New board members for InternetNZ

We’re pleased to announce that two new Board members have been elected to the InternetNZ Board: Douglas Brown and Bianca Grizhar.

Douglas Brown and Bianca Grizhar have been elected for a three-year term, and will join five existing elected Board members, and two appointed members, in the governance of Internet New Zealand Incorporated. 

InternetNZ is an incorporated society, with charitable status, which administers the .nz domain name space for the collective benefit of Aotearoa New Zealand. 

The two new Board members were chosen by InternetNZ’s members in an online election run by Electionz.com. 

Board Chairperson Stephen Judd thanked all candidates willing to step up to the InternetNZ Board and congratulated the two successful candidates.  

“Together with the team at InternetNZ, our Board has stewardship of the .nz domain name space – having diverse voices, skills and experience on the Board ensures .nz is working for everyone,” Stephen said.   

The Board is responsible for overseeing the organisation’s five-year strategy, which sets out the direction and priorities for the organisation and its work. 

“I also want to take the opportunity to acknowledge the valuable contributions of our outgoing members: Kate Pearce, Potaua Biasiny-Tule, Daniel Spector, Whetū Fala and Anthony Bow. Ka nui te mihi ki a koe, a big thanks to you for using your time, experience and passion for the benefit of the Internet community in Aotearoa,” Judd said.   

Dr Darryn Russell and Dr Keri Milne-Ihimaera, who fill the two, Constitutionally-mandated, appointed roles on the Board, also start their three-year term today.

To see the biographies of all candidates in this year's election, please go to the 2026 Board elections page. 

More on the vote 

The new Board members were elected using STV (Single Transferable Vote) in a process run by Electionz.com. Eligible members ranked their preferred candidates, online, over a 18-day period. 

There were 3104 ballots processed, with 1035 votes the threshold or ‘quota’ to be elected. There were zero invalid ballots.

Douglas Brown was elected in Round 1, having reached the required threshold of 1035 votes with a final count of 1822 votes after surplus redistribution.

Bianca Grizhar was elected in Round 3, reaching the threshold with a final tally of 1098 votes before surplus redistribution.

To see the Returning Officer's declaration of result click here [PDF].  

To see the full report from Electionz.com click here [plain text file]. 

To see the independent audit report from Grant Thornton click here [PDF].

 

Quick stats

  • 9 - The number of candidates 

  • 3104 - The number of eligible votes received 

  • 71.6 - The percentage of eligible members that voted 

  • 9.2 - The percentage point increase in voter return on last year (last year 2785 votes were received, or 62.4% of eligible voters participated) 

InternetNZ Board members are now:

  • Stephen Judd (Chairperson), term ends AGM 2027 (Elected board member)

  • Anjum Rahman (Deputy Chairperson), term ends AGM 2027 (Elected board member)

  • Richard Hulse, term ends AGM 2027 (Elected board member)

  • Dylan Reeve, term ends AGM 2028 (Elected board member)

  • Jonathan Ayling, term ends AGM 2028 (Elected board member)

  • Douglas Brown, term ends AGM 2029 (Elected board member)

  • Biance Grizhar, term ends AGM 2029 (Elected board member)

  • Dr Keri Milne-Ihimaera, term ends AGM 2029 (Appointed board member)

  • Dr Darryn Russell, term ends AGM 2029 (Appointed board member)

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