New appointments at ALAC

The Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC) Chief Executive Officer Gerard Vaughan has announced two new appointments to ALAC’s senior management team. Dr Andrew Hearn has been appointed Manager Strategy and Research and Tuari Potiki has been appointed Manager Strategic Operations.

Dr Andrew Hearn is presently Deputy Chief Executive Sector Policy with the Department of Building and Housing 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.

His 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. Andrew has extensive experience in the development and oversight of strategy and policy in regulatory environments affecting the wider New Zealand public. He 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.

Tuari Potiki (Kai Tahu, Kati Mamoe, Waitaha) is currently ALAC’s Southern manager. He has been extensively involved in the AOD, Mäori health, 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.

He 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.