ABOUT US
Friends of the University of Auckland is a charitable 501 (c) (3) foundation established to allow US taxpayers the opportunity to make charitable donations to support programs of The University of Auckland while still receiving the personal income tax relief benefits that US donors enjoy for all other donations.
Friends of the University of Auckland is a charitable corporation with a Board made up of alumni and friends of the University.
CONTACT OUR DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
MELISSA HALBRIDGE
Regional Director East Coast North American
melissa.halbridge@auckland.ac.nz | (516) 972 8106
US BOARD OF TRUSTEES
GRANT BIGGAR
Grant Biggar is a New York based entrepreneur and investor with significant experience in financial markets in US, Europe and Asia. Most recently, Grant was President of Creditex, an electronic derivatives exchange. Grant managed and built the European business for Creditex and became President following the acquisition by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2008. Grant moved to NY in 2010 and became a member of the senior ICE management team.
LYNETTE JONES
Lynette Jones is a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She received her Ph.D. from McGill University and after doing a post-doctoral fellowship at the Montreal Neurological Institute joined the faculty at McGill University where she taught for eight years before moving to MIT in 1994. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Auckland.
TIM CAMERON
Tim Cameron is a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in the Litigation Department. He has particular expertise representing non-U.S. clients in a wide variety of litigation (including class actions) in federal and/or state courts in the United States, and in arbitrations. He has extensive experience dealing with complicated cross‑border issues that can arise involving non-U.S. defendants, including jurisdictional issues.
PROFESSOR DAWN FRESHWATER
University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor Professor Freshwater has held senior University positions in the UK and Australia, most recently as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Australia. She has spent several decades working in mental health research, and contributing to hundreds of publications.
QUENTIN HILLS (TREASURER)
Quentin joined MMC Securities in July 2001 and is responsible for Financial Risk Products origination for North America.
Quentin’s primary focus is developing innovative capital market based solutions for Marsh clients and he has been instrumental in developing several groundbreaking solutions including a $5.8 bn collateral replacement program for the California Self-Insurers’ Security Fund.
PETER RAJSINGH PHD (CHAIR)
Peter Rajsingh is a Partner at Castellar Partners LLC , a New York-based asset management firm focused on hedge funds, private equity and real estate. Previously, he headed the institutional group at an investment boutique. He began his career at Morgan Stanley in New York. Dr. Rajsingh is on a number of corporate and philanthropic boards.
SIMON G TALBOT
Simon Talbot is a plastic and hand surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He specializes in hand surgery and microsurgery and is Director of Upper Extremity Transplantation. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and US Department of Defense.
JODY VISSER
Jody Visser is the Chief Transformation Officer for Convera - a global B2B cross-border payments company. Before joining Convera, Jody was Managing Director and Partner at the Boston Consulting Group for 20 years consulting to to Financial Institutions specializing in payments, commercial banking & wealth management. Jody lives in New York City and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with Honors in Economics from the University of Auckland.