About the IAPP

Gwen is a commercial lawyer and information governance specialist. Waikato-Tainui is the post-Crown settlement governance entity for the Waikato iwi (tribe) in Aotearoa New Zealand, with over 95,000 registered tribal members. Waikato-Tainui manages assets worth circa $2.4billion and is responsible for tribal affairs, implementing the tribe's development strategy, and making distributions and investments into education, health and wellbeing, marae, social, and cultural development. The Waikato-Tainui Legal Team was a finalist in the New Zealand Law Society Law Awards in 2023 for in-house legal team of the year, and Gwen was named by NZ Lawyer as one of the 24 most influential members of Aotearoa New Zealand’s legal profession in 2024. In 2025 Gwen graduated from a Master of Information Governance with First Class Honours from the University of Auckland, in which she focussed on data, privacy, information ethics, and AI regulation topics. Her major research essay examined how te ao Maaori perspectives may be brought to bear on the use and design of AI tools by the New Zealand government.