Who got that job?

Were you one of the people who applied for this job and wondered who got it?

Job: Deputy chief executive.

For: New Zealand Qualifications Authority.


Karen Van Rooyen has been at the hard end of public policy for some time.

She managed the $170 million Tainui settlement for the Office of Treaty Settlements in 1995, and has also worked as strategic development manager for public prisons and for Te Puni Kokiri, the Ministry of Maori Development.

But the 44-year-old has a degree in physical education and started her career as a teacher at Taita College.

She then went to work in the United States and discovered "lots of different ways of meeting educational goals."

Her new role demands the "smooth operation" of NZQA's strategy, communication and information services, as well as advice and support to the chief executive.

Van Rooyen will be doing a lot of talking - the job requires much liaison with cabinet ministers, education and industry leaders and Maori communities.

The biggest attractions of working for the Government's qualifications watchdog, she says, is the variety, and the ability to be part of making a vision for the organisation and making that come alive.

"I like to take an idea and make it into reality."

Momentum Consulting Group's Michele Walls-Bennett says 26 people applied for the post.