ALAC | Staff

Gerard Vaughan - Chief Executive Officer

Starting with ALAC on 12th February 2007, Gerard Vaughan comes to ALAC from the Public Health Directorate, Ministry of Health where he was National Project Manager for Like Minds, Like Mine - a social marketing campaign to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness.

Gerard has held senior management roles in health, disability and welfare organisations that have spanned strategic communications, contract management, community engagement, programme development and change management.

Gerard has an extensive knowledge of the health sector and the roles of government, ministries, commissions, legislation and non-government organisations within health. He combines experience in marketing and communications with good knowledge and qualifications in the area of qualitative, quantitative and evaluative research.

Tuari Potiki - Manager Strategic Operations

Tuari has been extensively involved in the AOD, mental health and justice sectors for almost 20 years. He has worked in a number of different roles as a clinician and tutor before moving in to management roles in both the public and NGO sectors.

Following a secondment to ALAC in 2000 Tuari took up a senior management position with Ngai Tahu Development Corporation where he managed social development programmes for the iwi. In this role he helped to develop the Ngai Tahu Strategy 2025 and its organisation into subsets of five-year coherent objectives.

He managed a large number of staff and was closely involved in senior management functions including strategy and annual business planning, risk management, financial management staff recruitment and performance management.

Tuari also has extensive governance experience having served terms on the boards of the Canterbury District Health Board, the Canterbury Community Trust and He Oranga Pounamu.

In 2005 Tuari took up a role with ALAC managing work for the southern region. Tuari says he is excited about the new position Strategic Operations Manager and getting back into senior management work. He is committed to helping ALAC move into ‘the sharp end’ of changing the drinking culture in New Zealand and implementing the new strategic direction 2008-2013.

Dr Andrew Hearn - Manager Strategy and Research

Dr Andrew Hearn joins ALAC from the Department of Building and Housing where he was Deputy Chief Executive Sector Policy with responsibility for a team of policy, monitoring and research staff. He has also held general management roles whose responsibilities spanned strategy, policy, research and planning with several government agencies, including the Land Transport Safety Authority, and he was a manager in the Strategic Development Branch of the State Services Commission.

Andrew’s early career started in community corrections and corrections policy. A common thread running through Andrew’s career is his enthusiasm for harm reduction and harm minimisation. He has extensive experience in the development and oversight of strategy and policy in regulatory environments affecting the wider New Zealand public. For example Andrew has led the development of an extensive range of road safety strategies, policies and interventions, much of which focussed on reducing alcohol related traffic offending and road crash trauma.

Andrew was drawn to the role at ALAC because of the potential to reduce harm amongst New Zealanders in the work that ALAC and its partners have ahead of them.

Chris Allen - Manager Corporate Services

Chris is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand (ICANZ) and has a wealth of experience in the corporate services and finance industries. This includes service in senior management and consulting roles in both the public and private sectors.

Prior to joining ALAC, Chris was a consultant, with his own Wellington-based financial management firm, contracting to a variety of Government, Crown Entity and Local Body agencies.

Chris has experience in project management, management reporting and output costing, operational audits, business and strategic planning, investigation and reporting projects and executive leasing, including a number of senior financial and management roles within Government.