Ayana Menroca

Advisor – Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Ayana is an experienced government advisor. Currently, she is working as an Advisor in the Board Appointments and Governance Team at MBIE where she has led board appointments process for boards in the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Portfolio. She is now responsible for board appointments processes in Research, Science and Innovation, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and Economic and Regional Development portfolios. She also started leading the work regarding the Governance aspect of her Team’s work programme. Her central government experience included working in the Contestable Investments Team at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) where her team managed a number of investment funds that support innovation and scientific research, including the Endeavour Fund and the Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund.

Ayana graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Microbiology from the University of Otago and began her career working for a Research Lab in the University’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology. She also obtained an online certificate in ‘From Poverty to Prosperity: Understanding Economic Development’ from Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.