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2019 Business Links Seminars

Access information about the 2019 Business Links seminar series.

'Auditing Well-being: The Welsh experience' CAGTR Business Links seminar

29 July 2019 from 5.30 pm–7 pm

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, Rutherford House, Lecture Theatre 1, 23 Lambton Quay, Wellington.

The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 has been described as world-leading and innovative. It requires all public bodies in Wales to set and publish well-being objectives, that are designed to maximise their contribution to achieving the Welsh Government's seven well-being goals, and to report annually on their progress.  In doing so each public body is required to act in a manner that reflects 'five ways of working', i.e. a long-term focus, prevention, integration, collaboration, and involvement.

The Act also requires the Auditor General for Wales to examine and report on the extent to which each public body has acted in accordance with the above requirements. However, the implementation of this Act comes with no prior models or pre-defined standards. How then can the audit function provide some meaningful assurance about how public bodies are going about their new tasks? To do so, Welsh Audit Office has had to develop a new set of tools and ways of working. Adrian Crompton will discuss these challenges and his office's response to them.

Presentation by Adrian Crompton, Auditor General for Wales

After studying Economics at Bath University, Adrian worked as a Clerk in the House of Commons Library Research Division. He later spent time as a Government Statistician at the Welsh Office before moving to the newly established National Assembly for Wales. Adrian undertook various roles at the National Assembly before becoming Director of Assembly Business in 2007.

Since 2014, Adrian has worked as an Associate for Global Partners Governance, a social purpose company strengthening parliamentary democracy and political institutions in countries around the world. Adrian is a member of the Study of Parliament Group, which brings together senior parliamentary staff and academics studying parliamentary government and political science, and the Political Studies Association, which promotes political engagement and research with politicians, academia, the media and other key opinion formers.

In 2018, Adrian Crompton was recommended by the National Assembly for Wales for appointment as the Auditor General for Wales. As head of the Wales Audit Office, he oversees the annual audit of some £20 billion of taxpayers’ money and is appointed on an eight-year term.

'What's happening with copyright online?' APCA & CAGTR Business Links seminar

23 May 2019 from 5.45 pm–7 pm

Victoria University of Wellington, Government Buildings, Lecture Theatre 2, 15 Lambton Quay, Wellington.

A presentation by James Ting-Edwards, Senior Issues Advisor at InternetNZ, on emerging issues and developments in the field of online copyright.

Presentation by James Ting-Edwards

James Ting-Edwards is Senior Issues Advisor at InternetNZ working on projects that support a better Internet, across the focus areas of access, trust, and creative potential. He has worked on telecommunications regulation, updating copyright law, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In his free time, James practices his Mandarin and performs on-stage improvisation with the Covert Theatre.

'How to reduce crime at your company?' CAGTR Business Links seminar

21 May 2019 from 5.30 pm–7 pm

Victoria University of Wellington, Rutherford House, Lecture Theatre 2, 23 Lambton Quay, Wellington.

For the last ten years Professor Paul Healy has studied corporate crime at multinational companies throughout the world.

In this session he shares his research into how these situations arose, and insights into how leaders can reduce the risk of crime in their organizations.

Presentation by Paul Healy

Professor Healy is the James R. Williston Professorship of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Professor Healy earned his B.C.A. Honors (1st Class) in Accounting and Finance from Victoria University of Wellington in 1977, and his Ph.D. in Business from the University of Rochester in 1983. He then joined the faculty at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, where he received awards for teaching excellence and served as Deputy Dean.  Professor Healy joined Harvard Business School in 1997, and has served as Chair of the Doctoral Programs, Chair of the Accounting & Management Unit, and Senior Associate Dean for Research and then for Faculty Development. He has taught courses in accounting, financial analysis, corporate governance and business ethics at the MBA and executive levels.

Professor Healy's research focuses on Wall Street research, corporate governance and corruption, and financial analysis. His work has been published in leading journals in accounting and finance. He is also the coauthor of a leading financial analysis and valuation textbook. His research awards include the AICPA/AAA Notable Contribution Award for outstanding contributions to research (in 1990 and 1998) and the AICPA/AAA's Wildman Medal for contributions to the practice (in 1997).

CAGTR & APCA Business Links seminar: 'Blockchain’s potential to radically transform law'

28 February 2019 from 5.45 pm–7.15 pm

Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, have captured the public’s imagination.

