About the Ministry

John Allen

John Allen was appointed as the Ministry’s Chief Executive and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade in July 2009. He leads the Ministry as the Government’s chief adviser on foreign and trade policy, official development assistance, international law, and diplomatic and consular issues. He is responsible to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Disarmament and Arms Control.

Before taking up his role at the Ministry, John served as the Chief Executive of New Zealand Post for six years. He joined New Zealand Post in 1994 and held a number of senior management roles prior to his appointment as Chief Executive. In his earlier career, John reached the position of Partner at law firm Rudd Watts & Stone, and was a visiting Lecturer in Law at Victoria University of Wellington. John is co-Chair of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum and Chair of the Territorial Forces Employers Support Council.

Tony Browne

Before taking up the Acting Deputy Secretary position in Wellington in June 2009, Tony was the New Zealand Ambassador to China (2004-2009). He first served in the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing after completing Chinese language training in the mid 1970s, and subsequently worked in the New Zealand Mission to the United Nations in New York and as Head of the Tokelau Administration in the South Pacific. He was High Commissioner to Vanuatu (1987) and has also served as Director of the Domestic and External Security Secretariat in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and as Director of the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office in Taiwan. Before his most recent posting to China, Tony was Director of the North Asia Division in the Ministry's Wellington head office.

Crawford Falconer

Crawford Falconer is Deputy Secretary for Trade and Economic Affairs (Programme 2). He was New Zealand Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva and served as Chair of the WTO Agriculture negotiations from 2005 to 2009.

His career has also included positions as MFAT Senior Official with responsibility for managing New Zealand's multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations (Free Trade Agreements and Closer Economic Partnerships) and WTO Negotiations, as Deputy Director of bilateral relations with the Americas Division, and as Director of the Trade Negotiations Division. He has also worked at the Ministries of Justice and Trade and Industry.

Crawford has previously worked for the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, first as Trade Directorate Division Head and latterly as its Deputy Director. He has been a visiting fellow at the New Zealand Institute of Policy Studies and has taught at Wellington's Victoria University. He has served as a board member for the New Zealand Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, and as a Chair of the former GATT Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, as well as Chair of the OECD Trade Committee.

Caroline Forsyth

Caroline Forsyth became Deputy Secretary for Programme 3 (Multilateral) in June 2005. The multilateral programme has oversight of the Legal; Environment; United Nations, Human Rights and Commonwealth; Consular; Protocol and International Security and Disarmament divisions as well as the Antarctic Policy Unit. 

Caroline’s Ministry career began on the Economic desk in Asia Affairs division in 1972. Between then and her appointment to Deputy Secretary Caroline has held several postings including Ambassador in Buenos Aires, High Commissioner in Port Vila, First Secretary in Mexico and Second Secretary in Paris.

Peter Hamilton

Peter was posted to Suva (1979-81); Ottawa (1985-1989) and Geneva (1991-1994). He was High Commissioner to Samoa from 1997 to 1999 and from 2002 to 2006, Ambassador to Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia , Switzerland and Poland (prior to it having a resident New Zealand ambassador). In Wellington, he has worked in the Asian, Europe and Pacific Divisions (1977- 1979), Economic Division (1983-1984), Multilateral Trade Division (1989-1990), Deputy Director of the South/South East Asian Division (1995-1996), Director of the Trade and Economic Analysis Divison (1999-2002). He also served as the as the Foreign Affairs Ministry's representative under Prime Ministers Muldoon and Lange from 1984 to 1985.

Chris Seed

Chris's earlier career with the foreign ministry included postings as High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea (2001-2003), as New Zealand's first senior national officer in the International Peace Monitoring Team in the Solomon Islands, as Deputy High Commissioner in London (1998-2000), Counsellor in Canberra (1994-1997) and Second Secretary in Tehran (1989-1991). While based at the Ministry's head office in Wellington Chris's areas of work included Europe, South East Asia and overseas development, and was director of its organisational planning. He was also seconded to Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1987.

Phil Goulin

John McArthur

A Wellingtonian, educated at Victoria University and University of Toulouse Le Mirail in France, Dr McArthur is a career diplomat with a long association with Asia.  His career includes serving as New Zealand Ambassador to Japan (from 2005); a secondment to the NZCIO Office in Taipei and serving as the New Zealand Consul-General in Shanghai.  His first posting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was to Beijing (1986).  At the Ministry’s head office in Wellington, Dr McArthur headed the Security Policy Division (1998-2003).  He speaks French, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish and Italian.