About us

The University of Auckland Foundation is the steward and distributor of funds entrusted to it for specific educational charitable purposes, usually associated with The University of Auckland.

The Trustees are drawn from alumni of The University of Auckland and the general public. Current Trustees are Mr Geoff Ricketts (Chair), Mr Hugh Fletcher, Mr Peter Hays (Chair - Audit Committee), Mr Jonathan Mason, Dr John Matthews, Dr Ian Parton, Ms Cecilia Tarrant (Chair - Investment Committee) & Mr Matt Silwood.

Geoff Ricketts serves on a variety of corporate boards and charitable trusts, including board membership of the Promina Group and the Todd Corporation. He was formerly a partner of the law firm, Russell McVeagh. Hugh Fletcher is a director of the Reserve Bank of NZ, Fletcher Building and Vector. Peter Hays is a former president and life member of the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand. He serves on the boards of several companies and trusts including the board of the Auckland War Memorial Museum.  John Matthews, a clinical haematologist, was formerly chairman of the Southern Cross Medical Insurance Society. Ian Parton, formerly president of IPENZ (Institute of Professional Engineers, NZ) has served on many corporate boards most recently as director of WaterCare and chairman of VT Fitzroy. Jonathan Mason is the current CFO of Fonterra. Prior to that he served as CFO for Cabot Corporation and Carter Holt Harvey. His board service includes that for Natixis North America (a mutual fund), Carter Holt Harvey, and Beloit College. Cecilia Tarrant has over 20 years experience in international banking and Finance, having worked in San Francisco, New York and London, first as a real estate finance lawyer and then as an investment banker. Prior to returning to New Zealand, she was a managing director in the Global Capital Markets Group at Morgan Stanley in London. Matt Silwood has nearly three decades experience in the financial services industry in Australia, founding his own financial advisory and fund management company which was subsequently acquired in June 2007 by AXA Asia Pacific. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.

The Trustees meet four times a year to review investment policy and performance, ensure that payments to beneficiaries are made in accordance with the donor's wishes, oversee fundraising activity, and make sure that the Foundation complies with its reporting obligations. In particular, the Foundation has registered with the Charities Commission (Number CC 10985) to comply with the Charities Act (2005) and its accounts are audited annually by WHK Gosling Chapman. Two committees (investment and audit) currently meet outside of the regular meetings.

Each Foundation endowment gift is invested into, and allocated its share of, the endowment investment pool. This pool is structured for long-term growth allowing in normal years both annual distributions of some income to the beneficiaries and retention of the remaining income to protect the capital value of the gifts in the endowment pool. The current annual distribution rate is 5% (provided income is available) and any excess income is retained to add to the initial gift.

In order to achieve this the Trustees have an endowment asset allocation of approximately 35% international equities, 15% Australasian equities, 15% international fixed income, 20% NZ bank cash & term deposits, and 15% NZ fixed income.

Annual Report 2010

Click here to download the Annual Report 2010 [pdf, 1.5MB]

Click here to download the Financial Statements 2010 [pdf, 1.2MB]

Click here to download the Strategic Plan 2010 [pdf, 120KB]