ALAC Staff

Chief Executive Officer

Gerard Vaughan

Starting with ALAC on 12 February 2007, Gerard Vaughan came to ALAC from the Public Health Directorate, Ministry of Health, where he was National Project Manager for Like Minds, Like Mine - a social marketing campaign to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness.

Gerard has held senior management roles in health, disability and welfare organisations that have spanned strategic communications, contract management, community engagement, programme development and change management.

Gerard has an extensive knowledge of the health sector and the roles of government, ministries, commissions, and non-government organisations and how legislation can have a role within health. He combines experience in marketing and communications with good knowledge and qualifications in the area of qualitative, quantitative and evaluative research.

General Manager Strategic Operations

Tuari Potiki

Tuari moved into this role in January 2008, after working for more than two years as ALAC's Southern Regional Manager.

Tuari has been extensively involved in the Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD), mental health and justice sectors for almost 20 years. He has worked in a number of different roles as a clinician and tutor before moving into management roles in both the public and non-government organisation sectors.

Following a secondment to ALAC in 2000, Tuari took up a senior management position with Ngāi Tahu Development Corporation where he managed social development programmes for the iwi. In this role, Tuari helped to develop the Ngāi Tahu Strategy 2025.

He managed a large number of staff and was closely involved in senior management functions including strategy and annual business planning, risk management, financial management staff recruitment and performance management.

Tuari also has extensive governance experience having served terms on the boards of the Canterbury District Health Board, the Canterbury Community Trust and He Oranga Pounamu.

General Manager Strategy

Dr Andrew Hearn

Andrew Hearn is the General Manager Strategy at the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC). ALAC is an autonomous Crown entity with a wide range of functions around alcohol and the objective of encouraging and promoting moderation, reducing and discouraging misuse and minimising personal, social and economic harm.

Andrew has a PhD in Political Studies from the University of Auckland and has worked in senior management roles in a range of Government departments and entities, where he has been responsible for strategy, policy, research, planning and monitoring. His career has included management in the State Services Commission, where he led work on Crown entity reform and other public management issues.

Mostly though, he has worked in the area of harm reduction. His career started in community corrections and then corrections policy, moving on to include road safety policy and strategy, social housing and building issues and latterly the work of the Alcohol Advisory Council. There have been ongoing and interlinked themes of reducing alcohol harm and the design and maintenance of regulatory and enforcement regimes in this career – for example, much of Andrew’s time in road safety was spent on interventions to reduce alcohol-related offending and road crash trauma.

General Manager Corporate Services

Chris Allen

Chris is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand (ICANZ) and has a wealth of experience in the corporate services and finance industries. This includes service in senior management and consulting roles in both the public and private sectors.

Before joining ALAC, Chris was a consultant, with his own Wellington-based financial management firm, contracting to a variety of Government, Crown entity and local body agencies.

Chris has experience in project management, management reporting and output costing, operational audits, business and strategic planning, investigation and reporting projects and executive leasing, including a number of senior financial and management roles within Government.