Our Team

Nothing substitutes for experience. Our team has over a century of experience in the finance industry, working for the largest banks and KiwiSaver managers. Now we want to give New Zealanders the dignity and choices that having more money brings.

Our Team

Sam Stubbs

Co-Founder/Managing Director

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Sam Stubbs was most recently the CEO Of Tower Investments, a KiwiSaver default provider. Before that he was Managing Director of Hanover Group, and spent 10 years working for Goldman Sachs in London and Hong Kong. He previously worked for Natwest Markets, Fay, Richwhite and IBM New Zealand.

He has been a Board Member of the Financial Services Council, and a member of the Government Taskforce on Financial Services.

Sam has an MA (Hons) from the University of Auckland.

Sam is the father of two children. He dreams of Simplicity and sailing around the world.

Andrew Lance

Co-Founder/Chief Investment Officer

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After more than 10 years working in City of London bond market for various investment banks, Andrew emigrated to New Zealand at the end of 1993. More accurately, he was brought here as a souvenir of his wife’s OE. He then fulfilled a variety of roles for New Zealand Funds Management, TOWER Investments, Fisher Funds and finally AMP Financial Services, where he was the investment expert in the project team transitioning AMP products into the new FMC Act regulatory regime. Stimulating stuff!

Andrew and his wife, Heidi have two sons, who keep them on their toes. Always a keen sportsman, he still manages to play cricket, ski whenever possible and get in an occasional round of golf.

Jane Gold

Chief Financial Officer

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Jane is the CFO. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1996. Since then she has gained extensive experience in the corporate sector in London, Melbourne and Auckland.

In 2010, she was CFO at Tower Health and Life. Then she led the Finance Team at ecostore for 4 years and most recently CFO at Kepa Financial Services Ltd. Jane’s particular area of expertise is in financial services in all areas of financial and management accounting, reporting, analysis and financial modelling.

Outside of the corporate world Jane is kept busy with her two sons, cooking, gardening, reading, shopping and a small amount of relaxing.

Amir Bashir

Co-Founder/Chief Technology Officer

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Amir, Simplicity's CTO, leads the long term technology vision and is responsible for the platform selection and technical design of the Simplicity system. Amir holds an Engineering degree from Massey University majoring in Software.

With close to 10 years of experience working with web technologies, Amir has a great understanding of the web space. Prior to joining Simplicity, Amir worked as senior and lead developer for a number of development agencies and also worked as the Infrastructure Development Manager for interest.co.nz.

Ian Miller

Chief Operating Officer

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Ian has over 30 years of financial markets experience in New Zealand. Corporate superannuation and institutional investment has been at the heart of his roles over the years with BNZ, AMP, TOWER Investments and NZX.

Ian worked with Sam and the team in the earlier days of Simplicity and is now a key part of the team.

Ian is a keen sailor. Together with wife Gabs, they live in Devonport, enjoy the beach and often found at a cricket ground over the summer months.

Liv Lewis-Long

Head of Marketing

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Liv came on board in late 2022, joining the team to help fuel the growth of the Simplicity brand and its loyal customer base across all divisions. She brings over 10 years' experience across marketing, sales and insights analysis to the business, having previously worked in hands-on and leadership roles across the FMCG, engineering, hospitality and retail industries.

Liv's passion lies in creating and delivering engaging and information-driven marketing which does more than acquire new customers - it creates brand advocates who truly believe in what a business stands for. Something made easier with Simplicity, given how passionate Liv is about growing financial literacy amongst NZers and helping them grow their wealth in an ethical, sustainable way.

In her spare time, Liv is an enthusiastic surfer, snowboarder and yoga teacher, with a passion for travelling and the great outdoors. She's also a self-confessed crazy cat lady (albeit her husband only lets her have two cats, for now).

Jennie O'Donovan

Head of Communications and Education

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Jennie joined the team bringing with her 15+ years communications and education experience from the nonprofit sector in NZ and the UK. She has a BA (Hons) in Political Science from Victoria University and a Masters in Education from University College London.

Before joining Simplicity she was a self-described sceptic of financial institutions, but she was won over by Simplicity’s ethical investing, financial literacy programme and charitable giving. She is now on a mission to help grow Simplicity and make more kiwis richer and smarter with money.

