Dame Marie Shroff, of Wellington, DNZM for services to the State and the community
Dame Marie Shroff was New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner from 2003 until 2014, during a period of great technological and social change.Dame Marie’s responsibilities as regulator included providing independent public commentary on information privacy issues, responding to major government and private sector privacy breaches, and promoting good personal information handling. She played a key role in bringing international privacy regulators to the table to address developing challenges.She led negotiations for New Zealand privacy law to gain equivalence with European law. She was instrumental in launching Privacy Foundation New Zealand and was inaugural Chair in 2017. She has been on the Media Council and a Board member of Consumer New Zealand since 2014. She was a Board member of the Equal Opportunities Trust and has represented New Zealand on the Board of the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management. She has been the Chair of the New Zealand Electoral Commission Board since 2019, helping guide the organisation through the 2020 election during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was the Secretary of the Cabinet and Clerk of the Executive Council from 1987 to 2003, where she was highly regarded for guiding the constitutional transition to mixed member proportional representation and coalition government. Dame Marie is a Distinguished Alumna of the University of Auckland.