Dan Walker

Headshot

Microsoft

Global Co-Chair of Indigenous

Dan Walker works as a Channel Executive across Australia and NZ looking after Partners and Cloud Solutions at Microsoft and is Microsoft’s Global Co-Chair of Indigenous. Dan is the Deputy Chair of NZ Māori Tourism, Pou Tuarā of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui, Director of Auckland Unlimited, board member of Child Cancer Foundation and Ronald McDonald House — as well as a variety of community trustee and voluntary roles around the motu. Dan was awarded the Young Māori Business Leader of the Year award in 2010 and the UoA 40 under 40 award last year.

Dan has tribal affiliations to Tangahoe, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Ruahinerangi, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Te Atiawa, Maniapoto, Tūhourangi and Pākehā. He is a mokopuna of the great freedom fighter Titokowaru and wahine leader Ruaputahanga. He was privileged to be nurtured under the manaakitanga of Kai Tahu iwi for over 25 years of his life in Ōtautahi. Through the help of his whānau, his elders and his tribal teachers, Dan has learned much of his Māori cultural wisdom through 15+ years of service to his iwi tribe Ngāti Ruanui. His experiences shaped his belief that Indigenous wisdom is for everyone and we need to reclaim this wisdom that has been handed down to us. His Masters degree was about tikanga Māori ki te ao matihiko — Māori values as a framework for digital leadership. This journey led him to do interviews with Indigenous leaders from around the world about Indigenous wisdom from a digital context.

Dan currently lives in, and pays respect to, the whenua lands of Ngāti Manuhiri in Stanmore Bay Auckland with his wife Michelle and their three tamariki Josh, Tyler and Maia.

 

Contributions by Dan Walker

  • Considering Indigenous Privacy Perspectives — Introducing Māori Data Sovereignty
    Speaker at IAPP ANZ Summit 2022