RBNZ names Simone Robbers and Christian Hawkesby as two new assistant governors

Simone Robbers is one of the new assistant governors at the Reserve Bank. Photo / file

Simone Robbers and Christian Hawkesby will round out the Reserve Bank's senior leadership team, joining as assistant governors, said RBNZ governor Adrian Orr.

Late last year Orr announced he was creating a new senior leadership team. The team has seven positions, including the central bank governor, versus the prior senior management group with 13.

Robbers, currently with the Financial Markets Authority, will take up the new role of assistant governor and general manager of governance, strategy and corporate relations on February 18.

She will be responsible for the bank's strategic planning and performance, communications, legal, risk and audit teams, and the board secretariat.

The strategic planning and performance unit is new and will be responsible for ensuring world-class benchmarks are identified, measured and managed across all aspects of the Bank's activities.

"The role will ensure bank-wide strategies and relationship management have central coordination, such as our Te Ao Māori strategy, our climate change strategy, and the many regional and international relationships we must manage in the normal course of business," said Orr. Robbers was director of strategy, risk and assurance at the FMA and has also worked with the Securities Commission.

Hawkesby is leaving Harbour Asset Management. He will take up the new role of assistant governor and general manager of economics, financial markets and banking on March 18.

He will be responsible for monetary policy formulation and research; monetary policy implementation and liquidity management, and foreign reserves management; and all matters relating to currency creation and distribution, including responsibility for the management of the payment and settlement system.

"Bringing these activities together provides end-to-end management of all of the monetary policy activities of the bank, from currency creation and distribution through to the setting of the Official Cash Rate to meet the Bank's monetary policy and currency mandates," said Orr.

Prior to taking the role, Hawkesby was part of the team that set up Harbour Asset Management. He also spent nine years at the Bank of England.

The new structure announced in November saw the departure of Sean Mills, head of operations, Mark Perry, head of financial markets, and Klarissa Plimmer, chief information officer.

John McDermott accepted a role as chief economist and a department head, but has since left the bank to join the economic research institute Motu as an executive director. Bernard Hodgetts, head of macro-financial, was to leave at the conclusion of his secondment to Treasury for its review of the Reserve Bank.