisational planning and performance, project management and accountability documents including our Statement of Intent and Annual Report.

John joined TEC in 2016 from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), where he was Manager of the Strategic Finance team and Capital Portfolio Office for three years. He developed MBIE’s first Strategic Financial Plan, which was the basis for forecasting the Ministry’s financial position.

A CA qualified accountant, John has over 25 years’ experience in financial services, banking and telecommunications.

Nina Ive, Deputy Chief Executive, Careers and Investment Design Directorate

Nina has spent the last 20 years working across a full range of business environments in New Zealand, the United States and Europe. She has been the brand champion for many of New Zealand’s most well-known brands including Mainland Cheese, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Wellington’s own Snapper.

Nina joined the TEC in 2018 and is Deputy Chief Executive of the Careers and Investment Design Directorate. Careers and Investment Design is responsible for developing strategies, initiatives and policies to enable the organisation to meet its goals in the areas of careers and investment.  The Directorate develops the interventions and plans off those strategies, then markets and communicates the integrated view of what TEC wants to achieve.

Mathew Pawley, Deputy Chief Executive, Information Directorate

Mathew joined the TEC from the tertiary sector where he was Executive Director – Digital Services and Enterprise Projects at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, for the past five years. His area of responsibility included courseware development, IT service operations, applications development, infrastructure provision and Enterprise Project delivery for the Open Polytechnic’s 450 staff and over 32,000 customers. 

Mathew has a good understanding of the importance and complexities of the information needs of the tertiary sector in New Zealand. He is passionate about education and contributing to TECs vision of a resilient, prosperous New Zealand.

Morgan Healey, Acting Deputy Chief Executive, Ōritetanga Learner Success Directorate

“I am deeply committed to creating an equitable society, based on fairness and social justice. It is a huge privilege to lead TEC’s Ōritetanga mahi and to work closely with the sector to achieve successful outcomes for learners.”

Morgan has been our Manager Ōritetanga Learner Success since November 2019 and is now Acting DCE. The team is responsible for supporting the organisation to deliver system-level equity in participation and performance for all learners.

Since completing her PhD in 2010, Morgan has spent the majority of her professional career at the TEC, working in a variety of roles: from working with the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics and wānanga sector, to implementing the Tertiary Education Strategy and delivering the 2018 PBRF Quality Evaluation.

Morgan briefly worked in the non-profit sector in the US, where her work focused on how social needs, like food and housing insecurity, should be considered a part of basic healthcare.