Business NZ is New Zealand’s largest business advocacy body, headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand. The president of the Business NZ council is Trevor Goodwin and Phil O'Reilly is the chief executive.
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BusinessNZ was formed from the 2001 merger of the NZ Employers' and Manufacturers' Federations, BusinessNZ has a two hundred-year history, with its four regional business associations established in the four main centres of New Zealand around the turn of the 20th Century.
Membership is drawn from the Major Companies Group and four of the country’s largest regional business organisations: The Employers and Manufacturers Association [1], the Wellington Employers' Chamber of Commerce, the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and the Otago Southland Employers’ Association, which offer services and support to over 14,000 member companies.
BusinessNZ's Major Companies Group (MCG) helps ensure that New Zealand's largest companies are heard in policy, business and economic debate.
The MCG is a working group with a collective weight of influence that enables it to provide strong counsel to government and other key decision makers. Around 70 members, representing a large proportion of New Zealand's GDP, have joined the MCG since its establishment in 2008.
Membership of the MCG provides: Access to specialised policy forums Contribution to research and policy development Specialist independent policy advice An opportunity to engage in influencing the political and regulatory business framework National and regional representation The work of the Major Company Group is carried out within the overarching governance of the BusinessNZ Council.
BusinessNZ also represents more than 70 of New Zealand's national industry associations with a combined membership of some 76,000 employers, which together employ about 80 per cent of the country’s private sector employees.
BusinessNZ advocacy, based on consultation with thousands of member businesses, is aimed at achieving growth-related goals for trade, the economy, the business environment, infrastructure, energy and the environment, skills and innovation and employment relations.
New Zealand Listener magazine voted BusinessNZ CEO Phil O'Reilly 3rd on the Power and Influence List of 2009, Business and Economy, describing him as, “one of the most effective lobbyists we have seen in a long time.”
BusinessNZ is goverened by an elected council, with its 17 members drawn from the four regional associations. Trevor Goodwin is the President of the BusinessNZ Council, which meets six times a year.