The State Services Commissioner, Michael Wintringham, today announced the appointment of Tony Hartevelt as the first new
Deputy Commissioner to join the State Services Commission.
Mr Hartevelt will lead a newly-formed team of advisors - within the Commission - which is intended to be a model for a
shift in the State Services Commission's approach to its role.
Mr Hartevelt will begin work at the State Services Commission in the next few weeks.
Up until recently, Mr Hartevelt was a senior, management consulting partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers, based in
Wellington. In that role he has advised a broad range of organisations in improving corporate performance. In
particular, Mr Hartevelt has worked recently with organisations in the tertiary education sector.
Mr Hartevelt was a partner in Coopers and Lybrand before that firm merged with Price Waterhouse in 1998. In the 1970s
and 1980s, he held management roles with Air New Zealand and Donaghys Industries. Mr Hartevelt, who is 52, has a
commerce degree from Auckland University.
Mr Wintringham said that Mr Hartevelt had a rare combination of experience in advising public and private sector
organisations on strategy and performance at the most senior levels.
"But from the point of view of the State Services Commission, Mr Hartevelt's biggest asset is his ability to distil the
big picture - to understand organisations, the environments in which they are working, the questions they face - and the
choices that come from that.
"The ability to recognise the big, long-range questions - and to assist Ministers, chief executives, and senior managers
to anticipate them and respond to them - is central to the Deputy Commissioner's role."
Mr Hartevelt, and the team that he will lead, will work with about six selected Public Service departments that are
operating in a particular sector. Experience gained by Mr Hartevelt's team will be employed as further similar teams are
set up under other Deputy Commissioners.
"Over the next two to three years, there will be a progressive shift in the Commission's approach to its role," Mr
Wintringham said. Overall, the Commission aims to shift its focus from a retrospective one to a role in which it
anticipates the major problems and questions that departments and the State sector will face.
Mr Wintringham said the Deputy Commissioner posts were new management roles within the State Services Commission. The
position of Deputy State Services Commissioner - a statutory role under the State Sector Act 1988 - continues to exist
and is unaffected by the new roles. The current Deputy State Services Commissioner is Ross Tanner.
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