Life outside of the office is all about her family, cooking, working on her doer-upper house and pretending she can garden.

Peter Wells

Head of Compliance, Risk and Legal

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A West Auckland native, Peter’s London OE evolved into 18 years working for investment banks in various Asian financial centres. After returning to NZ in 2016, Peter worked at Public Trust and Trustees Executors, and then spent three years at the Financial Markets Authority, specialising in regulatory oversight of licensed supervisors, investment managers, and custodians. His most recent role was with ANZ Investments as a senior operational risk and compliance manager.

Peter and his wife Jen, who is a financial journalist and hails from Illinois in the US, have two daughters who keep them in line, and are wondering what life will be like as soon-to-be empty nesters.

Pieter Van Noort

Compliance, Risk & Reporting Manager

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Originally from the Netherlands, looking after people’s retirement money has been central to Pieter’s career. In Europe, Pieter held roles in insurance, consulting, and corporate pension plan management. After moving to New Zealand in 2016, he joined the Financial Market Authority’s supervision team. There, he was involved in licensing, anti money laundering, and the oversight of a diverse portfolio of licensed entities. Before joining Simplicity, Pieter worked at ANZ investments in a risk and compliance role.

Not much of sportsman himself, Pieter loves to watch his two teenage sons play football in the weekends.

Matthew Houtman

Head of Private Capital

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Matthew has been working with mid-market businesses in New Zealand for the last 15 years. He is the Co-Founder and former Co-Managing Director of Pioneer Capital Partners. Up to his departure, Pioneer had raised three Private Equity funds and invested in 22 export-focussed growth businesses.

Before co-founding Pioneer, Matthew worked at UBS Investment Bank in the Auckland and London offices where he worked with clients on mergers and acquisitions, syndicated finance, bond issuance, IPOs and general corporate advisory.

When not in Auckland, Matthew can be found at his secret hideout on the Coromandel.

Tom Miller

Head of Product

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Tom studied an LLB/BA at the University of Auckland. He's previously worked at Red Bull, Foodstuffs and Deloitte. He focused on international tax and general corporate advisory before turning to investment consulting. Tom's experience has been to provide advice to institutional investors on portfolio construction and investment governance. At Simplicity, Tom works on the private equity and venture capital strategy, build-to-rent developments, and is obsessed with making fund products work better for investors.

When he's not dreaming about victory for the Blackcaps, catching fish, or getting off grid, Tom can be found in his natural habitat exploring local pubs and restaurants.

Craig Simpson

Investment Manager

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Craig Simpson has had nearly 30 years worth of financial markets experience in New Zealand. He holds a Business Degree endorsed in Finance from Massey University.

Immediately prior to joining Simplicity, Craig worked as a senior analyst for interest.co.nz where he was responsible for monitoring and reporting on KiwiSaver funds and their performance on a quarterly basis.

Previously, Craig worked for BNZ Private Bank. In his capacity as Partner-Portfolio Management, he was responsible for a team of financial planners and analysts and oversaw the advice provided to the bank's high net worth Clients. Craig has a passion for wines and motorcars.

Ryan Lambert

Senior Investment Analyst

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A graduate of Massey University, Ryan majored in finance and accounting. During this time there, Ryan was president of the Student Investment Club and was a participant in the Chartered Financial Analyst's competition.

Ryan started with Simplicity as a volunteer research assistant and co-authored a report on charitable giving presented at the Philanthropy NZ Conference in Wellington in 2019.

Ryan has a passion for numbers, the gym and video games and is the office DJ.

Rachel Penberthy

Co-Head of Lending

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Rachel has recently joined the customer service team at Simplicity after 10+ years working in an operations role within the medical industry.

Rachel is new to the financial services sector and is keen to learn and develop in this new role.

Outside of work, Rachel is kept busy with three young sons. In her rare spare time she enjoys reading and exercising.

Daniel Maguire

Co-Head of Lending

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Originally hailing from Australia, Dan completed his LLB and practised as a solicitor in Brisbane for a couple of years before taking some time out to travel and work on superyachts. Dan moved to New Zealand in 2014 and worked as a property and commercial lawyer for over 5 years.

