The team

Ngapera believes everybody should have access to good information, and that knowing how to find and use data is vital to solving our country’s biggest problems. She cares about everyone being able to take part in that, so we can collectively work towards a better future for Aotearoa.

Ngapera works closely with Māori business and education efforts across New Zealand. She currently holds board positions with the InZone Education Foundation, Simplicity Foundation, and Te Ohu Whai Ao Trust, which connects indigenous business efforts from around the world.

Formerly the Global Director of the World Class New Zealand Network for Kea, Ngapera has also worked for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Ministry of Health, University of Auckland, and Manukau Institute of Technology.

Andrea took on his role at Figure.NZ, when our website held just a handful of charts. He has been managing our large collection of data ever since, auditing tens of thousands of charts and tables a year. He loves seeing New Zealanders engaging with the content and creating information that is useful and truly useable. Outside Figure.NZ, Andrea currently manages the Accommodation Data Programme for the New Zealand tourism sector.

Annemieke comes to Figure.NZ from the public sector where she championed the use of data visualisations and worked towards improving the quality of data collections. She was attracted to Figure.NZ by the forward thinking, can-do culture. Mostly, Annemieke is super enthusiastic about providing New Zealand with easy to understand information to help with everyday decision making.

Karolina comes to Figure.NZ with a background in scientific research, administration and data collection. She loves to work with graphic visual representations of information and believes in finding uncomplicated ways to understand numbers. With a passion for unbiased facts, her daily motivation is to contribute to better informed decisions for everyone.

Nat thinks open data can help all New Zealanders understand and own our future.

From a background in the finance and SaaS sectors, Nat brings software interaction, product strategy, and learning design expertise to Figure.NZ. With a particular focus on usability and accessibility, Nat believes careful interface and experience design will make you love data as much as she does.

Nat also writes some of Figure.NZ's code, focussed on front-end development.

Matt brings over 20 years of experience wrangling code and data to the Figure.NZ team. He believes that removing barriers to accessing and using data helps us to make better decisions.

Matt also volunteers his data science skills to Hauraki Gulf conservation efforts, helping to ensure our beautiful marine areas survive and thrive for us all to enjoy.

After studying to be an architect, Michael decided architecting good code was better than architecting buildings. When he's not surfing, Michael helps keep Figure.NZ's servers running.

With over 20 years experience in the delivery of software and information systems, Rob joined the team because he has a strong belief that Figure.NZ is something that needs to exist. In his increasingly non-existent spare time, Rob likes tea, dumplings, and whisky.

Kelly Brown is a governance expert, seasoned founder, and strategic operator who scaled Triquestra into a values-led, profitable business and led it through a calm, intentional exit after nearly two decades at the helm.

Amokura is a recognised freelance journalist, creative writer, project manager and business consultant. She started her writing career with NZ Life & Leisure and in her words "walked into her calling" where her years of experience with public and private sector organisations including the non-profit sector, has given her an amazing network to source awesome stories from. A number of which still need to be written.

Baruch is an advisor, mentor and storyteller whose clients include leading New Zealand start-ups, NGOs, Iwi ventures and corporates. His core strength is the ability to work with and deeply understand people regardless of their personality, culture and professional background. He has served as a Chief Customer Officer, VP of Product, GM of R&D, CEO of an NGO, and Managing Director of a UX/design agency which he co-founded.

Mark is Deputy Secretary System and Sector Performance at Te Tai Ōhanga. Mark was formerly the Government Statistician and Chief Executive of Stats NZ from 2020 until 2025. Mark led both the successful delivery of the 2023 Census, as well as the development of an entirely new model for the collection of future censuses. Mark was also Government Chief Data Steward, responsible for leading a step change in the use of data across government.

Starting her career in research, Vic has always loved insights and data. Her previous role as MD of Xero New Zealand saw her getting her head around the Big Data in the Xero platform and how this can be most useful to customers, partners and government. Vic also served as the Chief Executive of Callaghan Innovation.

Vic is a huge fan of NZ Inc and loves the vision of Figure.NZ. She brings a lot of valuable experience to the Figure.NZ Board from her 20 years of experience in the Information and Communications Technology sector. She is also a director of ASB Bank and Contact Energy.

Lillian was Figure.NZ’s founder and CEO until August 2019. Read Lillian’s blog post about the transition.