BoardTe Poari
Te Papa’s Board is accountable to the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage. The Minister appoints the Board, which currently has eight members.
View minutes from Board meetings
Christopher Swasbrook (Chair)
Christopher Swasbrook is an experienced financial markets executive with a strong commitment to arts and culture.
He is currently Chair of the Auckland Future Fund, a Founder/Director of NZX-listed New Zealand Rural Land Company, Founder/Director of Elevation Capital, Director of Merx Funds Management and Executive Chair of McCashin’s Brewery Limited. He is also a Board Member of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), Chair of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Advisory Board, and Chair of the Helen Clark Foundation.
Since graduating from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) in 1996, he has undertaken Executive Education courses at Columbia University (New York), New York University (NYU), London School of Economics (LSE), and the Harvard Kennedy School in Boston, Massachusetts. .
David Wilks
David Wilks brings rich strategic and commercial acumen and an extensive understanding of the creative sector to the Board.
He has previously held roles as Director of the Commercial Business Unit at the Department of Conservation, General Manager of Tourism Development at Tourism New Zealand, and is currently General Manager at Wētā Workshop.
David’s diverse governance experience is reflected in his current roles as Chair of the Taupo Destination Management Plan Leadership Advisory Group, trustee of Wellington College and Director at Daffodil Enterprises Ltd.
Paul Brewer
Paul Brewer brings extensive experience working in cultural sectors in New Zealand and overseas. He was the founding Director of Marketing and Communications at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa from 1998–2009. He later served two terms as a trustee on the Auckland War Memorial Museum Board. Paul also has international museum experience, mainly in Denmark and Russia.
He is a long-standing trustee of The Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation, which supports young New Zealand classical singers with exceptional potential. Paul was Chief Operating Officer at Regional Facilities Auckland, a wholly owned subsidiary of Auckland Council, with stewardship of more than $1.8 billion worth of cultural and sporting assets.
His engagement in policy, risk management, sponsorship and strategic relationships within Auckland’s cultural sectors includes the Auckland Art Gallery, the New Zealand Maritime Museum, Auckland War Memorial Museum, and the city’s performing arts venues. Paul was appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1995.
Jamie Tuuta
Jamie Tuuta, of Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Maru, Te Ati Awa, Taranaki Tūturu descent, is an experienced Director and respected Māori leader who has held governance positions over the past 20 years in the areas of iwi development, agribusiness, fishing sector, investment, health, housing, Māori development, tourism, philanthropy, and education.
Christina Barton
Christina Barton MNZM, DLitt is a respected art historian, curator, writer, editor, and educator. She brings deep knowledge of art, strong relationships with artists, collectors, gallerists and institutions throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, and a record of effective leadership in the cultural sector.
Since completing her MA in Art History at the University of Auckland (in 1987) she has held academic positions at the University of Auckland (1985–1988) and Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington (1995–2023), where she has developed her teaching and research in the discipline of art history. Between 2007 and 2023, she led Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery at Victoria University, where she was responsible for developing the exhibition programme and building the University’s art collection. Prior to this, she was Curator Contemporary New Zealand Art at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand (1993–95) and Assistant Curator Collections at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (1992–1994).
She has published widely on New Zealand art and artists and has curated a wide range of exhibitions, from large-scale contemporary surveys to major single-artist retrospectives. In 2020, she was awarded MNZM for her services to art history and curating and in 2021, she received a DLitt in recognition of her scholarship.
Professor Richard Douglas MNZM
Professor Richard Douglas MNZM is an internationally recognised ear nose and throat surgeon and founder of the Tarāpunga Charitable Trust, which provides healthcare access for remote communities in Te Tai Tokerau. Richard is a long-standing philanthropic supporter of the arts, and has his own creative practice as a landscape photographer.
Professor James Belich ONZM
Professor James Belich ONZM is a renowned New Zealand historian and academic best known for his groundbreaking work on the New Zealand Wars and settler colonialism, which has had a profound effect on how the public understands indigenous military innovation and British colonial expansion. James serves as an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow at Balliol College.
Dr. Wendy Nelson MNZM
Dr. Wendy Nelson MNZM is an internationally acclaimed phycologist or seaweed scientist. She is currently an Honorary Academic and Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland and previously served for over two decades as a Principal Scientist at NIWA, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Wendy knows Te Papa well, having spent 15 years at the museum as a curator of Botany.