Dan joined Simplicity eager to learn from the experienced team and is currently implementing Simplicity’s First Home Loan Mortgage Fund as Head of Lending and Legal.

Saranya Jayaram

Head of Investor Services

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Saranya comes from a banking background with 11 years of customer service experience.

Highly passionate about sustainable living and greatly interested in helping people in all walks of life.

She thoroughly enjoys spending time outdoors either hiking or cycling with husband Ravi and little boy Adi.

Emma Ryan

Deputy Head of Investor Services

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Emma was thrilled to join the Simplicity team in 2020 after 5 years in the Financial Services industry, including a PA role for a Financial Adviser and being part of the Communications team at MMC.

With a background in Fitness Coaching and Rowing at a National level, Emma has a variety of skills that she enjoys being able to utilise at Simplicity.

Outside of the office Emma is dedicated to raising her two young daughters and spends any spare time out surfing.

Sebastian Neubrandt

Investor Services Manager

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Affectionately known as Baz. His enthusiasm for technology led him to study software and website development after a short career in the coffee world.

This ignited a passion for technical requirements elicitation and analysis. Leveraging his interpersonal skills along with his technical experience has allowed him to grow into a translator for stakeholders who need their ideas, to be realised as tangible requirements resulting in products that delight.

Baz's hope is to be able to leverage his experience to help improve processes in an already industry-leading customer service team.

Outside of work, Baz loves spending time with his wife and two kids and has a strong passion for fitness, reading, pop culture, history, and tech.

Liam Jackson

Investor Services

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Meet Liam, a driven and enthusiastic young professional who joined the Simplicity team in 2022.

Liam is enjoying being part of Simplicity, and hopes to make a positive impact in the finance industry through education and financial literacy projects.

Outside of work, Liam enjoys staying active, traveling, and spends time researching companies to add to his investment portfolio.

Torin Lance

Investor Services

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Cath Darroch

Investor Services

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Cath joined Simplicity recently and brings 30+ years’ experience in the financial services and mental health sectors. Cath’s career started in banking, before moving into the unit registry business, where she managed the BT Funds Management Ltd retail and wholesale unit registry division.

Cath left BT to have a family, and while raising three kids, continued to work part-time in wealth management before going on to work for a not-for-profit youth focused mental health service for the last 10+ years, in both voluntary and paid roles. She continues to do voluntary work in this field.

Outside of the office, Cath loves spending time with her family and friends, camping, travelling, and watching Formula 1!

Pankaj Reddy

Senior Technology Lead

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Pankaj has 8 years experience working in Web technologies specialising in developing applications that leverage cloud infrastructure. Responsive apps, and serverless app architectures that scale are his core expertise.

Pankaj’s experience is shaped by challenges in developing applications for Kiwi startups. He loves being part of the startup evolution and success story.

Outside of work, Pankaj enjoys carpentry and growing microgreens.

Elliot Whiley

Senior Software Engineer

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Elliot joins Simplicity after 5 years at a Kiwi startup. He brings with him a passion for serverless computing, and helping students enter the software industry.

Elliot is excited to disrupt the finance industry, and provide Kiwis better value for their money.

When not on the keyboard, Elliot loves hiking through New Zealand's beautiful bush with his wife. He also enjoys playing board games with friends.

Andrew Winters

Frontend Engineer

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I am fire.
I am fury.
I am Frontend Engineer.

Andrew joins Simplicity after 3 years at a Kiwi XaaS company in Unified Communications, bringing with him a drive to provide fantastic user experiences.

Andrew has a passion for music, frequently writing his own multi instrumental compositions and can often be found noodling around on his guitar. He enjoys conserving Aoteoroa’s native flora and fauna, and controlling pests in the native bush around his home.

Aleef Suhaimi

Software Developer

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Aleef graduated from Auckland University of Technology, with a Computer and Information Science degree, majoring in Software Development and Computer Science. At university he was a member of the Computer Science Club and participated in Microsoft Student Accelerator programme. He joined Simplicity as a developer aiming to make a positive contribution to the busy tech team.

