Announcing new Executive Director and farewell to Andrew Weaver

Introducing the new Executive Director for Digital Identity NZ and formally farewelling Andrew Weaver as the outgoing Executive Director. 

We are excited to announce that Michael Murphy joins us as the new Executive Director for DINZ. With a wide and diverse background, Michael is active in the investment and startup communities along with business mentoring. He had some early involvement in the Digital Identity Forum, the precursor to DINZ and so joins us with a broad understanding of the importance of digital identity in furthering a trust based economy and society.

Over the next few months Michael will be connecting with our members and stakeholders to better understand what people need and desire from the work of Digital Identity NZ and from the wider ecosystem activity, including the Trust Framework development being led by DIA. Please do make Michael feel welcome as he appears in various events in the near future.

Executive Director – Michael Murphy

Across several roles, Michael is focused on helping Aotearoa’s best and boldest entrepreneurs in creating truly world-class companies that will employ coming generations of Kiwis and underpin the economic and social development of our country. 

As Executive Director at Digital Identity New Zealand, Michael sees trust and digital identity as being at the very heart of how people, communities, businesses and economies will thrive and prosper in a future driven by disruptive innovation. He is highly motivated to explore how the many threads of digital identity and trust can be most effectively woven together to create the firm foundations needed for the development of a truly trust based economy in Aotearoa, for the benefit of us all. 

In his other roles as investor, director, advisor and mentor, Michael works with globally ambitious start-up and early-stage ventures as well as more established businesses, looking to innovate and adopt a more exponential mindset to drive their growth. Working across both groups, cross pollinating ideas and methods, is where Michael is most energised: bringing experience and disciplined entrepreneurship to early stage ventures and helping more mature businesses explore the opportunities for growth and manage the risks presented by these massively disruptive times.

Outgoing Executive Director – Andrew Weaver

From the 31st March we bid farewell to Andrew Weaver who has so ably steered DINZ as the inaugural Executive Director since November 2018. Andrew has been such an active and positive influence in the digital identity sector it is hard to imagine him moving on. As the Chair of the Executive Council of DINZ I have had the pleasure of working with Andrew weekly over the past two years and have great admiration for his approach to the role.  

He has developed a fantastic platform from which we can continue the work of enabling a world where people can express their identity using validated and trusted digital means in order to fully participate in a digital economy and society. The fact that the past 12 months has seen DINZ adapt seamlessly to a world with COVID-19 is a testament to Andrew’s flexibility and professionalism in getting the work done.

Andrew, thank you for all you have contributed to the work of DINZ. We truly wish you all the best in wherever your journey takes you. 

Michael, a warm welcome and we look forward to working with you!