Publisher and Editor

Chris Claridge
Chris Claridge is currently the Director of ID Ltd. Chris has worked for the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce as a business advisor and lobbyist at central Government level. He was the Dean of Business Studies and Senior Lecturer in Management and Marketing at the Christchurch College of Education. He specialises in online communication, marketing and online publishing.

Chris has been involved in business issues at a national level and international level. His activities have included responsibility for organising the Business Forum at the Sixth APEC SME Ministers Meeting; recipient of an Asia 2000 Fellowship and the presentation of papers at international SME conferences. Chris has an entrepreneurial background in innovation and technology management, and the development of new products and services. He is currently on the board of three online publishing companies Vcapital Ltd and GP Media Ltd.

Contributing Writer

Peter Burdon
Peter has an extensive background in journalism and public relations. He has worked in daily journalism and still contributes on a freelance basis to a number of New Zealand publications. This gives him valuable insight into exactly what the news media is looking for.

Just as importantly, Peter has worked on the other side of the news. As a high-profile press secretary in the New Zealand Government, he got countless amounts of media coverage for both Cabinet Ministers and local members of Parliament.

After performing the same role for a major industry lobby group, he began to work with businesses of all shapes and sizes as a consultant for a leading New Zealand public relations company.

From there, he could see the opportunities available for businesses to get into the news through media outlets ranging from community newspapers to national television.

Peter has two Masters Degrees. The first was achieved in Journalism at the University of Canterbury and the second in Public Relations at the Sydney University of Technology.

Contributing Writer

Neville Bennet
Neville is an economic consultant. He graduated from the world’s top school, the London School of Economics with B.Sc.(Econ). Hons and a PH.D, winning the Leverhume prize for top student, and State studentships. He taught at Hong Kong University for 8 years before a 30 year stint at Canterbury University (now retired).

Neville is a columnist for NBR. He writes elsewhere, consults, gives financial advice and is also a director of the Foundation of the Blind, NZ Universities Superannuation, and Socrates Unit Trusts. Member Institute of Directors, formerly in MENSA. Had 9 years as Dep. Chair, Riccarton-Wigram Community Board.

Contributing Writer

Brian Easton
BRIAN EASTON is an independent scholar who researches, writes, works as a consultant and teaches in economic, social statistics, public policy and New Zealand Studies.

He holds degrees in mathematics and economics from the University of Canterbury, and in economics from Victoria University of Wellington. He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a Chartered Statistician, and a Member of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and a Distinguised Fellow of the New Zealand Economic Association. In May 2002 he was appointed to the Prime Minister’s Growth and Innovation Advisory Board.

The Royal Society of New Zealand awarded him a grant from the Marsden fund to study globalisation from 2004-2006. In 2004 he was also a Fulbright Distinguished Visiting Fellow. In 2007 he took up a one year Claude McCarthy Fellowship to begin writing an economic history of New Zealand.

His current major research activities include * distributional economics (currently a project on the economic and health status of households for the HRC) * economic evaluation (especially of health and the environment) * globalisation * growth and innovation * health systems * public policy His writings include the fortnightly column for The Listener, and occasionally for other journals and newspapers.

He has the current following honorary positions:
- Associate of the Stout Research Centre
- Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Public Policy, Auckland Univeristy of Technology.
- Honorary Fellow of SHORE (Centre for Social and Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation), Massey University.
- He also has given guest and keynote lectures and contributes papers to learned seminars and conferences, many of which appear in this website.
- A brief biography written around his publications up to 2003 is The Origins of Four Books

Contributing Writer

Dr Ganesh Nana | BERL - Business and Economic Research Ltd

Ganesh is a modelling, data and forecasting specialist. He brings an understanding of the macro economy to the BERL team along with extensive knowledge of the relationships between industries and sectors that together make up the New Zealand economy.

Despite his passion for numbers, Ganesh’s approach to economics is firstly and foremost people-based. According to him, economics is about people. It is about their jobs, their incomes, their opportunities, and their futures. He strongly believes robust economic analysis is critical to ensure informed choices and policy decisions are made to ensure a positive difference to the life and prospects of New Zealanders.

Ganesh has 25 years of experience in the field of economics since first working as a researcher at Victoria University and participating in contract project work for BERL in 1983. He has accumulated skills in modelling and analysis, combining both robust methodology with practical insights and common sense. His experience has included a variety of contract project work for BERL, research, tutoring and lecturing at Victoria University, as well as macroeconomic policy analysis and forecasting during a four-year stint in the UK using the IMF Multimod model.

In his role as editor of BERL Forecasts he has been responsible for BERL’s regular monitoring and assessments of the situation and prospects for the New Zealand economy. BERL Forecasts remains one of the most respected independent forecasting publications in New Zealand. Indeed, BERL Forecasts was ranked first in a Treasury analysis of the accuracy of forecasts for GDP over the 1996 to 2005 period.

But, before economics (and numbers), Ganesh regards cricket as his first passion, and also maintains an intense interest in rugby.

Contributing Writer

Jason Leung-Wai | BERL - Business and Economic Research Ltd

Jason joined BERL in May 2003 after seven years with the Ministry of Economic Development. His key areas of interest are in regional and industry development and policy. His work at BERL has focused around regional and economic development.

Jason has an excellent theoretical and working understanding of the issues facing businesses and regions in achieving growth. Jason has a Masters degree in economics as well as a bachelor degree in finance, both from Massey University.