Date and Time: Friday 25th July, 3pm-5pm
Location: O.G.B Bar & Cocktail Bar, Christchurch Central City
The Institute’s Southern Region events team welcomes guest speaker Marika Hughes, who will be talking to the theme of making intelligence indispensible, drawing on her own personal experiences from her amazing career to date.
This event is for in-person attendance only, and food and light refreshments will be provided by the Institute. To ensure that the catering is sufficient for the numbers attending, RSVPs are required by Monday, 21st July.
About Marika Hughes: Marika Hughes is the Director of the Strategic Crisis Management Unit in the Risk and Systems Governance Group, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. In this role, Marika and her team provide stewardship and leadership to ensure the high performance of New Zealand’s strategic crisis management arrangements, known as the Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination (ODESC) system, to minimise consequences to nationally significant crises, and ensure more effective responses at the strategic level.
Prior to her arrival in New Zealand in 2003, Marika’s career spanned key analytical and liaison roles within the US intelligence and defence communities, including secondments to the FBI to support counterterrorism investigations in 2007-2008 and domestic and offshore assignments in support of major event security. Marika has held several appointments within New Zealand Government, including senior roles in the New Zealand Customs Service and the Department of Internal Affairs. Before taking up a role in DPMC in September 2015, Marika spent more than five years in Parliament as the Private Secretary to the Minister of Civil Defence, with additional roles supporting the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Minister for Racing. In 2024, Marika was awarded a Fellowship of the Institute, in recognition of the outstanding contribution she has made to the sector, both in New Zealand and overseas.