Business New Zealand

Business NZ is New Zealand’s largest business advocacy body, headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand. The president of the Business NZ council is Stephen Collins and Phil O'Reilly is the chief executive.

Membership

Membership is drawn from four of the country’s largest regional business organisations: The Employers and Manufacturers Association Northern [http://www.ema.co.nz/] , EMA Central, the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and the Otago Southland Employers’ Association, which offer services and support to 14,500 member companies.

Business NZ also represents more than 70 of New Zealand's national industry associations with a combined membership of some 76,000 employers, which together employ about 80 per cent of the country’s private sector employees.

Advocacy

Business NZ advocacy, based on consultation with thousands of member businesses, is aimed at achieving growth-related goals for trade, the economy, the business environment, infrastructure, energy and the environment, skills and innovation and employment relations.

In 2007 Business NZ led a major study on how emissions trading could work in New Zealand. This resulted in the NZIER report: Emissions trading scheme for New Zealand [http://www.http://www.businessnz.org.nz/file/1188/Emissions%20Trading%20Scheme%20for%20NZ.pdf]

Chief executive Phil O'Reilly

Chief executive Phil O’Reilly is New Zealand’s employer delegate to the International Organisation of Employers and the International Labour Conference.

The New Zealand Listener magazine ranked Phil O'Reilly at number 30 on its 2007 'Power List' of the 50 most influential New Zealanders. [http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3515/features/9638/the_people_who_shape_our_world,7.html]

Phil O’Reilly was previously head of employment policy and communication at Westpac Bank in Sydney before returning to New Zealand as chief executive of Business NZ.

History

Formed from the 2001 merger of the NZ Employers' and Manufacturers' Federations, Business NZ has a hundred-year history, with its four regional business associations established in the four main centres of New Zealand around the turn of the 20th Century.

Governing body

Business NZ is goverened by an elected council, with its 17 members drawn from the four regional associations. Stephen Collins is the president of the council, which meets six times a year.

External links

[http://www.businessnz.org.nz Business NZ website]