New appointments made to Environmental Protection Authority Board

Rob will be joined on the Board by Paul Connell, a professional director with considerable audit and risk committee experience. First-term Board member Jeroen Douwes has been reappointed for a second term.

Rob Campbell

Rob is a very experienced governance professional across a wide range of sectors. He is Chair of SkyCity, NZ Rural Land Company, Tourism Holdings, WEL Networks and Ara Ake Ltd, interim Chair of Health NZ, Chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology, a director of Serica Balanced Credit Fund. He also holds roles with not-for-profit entities.

Rob has considerable change and stakeholder management experience across diverse industries and large and complex organisations.

He replaces outgoing EPA Board Chair Julie Hardaker whose term finished in November 2021.

Paul Connell

Paul is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and currently independent chair of the EPA audit and risk committee. He is also Chair of the Accreditation Council (IANZ) and Director of subsidiary Telarc Ltd.

He has served on boards of regional electricity lines companies and chaired the Hamilton City Council audit and risk committee. He is currently an independent member of the Waikato Regional Council Risk and Audit Committee.

Professor Jeroen Douwes

Jeroen is the Director of the Research Centre for Hauora and Health Research at Massey University and has extensive public health research and committee experience. He is an expert in occupational and environmental health and exposure assessment, particularly with respect to pesticides and other hazardous substances. He serves on the board of the Health Research Council and has collaborated with international organisations such as the World Health Organisation and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

The EPA is the government agency responsible for regulating activities that affect New Zealand's environment. Its responsibilities include:

• regulating and making decisions on hazardous substances and new organisms and specified marine activities in New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone
• operating the New Zealand Emissions Trading Register under the Emissions Trading Scheme
• regulating ozone depleting substances under the Ozone Layer Protection Act 1996
• regulating hazardous waste imports and exports under the Imports and Exports (Restrictions) Act 1988
• administering the decision-making process for proposals of national significance under the Resource Management Act 1991 as well as carrying out compliance, monitoring and enforcement activities
• advising and supporting the panel convener and expert consenting panels under the COVID-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020.

You can find out more about the EPA Board, including other members here.