Air New Zealand appoints three new directors

Alison Gerry is also a director for ANZ Bank. Photo / Supplied

Air New Zealand has appointed three new directors to its board.

Alison Gerry, Claudia Batten and Paul Goulter will take up the positions from their approval at the airline's annual shareholder meeting later this year.

Chair Dame Therese Walsh said the appointments would provide further digital, strategic and employment relations expertise to support the airline as it moves onto the next phase of its strategic recovery from Covid-19.

"Alison Gerry is currently a director at ANZ Bank New Zealand, Infratil Limited, is the founding Chair of Sharesies and is a director at Suncorp New Zealand," said Walsh.

"The airline will benefit from her extensive experience in governance, capital management and audit and risk with those companies and via previous directorships at Spark, TVNZ, Kiwibank and Queenstown and Wellington Airports," says Dame Therese."

Batten is the current chair of Serko, a director at Vista Group and the digital advisor to the Westpac New Zealand board.

Entrepreneur Claudia Batten has joined the Air New Zealand board. Photo / NZH

"We look forward to leveraging Claudia's experience as a digital entrepreneur in the US, where she co-founded Victor and Spoils, the world's first advertising agency built on crowd-sourcing principles and one of the founders of gaming advertising network Massive Corporation," Walsh said.

"She has also been the North American Regional Director for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and a winner of multiple awards for her work supporting the New Zealand technology sector."

Goulter is the national secretary of NZEI Te Riu Roa (New Zealand's largest education union) and a director of the Co-operative Bank.

NZEI Te Riu Roa national secretary Paul Goulter. Photo / NZH

"Air New Zealand works closely with unions and will benefit from Paul's experience with unions here and in Australia over the last 40 years, including a period as Secretary of the New Zealand Council for Trade Unions and as General Secretary of Finsec,the financial sector union."

Walsh said the appointments will fill the vacancies created by the retirement of long-serving directors Jan Dawson, Rob Jager and Linda Jenkinson.