New appointments to NZTE International team

16 October 2012:

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) has made five recent appointments to its International team.

Clayton Kimpton has been appointed as the new Regional Director for India, Middle East and Africa. He will oversee key relationships across the region and be responsible for the operations of NZTE’s offices in Dubai, New Delhi and Mumbai. He will join NZTE in January 2013 and move to Dubai in April.
Clayton is a senior commercial advisor with over 24 years’ experience in all areas of commercial negotiation, international trade, employment, industrial relations, health and safety, and governance.

He will join NZTE from commercial law firm Kensington Swan where he is Chief Executive Partner responsible for managing the business, leading key commercial development initiatives and maintaining an effective leadership structure.
Clayton has led Kensington Swan’s international trade programme both for New Zealand clients and for Kensington Swan itself, liaising with advisers in the United Arab Emirates, Australia and Asia. He advises on the effects and implications for trade and investment of the proposed free trade agreement with the GCC (Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf).

He was also a senior member of the trade and ministerial delegation to the Middle East in 2010 and a finalist in the Emerging International Business Leader Award at the 2010 International Business Awards.

Shaun Conroy has been appointed as the new Regional Director for East Asia. He will oversee key relationships across the region and be responsible for the operations of NZTE’s offices in South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam. He will start in Singapore in January 2013.

Shaun has been Regional Director for North East Asia for the last four years. The NE Asia region, which covered Japan and South Korea, has been combined with the former SE Asia region to allow for better coordination across East Asia.
He has substantial business experience in Asia, having worked in the finance industry in Hong Kong and Tokyo, as well as New Zealand. He also established and built his own business in Japan and ran a public company in the food industry in Australia prior to joining NZTE.

Tim Anderson has been appointed as the new Trade Commissioner for Indonesia and joins NZTE from Wellington commercial law firm, Gibson Sheat. This is a new role and reflects the growing importance of Indonesia.
Based in Jakarta, Tim will be responsible for facilitating and promoting trade and investment and maintaining an extensive network of business relationships relevant to New Zealand businesses.

Fluent in Bahasa Indonesia, Tim has been actively involved in Indonesia since 1993 having worked there as a business adviser and also through his role with Gibson Sheat. He is a member of the ASEAN-NZ Business Council and the New Zealand Indonesia Association and is on the steering committee of the NZ-Indonesia Friendship Council. Tim will join NZTE on 5 November and will move to Jakarta in January 2013.

Ryan Freer has been appointed as the new Trade Commissioner for South Korea. Based in Seoul, Ryan is responsible for facilitating and promoting trade and investment and maintaining an extensive network of business relationships relevant to New Zealand businesses.

Ryan’s experience covers a wide range of primary industries, including steel, coal, natural gas and automotive components, over a number of regions including South Korea, India, South East Asia and Australia.

Prior to joining NZTE in October, Ryan worked for an international consulting firm delivering energy market studies for major coal producers, logistic companies and traders. Fluent in Korean, he spent nine years living in South Korea gaining experience with Korean multinational corporations, the public sector and SMEs, and in 2006 received an MA from Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies.

Peta Conn has been appointed as Trade Commissioner/Consul General in New York where she will responsible for facilitating and promoting trade and investment and maintaining an extensive network of business relationships relevant to New Zealand businesses.

Previously, Peta was in charge of investment attraction activity across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and moved to New York in August.
Prior to joining NZTE, Peta created and headed up a business unit at market intelligence provider, Euromonitor International. In this role, she led a team responsible for global account management, research and business development activities with multinational companies throughout the FMCG and packaging supply chain.

Peta has conducted business globally from Europe and the United States to the emerging markets of Latin America, India and China. She is a graduate of the University of Auckland.

Lloyd Meiklejohn has been appointed as Regional Investment Manager for Europe where he will build a network of investors to help attract international investment to New Zealand and assist companies to expand their operations overseas through direct foreign investment
He has been based in London for over 20 years, working in investment banking across a variety of sectors and many European countries. His experience includes structured lending, acquisition and privatisation finance and investment vehicles.

Lloyd also worked for the New Zealand Film Commission in Wellington for two years where he supported the financing of larger budget New Zealand films and implemented and managed the Large Budget Screen Production Grant.

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