The line-up of speakers for Financial Literacy 09 included Wendy van den Hende from the UK, Chief Executive of Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg), and Annamaria Lusardi from the USA, Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College and an expert in the field of financial literacy.

• Bill English
• Annamaria Lusardi
• Wendy van den Hende
• Diana Crossan
• Jan Anderson
• Ralph Stewart
• David Feslier

Hon Bill English, Minister of Finance
Bill English is the Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Leader of the National Party, Minister of Finance, Minister for Infrastructure and MP for Clutha / Southland. He was first elected to Parliament in 1990 as MP for Wallace, a large rural electorate covering the deep south-west end of New Zealand. Bill was born in Dipton, Southland, and farmed in the area.

He completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Otago University, followed by a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in English Literature at Victoria University in Wellington.

Bill held ministerial posts in education, health, revenue and finance and was leader of the National Party from October 2001 to October 2003.

Dr Annamaria Lusardi

Dr Annamaria Lusardi is Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. From 1 July, 2009 she will hold the Joel Z and Susan Hyatt Endowed Chair in Economics at Dartmouth College. She has taught at Princeton University, the University of Chicago Public Policy School and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2008 she was visiting scholar at Harvard Business School. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.

Annamaria has advised the US Treasury, the US Social Security Administration, the Dutch Central Bank, and the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center on issues related to financial literacy and saving. She is also the consultant to the Subgroup on the Evaluation of Financial Education Programs, International Network on Financial Education, at the OECD. She is recipient of the Fidelity Pyramid Prize, awarded to authors of published applied research that best helps address the goal of improving lifelong financial well-being for Americans. In 2008 her book, Overcoming the saving slump: How to increase the effectiveness of financial education and saving program was published (University of Chicago Press).

Watch  Annamaria Lusardi's interview on TV3. 

Wendy van den Hende

Wendy van den Hende was appointed as pfeg’s first Chief Executive in 2000. She has since grown the organisation from a staff of 2 staff to 58.

pfeg is the leading finance education organisation in England, helping schools to plan and teach personal finance relevant to students’ lives and needs. pfeg’s ground breaking projects have been funded by the government and the Financial Services Authority as a key element in the UK’s national strategy on financial capability.

Wendy was previously Chief Executive for Parent Network, Deputy Director of the National Council for One Parent Families and interim director of the Camelot Foundation. She is Chair of Milton Keynes Citizen Advice Bureau and a governor of Stantonbury Campus, one of the largest comprehensives in the UK. 

Read Wendy van den Hende's interview with the Sunday Star Times newspaper.

Read an article by Wendy van den Hende on financial education in Britain.
 

Diana Crossan
Diana Crossan was appointed Commissioner in February 2003. She came to the role after working extensively in the private and public sectors. Her career started as a probation officer. Diana has held several senior roles in the public service and was in the set up team for Contact Energy. For a short time, she was General Manager Hydro at Clyde and Roxburgh. Her financial services industry experience began with AMP as Manager of Agency Development in 1997. In 2000 she was appointed leader of an AMP team in the UK.

As Commissioner, Diana is on the Advisory Board, Subgroup on Schools’ Education, and Chair of the Subgroup on Evaluation, International Network on Financial Education, at the OECD. She is on the New Zealand National Strategy for Financial Literacy Advisory Group and Chair of the Tertiary Financial Literacy Steering Group.

As well as being the Retirement Commissioner part time, Diana is on several boards in the private, public and community sectors.

 Jan Anderson, Principal, Otago Girls’ High School
Jan Anderson graduated from the University of Otago in 1970, taking up teaching positions at Bayfield High School, James Hargest High School and Southland Girls’ High School. She was appointed principal of Otago Girls’ High School in October 1994, New Zealand’s oldest public secondary school for girls’ with a roll of 800 students. During her time as principal, Jan has chaired the Otago Principals’ Association and the Otago-Southland Principals’ Association. In 2002 Jan was awarded a Woolf Fisher Principals’ Fellowship which enabled her to go on a study tour of Canada, Ireland and Britain.

Jan is a member of the executive of the Secondary Principals’ Association of New Zealand (SPANZ). Since 2005 Jan has been the SPANZ advisor for the Retirement Commission, and is on the Reference Group and the Selection Committee for the Personal Financial Education Framework for Schools Project.

 Ralph Stewart, Chief Executive Officer, AXA New Zealand

Ralph has over 20 years experience in the financial and investment industries, including General Management, Marketing and Strategic Development roles. His directorships have included Financial Telephone Company Limited (FinTel), TOWER China Insurance Limited and the Investment Funds Association of New Zealand. He’s a board member of the Investment Savings and Insurance Association (ISI) and Victoria University’s Faculty of Commerce and Administration Advisory Board. Ralph holds an MBA (Hons) from Manchester University and a Diploma of Business Administration from Victoria University.

David Feslier

David Feslier was appointed Executive Director of the Retirement Commission when it was established in the mid-1990s.

He came to the role after working in both the private and public sectors. He has worked in various Government research roles including Statistics, Health and Tourism. His financial services industry experience began with AMP as Manager of Research.

David leads the New Zealand Network for Retirement Income Research and is developing the New Zealand Network for Financial Literacy. He is particularly interested in innovative approaches to financial education, measuring the effectiveness of financial education, and the development of National Strategies to improve financial literacy.