At this seminar Associate Professor Alex Sims explains that while cryptocurrencies are interesting, the real impact of Blockchain is the technology it created, blockchain: a combination of technology (distributed computing and cryptography) and economics. Blockchain is just one form of distributed ledger technology (DLT), newer DLT’s make Bitcoin appear primitive. It is hard to downplay the effect that DLT will have on society and in turn the law. This talk will give an overview of blockchain and distributed ledger technology and look briefly at a few of the many areas of law that could be affected including: contract law, company law, insolvency, PPSA, land law, property, trusts, wills, intellectual property, dispute resolution and privacy. DLT also allows the tantalising prospect of code as law.

Speaker

Alex Sims is an Associate Professor in the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Auckland Business School and is a blockchain researcher and enthusiast. In late 2016 Alex was part of a team awarded a grant by the Law Foundation on the legal regulation of cryptocurrencies in New Zealand. Alex’s legacy research and publication areas are primarily on copyright law, in particular fair dealing and fair use and also consumer law. Alex is a past President of the Asian Pacific Copyright Association and was a board member of Consumer NZ as well as a member of the Governing Council of Telecommunications Dispute Resolution (TDR).  Amongst other things Alex is on the Executive of University of Auckland’s Cyber Security Foundry.

Organised together with the Asian Pacific Copyright Association (APCA).

CAGTR and XRB Business Links seminar: 'New leasing standards for both PBEs and for-profit—the devil is in the detail'

11 February 2019 from 5.30 pm–7 pm

Rutherford House, Lecture Theatre 2, 23 Lambton Quay, Wellington.

At this seminar, Ian Carruthers provided an update on IPSASB’s work on their leasing standard, Angela Ryan provided a NZ perspective for the public sector, Francis Caetano considered local government issues, and Karl Hickey provided the for-profit perspective and experience to date.

Panellists

Ian Carruthers was appointed Chair of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) in 2016, having been a Board Member since 2010. He joined CIPFA as its Policy and Technical Director in 2006, after spending 10 years at HM Treasury where he played a key role in the UK Government’s transition from cash to accrual budgeting and reporting, in particular leading its Whole of Government Accounts programme. During his time at CIPFA, Ian has been a member of the UK Accounting Standards Board’s Committee on Accounting for Public Benefit Entities, (including charities) for eight years, as well as leading the technical team responsible for developing the UK Charities SORP since 2015. He chaired the working group for the CCAB-sponsored research on international not-for-profit reporting published in 2014, and, as Chair CIPFA Standards since 2016, he leads the International Forum of Accounting Standard Setters (IFASS) Not-for-profit working group. On a volunteer basis, for a number of years Ian was Chair of the Board of a UK-based touring theatre company, and the Finance Committee of a registered social landlord, both of which were registered charities.

Angela Ryan is a Principal Accounting Advisor at The Treasury. In this role she provides accounting policy advice on a range of issues affecting the whole of government financial statements. She has also project managed the Government’s NZ IFRS implementation process. Angela is a past Deputy Chair of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB). Prior to joining The Treasury, she was an IFRS advisor at ANZ National Bank Ltd and held various accounting roles in other commercial and public sector organisations. Angela is the Deputy Chair of the NZ Accounting Standards Board.

Francis Caetano is Group Financial Controller at Auckland Council, New Zealand’s largest territorial local authority. His responsibilities include preparation of the Council’s external financial reports, advising on the application of accounting standards as well as updating and maintaining financial control processes within Council. Francis has over 30 years’ private and public sector financial reporting experience, internationally as a Partner with Deloitte’s Southern African practice and recently with Audit New Zealand specialising in Local Government and Crown Entity sectors. He has a specific interest in the practical application of accounting standards that achieve the right reporting outcome being informative, clear and concise rather than purely theoretically correct. Francis is a member of the NZ Accounting Standards Board.

Karl Hickey is Senior Finance Manager, Financial Policy and Governance, at ANZ Bank Ltd. In this role he is involved in the review of financial reports for ANZ and its associated entities operating in a range of industries. He is also responsible for providing NZ GAAP policy interpretations and liaising with other significant New Zealand banks and financial institutions. Previously Karl was Executive Director of the Technical Consulting Group at Ernst & Young, which included being a member of the financial instruments panel and subject matter expert for agriculture. Karl is a member of the NZ Accounting Standards Board.

Organised together with the External Reporting Board

The External Reporting Board (XRB) is an independent Crown Entity responsible for accounting and auditing & assurance standards in New Zealand. The XRB was originally established under section 22 of the Financial Reporting Act 1993, with continued existence under section 12 of the Financial Reporting Act 2013. The XRB is also subject to the Crown Entities Act 2004.