Purpose, role, and people of G-REG

Our purpose

The purpose of G-REG is to improve the leadership, culture, regulatory practice, and workforce capability of government regulatory organisations.

Our role

As a system level initiative G-REG provides value to regulators, regulatory leaders, and organisations in ways that are difficult to achieve from within single agencies.

G-REG’s current focus is to lift the understanding and application of best practice by developing a knowledge base for New Zealand regulators, and regulatory organisations. This will be achieved by undertaking the following:

• Establishing and maintaining a knowledge base for regulatory practice, including the curation and development of guidance, frameworks, tools, and case studies.
• Conducting ongoing environmental scans to understand common needs and knowledge gaps.
• Facilitating communities of practice and peer advisory activities in support of building the knowledge base.
• Developing and maintaining a suite of foundational learning materials (in a way that government organisations can easily and flexibly deliver to their people).

Our people

The G-REG secretariat team

Lisa Docherty, Director

Lisa Docherty joined G-REG in the role of Director in February 2022. This role allows her to join up two strands from her background – regulatory practice, stewardship & strategy; and leadership in professional bodies. She has previously worked with DIA (Gambling) and MBIE (building) and was the New Zealand Manager of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and inaugural Registrar of the Institute of Directors in New Zealand.

Lisa and her team are building on the original vision for the Government Regulatory Practice Initiative, developing fit for the future programmes and resources for regulators, and ensuring that the initiative endures, and will adapt and grow to achieve its potential. She is passionate about creating space for regulatory professionals to learn from each other, and to create and disseminate knowledge, and develop a shared culture. Lisa particularly enjoys connecting people and ideas – so has nabbed the role of secretariat lead for our Peer Advisory services.

Wendy Kale, Project lead - Regulatory Practice Essentials Project

Wendy looks after G-REG’s regulatory practice qualification programmes and co-convenes the Regulatory Capability Community. She brings people together, and provides direction and support to help improve learning opportunities for the regulatory community.

Wendy has been involved with G-REG and its predecessor since 2007, when the idea of creating common qualifications for central and local government regulators was first proposed. She’s played critical roles in the initiative – applying her learning and development expertise and leading the sector’s efforts to create and improve New Zealand’s regulatory practice qualifications and associated learning programmes.

Her work at Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency in creating ‘The Regulators' Room’, a resource hub and collaborative space for regulators, won the NZATD L&D Initiative of the Year award in 2016. Wendy’s big passion is taking G-REG’s qualification programmes to the next level – and bringing people together to be part of the ongoing evolution of regulatory and learning practice - supporting regulators to do great work for the good of all.

Alex McMinn, Principal Advisor

Alex McMinn joined G-REG in the role of Principal Advisor in January 2024. This role allows him to pursue his passion for improving the regulatory sector’s leadership, performance, and capability through various initiatives that he leads or supports. As a Principal Advisor, he guides the strategic direction of G-REG and oversees the development and delivery of our regulatory knowledge hub. He also fosters our active regulatory community by managing and facilitating the Peer Advisory engagements.

Alex has a rich and diverse background in regulatory practice, having worked at WorkSafe NZ as Manager Regulatory Practice, and over a decade at NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi in various roles, including Manager Driver and Operator Standards. He has extensive experience in service delivery, policy, and people leadership roles, as well as a deep understanding of government processes, regulatory frameworks, and complex systems. Alex excels at building meaningful relationships and turning strategy into action.

Krystal Bradnock, Senior Advisor - Government Regulatory Practice Initiative (G-REG)

Krystal is the behind-the-scenes person running our online G-REG events, planning the annual G-REG conference, and spending a lot of her time looking at ways we can better engage with the regulatory sector. Her role is to ensure that G-REG uses the best methods to support, educate, inform, and connect our community of regulators. So that when we are actively doing these things they happen smoothly and are meaningful.

Krystal joins the G-REG team with a background in event management covering everything from planning to delivery, stakeholder management to marketing plans. She is passionate about ensuring we are providing resources in a way that is best suited to our community and G-REG are actively working towards providing stellar events, platforms, and learning initiatives.

Ditaa Chand, Programme Coordinator

Ditaa is the organisational whizz, providing administrative support across the G-REG secretariat with a focus on ensuring efficient operating across the board.

She joins the team from Ministry of Justice where she was a part of the Legal Aid Services team with an interest in Family and Criminal jurisdictions. She is passionate about everything to do with people connections, coordination, and organisation and always happy to learn new skills.