In his spare time he enjoys physical activities especially football, working out at the gym and training martial arts.

Julie Ah-Chee

People and Culture

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Julie has been working in Human Resources and General Management for over 15 years. After completing a degree at Auckland University majoring in Psychology, Education and Japanese language, she moved to Japan and then London for over 10 years working mainly at BP Chemicals.

Julie has had a varied career working in sales, supply chain, account management, human resources and general management within a diverse range of industries.

Julie’s philosophy is to choose staff carefully, build great teams and look after your staff well and then, in return they will look after you and your organisation. Then no HR is required!

Julie is a mum of two adult kids who live in London and Melbourne and a dog.

When Julie is not working you may find her on, in or near water, on the coast or at Lake Taupo always indulging in great food and dreaming of new adventures with friends and whanau!

Independent directors


Joy Marslin

Her corporate roles included Head ANZ Wealth and Westpac Private Wealth Management and Joy has leveraged this experience and currently holds a number of governance roles in addition to her role as Simplicity NZ Ltd Board Chair. These include independent director of Strategi Group, Financial Services Complaints Ltd - Financial Ombudsman service, New Zealand Shareholders Association and Impact Enterprise Fund. In addition she is an independent member of the Metis Investment Committee.


Reuben Halper

Agency Lead at Google New Zealand

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Reuben is responsible for Google's business with New Zealand advertising agencies. Before relocating to New Zealand in late-2015 he spent the previous 6 years with Google UK, first as part of the Zoo, Google's internal creative think tank, then subsequently leading the global Unilever team responsible for working across Unilever's biggest brands.

Reuben has worn many hats in his career including strategist, Emmy-award winning TV producer, creative and production team leader as well as a product manager. Across roles and industries his work has been recognised both internally and externally, including a D&AD award for creative work, Emmy awards for work in TV & digital as well as recognition in the form of a patent for breakthrough broadcast technology.


Mel Hewitson

A professional director with board memberships of Fidelity Life Assurance, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Maia, Foundation North, Domain Name Commission and Housing Foundation.

Mel brings relevant skills and alignment with Simplicity’s commitment to investors' interests, developed from her former leadership roles at the Financial Markets Authority and investment management firms with strong fiduciary cultures.

She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors, an Accredited Investment Fiduciary, holds Climate Competent Board Certification and has degrees in Business (Masters), Economics and Japanese. Mel was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to Governance in the 2022 New Year's Honours List.


Anna Tierney

A Chartered Accountant for twenty years in both the public and private sectors. She has a strong history in specialising in the areas of Fraud and Risk through her experience as a forensic accountant at the Serious Fraud Office and Ernst & Young.

Anna has also held an appointment with the Real Estate Agents Authority (REAA) as an original Member of the Complaints Assessment Committee, and has worked in London for Schroders and Morgan Stanley.


Chris Teeling

Executive Advisor Growth - LawVu

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Chris has deep experience and a passion for scaling businesses. He has had an extensive career in technology centered businesses and with international investment banking. His broad background brings a unique perspective and ability to turn complex challenges into well governed and executed plans for boards, leaders and founders.

Over the last 10 years Chris has helped build and lead two globally successful companies; GreenButton, a cloud based technology company acquired by Microsoft Corporation and Xero Limited.


Our employment policies and gender pay gap


We want Simplicity to be the best place to work, giving team members really satisfying careers, with purpose and fun %)
We embrace diversity and job flexibility. Our team can work wherever and however is best for them.
All of our team are paid fair salaries, get six weeks holiday, free public transport, and Simplicity contributes 10% to their KiwiSaver.
Our gender pay gap is 1.9%.

Trustees

Simplicity is 100% owned by the Simplicity Foundation, which chooses the charities that receive donations.

Sam Stubbs

Ex CEO Tower Investments

Rachel Taylor

Partner DLA Piper

Ngapera Riley

CEO at Figure NZ

Amanda Morrall

Simplicity co-founder and personal finance expert

Marisa Fong

Entrepreneur, Co-founder TBC Partners

Scobie Ward

Co-founder and CEO of Ward Ferry

Frances Arns (she/her)

LGBTIQA+ advocate, strategy and experience designer