Richard Westlake

Country:	New Zealand
Email:	richard [at] westlakegovernance.com
Website:	http://www.westlakegovernance.com
LinkedIn:	Richard Westlake

Richard Westlake is Founder and Managing Director of Westlake Governance (formerly Westlake Consulting Limited), a globally-focused, New Zealand-based, governance advisory firm that advises Boards, Chairs and CEOs in the private, NGO and government-owned sectors in several countries. He has 20 years of experience as a board chair and director, and with his colleagues aims to "build boards into leading teams".

In September 2012, ICANN appointed Westlake Governance "to assist with the development of a DNS Risk Management Framework. The consultant is expected to work with ICANN staff and existing security-related efforts in ICANN while drawing upon relevant community expertise, and to deliver a report providing the Board DNS Risk Management Framework Working Group and ICANN community with informed recommendations for the implementation of a DNS Risk Management Framework." Two of his colleagues, Colin Jackson and Vaughan Renner will be in ICANN Toronto to meet with members of the community and ICANN staff and Working Group members.

Richard led the team from Westlake Consulting that conducted the Independent Reviews of ICANN's At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) (2008) and Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) (2009). He has also led major governance and structural reviews for ccTLD Managers and, so far, has attended five ICANN public meetings.

He is the Independent Chairman at Intergen Limited , NZ Telecommunications Forum Inc , and Careerforce (Community Support Services ITO Ltd) , and an Independent Director at Dairy Goat Co-operative (NZ) Limited .

Richard was Chair of the Standards Council of New Zealand (2003-2010), which is New Zealand's representative body for ISO and IEC. He has previously held roles as the establishment Chairman of two companies owned by the New Zealand Government, MetService and Quotable Value, both of which pioneered successful business models in their industries through innovative Internet-based services, and was a founding Independent Director of Kiwibank Limited (2001-2011), a new bank-owned by NZ Post, which in turn is owned by the New Zealand Government. In total, Richard has been a director of nearly 20 organizations, across the private, state-owned and NGO sectors.

Richard spent 15 years in merchant banking and in leading major change in large and complex organizations. Before moving to New Zealand, he gained an MA from Oxford University and trained as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot.