Meet Jannat Maqbool
Jannat is an Australian born Punjabi and mother of three based in the Waikato, New Zealand. She is a CPA and former CIO with a Masters in Digital Business and is actively engaged in the New Zealand technology ecosystem.
With a focus on leveraging technology in innovative ways to benefit people and planet, Jannat is our Country Director for New Zealand.
Jannat's initial career, spanning more than 10 years, was in the financial services industry leading mid to large-scale technology adoption initiatives including with MTF where they released the countries first online origination system for finance. Following that period of her life Jannat spent more than a decade in the vocational education sector designing and developing programmes and course material, teaching, and coordinating several collaborative projects and applied research initiatives involving students, staff and the wider community.
More recently Jannat has been involved with supporting digital inclusion and enablement initiatives in the Waikato, including as Smart Cities Advisor at Hamilton City Council and Tech Sector Lead at Te Waka: Waikato Regional Economic Development Agency, coordinating the development of the Digital Waikato 2025 strategy and delivering several large events and initiatives bringing together small businesses, schools, tertiary providers, the technology sector and general public.
In a voluntary capacity, Jannat is on the Executive Council at NZ IoT Alliance, an Advisory Board member at the Waikato Wellbeing Project, where she is focused on how the initiative can leverage technology and data to support achieving sustainability and wellbeing targets, and a Board member at NZ Tech, the voice of the New Zealand technology ecosystem working to connect tech ecosystems, organisations and passionate people, and with the government to ensure the essential elements for creating a digital nation are in place for a more prosperous New Zealand underpinned by technology.