About the Council
Financial Dispute Resolution Service is governed by Fair Way’s Board of Directors and a specially appointed Advisory Council who provide advice and recommendations.
The Advisory Council is made up of five members: an independent chair, two industry representatives and two consumer representatives.
Independent Chair
Stephen Ward
Stephen Ward is a professional director with diverse corporate governance experience in New Zealand and Australia together with extensive expertise as a corporate and commercial lawyer in New Zealand.
Stephen is the non-executive Chair of SecureFuture Wiri Limited. He is also a non-executive director of Restaurant Brands New Zealand Limited, Huntington Commercial Finance New Zealand Limited and Renaissance Holdings (NZ) Limited. Stephen is a consultant to law firm Simpson Grierson.
Stephen holds an LLB from the University of Canterbury, is a member of the New Zealand Law Society and is a Chartered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.
Industry Representatives
David Whyte
David has served at senior management and director level in a number of prominent organisations, including the Insurance & Savings Ombudsman Scheme (ISO), the Insurance, Savings & Investments Association (ISI — now called the Financial Services Council – FSC), and Southern Response Earthquake Services Ltd. He is currently the managing director for DCW Management Limited.
David served as General Manager of AIA in New Zealand, and as Managing Director of AIG Life in Australia before returning to New Zealand.
In addition to a Master of Arts (Honours) degree, David has a post-graduate Masters Degree in Management and has completed a post-graduate course at Waikato University in Corporate Governance & Leadership. He is also a Chartered Member of the NZ Institute of Company Directors.
Toni Dodds
Toni is currently the Quality and Assurance Manager for Lifetime Group.
She has over ten years’ experience in the financial advice industry and holds Level 5 qualifications, as well as degrees in Business and Supervision Management.
Consumer Representative
Simon Roughton
Simon has a background in education and dispute resolution, and previously undertook an independent review of the Financial Dispute Resolution Service.
Simon is an NMAS mediator, conflict coach and Justice of the Peace. He is the Director of Orb Solutions Ltd, an organisation specialising in dispute resolution skills, training and mediation practice for government and non-government organisations. He works across a number of complaint jurisdictions and has previously resolved consumer disputes at the Office of the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner (now Utilities Disputes Ltd) and the Real Estate Authority. Simon contracted to Human Rights Commission as a mediator on a long term contract which finished in July 2023. He has recently taken on a contract role at Resolution Institute as Operations Manager, NZ in a part-time capacity alongside external dispute resolution training and mediation.