Standards Approval Board
The Standards Approval Board (SAB) is an independent statutory board, appointed by the Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs, set up under the Standards and Accreditation Act 2015.
Standards and Accreditation Act 2015 Section 11 (external link)
They are senior professionals who meet monthly and commit to a multi-year term. Rather than a traditional governance role, board members support Standards New Zealand’s robust development process with independent decision-making and checks and balances. Their functions include the appointment of standards development committee chairs and members, ensuring skills, knowledge, experience and sector representation. They also ensure due process has been followed in the development or revision of standards and ultimately approve the publication of new or revised standards.
The board members’ function provides one of the fundamental benefits of standards produced by Standards New Zealand, in ensuring standards are consensus built, avoid bias, undue commercial or vested interests or monopolies, have balanced representation on development committees, have undergone adequate consultation, and work for all those who use them.
Board members also bring their industry knowledge, expertise, networks and relationships to their role, to champion the value of standards and their contribution within New Zealand’s standards and conformance quality infrastructure.
The Standards Approval Board may be contacted by email via the board secretary.
Peter Harris - Chair
Rolleston-based, Peter is a professional independent Chair, Chartered Director, and Chartered Surveyor. His early career as a building surveyor involved working on major infrastructure projects as a client representative, until 1998 when he emigrated to Aotearoa. S
Since 1998, Peter expanded his vocation to governance, joining Business Canterbury as a Board member, subsequently becoming a director of a number of privately held Auckland and Christchurch-based engineering businesses, and a governance consultant with Westlake Governance. His governance and advisory roles have included working with a wide variety of businesses, not-for-profit and public sector entities across multiple sectors and markets internationally.
Standards and processes to support transformative change are at the core of Peter's vocation. He has been involved in standards establishment, review and development throughout his career with organisations and those involved in capital project and programme delivery. Notably, he chaired industry working parties for the national roll out of Ultra-Fast Broadband and the service standards associated with the structural changes implemented to Telecom NZ. He developed a dashboard for Fonterra Shareholder Council to track standards of governance and has completed a significant number of board effectiveness and policy reviews, often being asked to support the implementation of recommendations to enhance organisational or project/programme performance. He has been involved in the maintenance of professional standards for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors as a candidate assessor for most of his career and has trained numerous chartered surveyors as professional assessors.
Peter Laurenson - Member
Pete’s working career has been largely based within the building and construction sector across the country. He has held various senior management and board roles for private business, government agencies and community groups. He most recently was Manager Consenting for Auckland Council, and now resides in Queenstown where he is a General Manager involved in engineered landfill, quarry and land development.
Pete’s involvement with standards started with supplying building materials for over 20 years, and then a further 20 years in regulatory roles for councils and MBIE where his responsibilities included maintaining the NZ Building Code and the accreditation of Building Consent Authorities. He has chaired boards for the Building Officials Institute of NZ, Queenstown Chamber of Commerce, Queenstown Rotary, and International Accreditation NZ BCA Performance Advisory Committee.
He has a particular passion for efficient use of technology to enable consistent access to quality information and sees the need for continued development into digital documentation, with verification of authenticity becoming increasingly important.
Brian Watson - Member
Brian is an experienced business leader having held CEO and other senior leadership roles in New Zealand, Australia and Asia over the last 30 years. His science and management qualifications together with more than 40 years of experience in the science sector (including the global testing, inspection and certification (TIC) sector) give him an excellent understanding of the benefits and needs of standardisation.
He is an experienced company director and board chair and graduate director of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Member of the Institute of Directors in New Zealand who has had extensive Board interactions and held more than 12 directorships in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
Brian has a pragmatic and consultative approach which together with his knowledge and experience with science and technology has enabled him to find win-win solutions to complex business challenges and value diversity of thought. He is now a professional consultant, mentor and company director.
Fiona van Petegem - Member
Fiona is the founder of Global Product Confidence and author of The Smart Risk Playbook. She has over 25 years’ experience in manufacturing and product development in New Zealand, China, the Netherlands and Germany.
Her work covers product risk management, encompassing systems improvement and product regulatory compliance to support sustained global market access for New Zealand product businesses. Fiona holds a B.E. (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Canterbury and an M.B.A. in International Industrial Management from Germany.
Samantha Grey - Member
Samantha, a molecular biologist by training, has over 30 years’ experience in the food, cosmetic, consumer health products, pharmaceutical, medical diagnostic, and biotechnology industries. Her commercial expertise spans government relations, technical, process improvement, regulatory affairs, product development and management for both locally owned and global businesses. She is the managing director of BioEquitas, a full-service consultancy to industry and government affairs director for the Natural Health Products NZ industry association. Her governance experience includes industry associations and commercial advisory boards.
Nick Hannan - Member
Nick has over 40 years’ senior management and executive experience in the energy industry. He was Country Chair of Chevron New Zealand (Caltex) and latterly General Manager of Elgas New Zealand, part of the global Linde group. He brings deep commercial expertise and a track record of success in business development, consumer and wholesale sales and marketing, supply chain and operations. He has delivered improved financial growth and safety outcomes, leading change in organisations for better productivity and customer experience.
His governance experience includes membership of several commercial boards and also chairmanship of the industry association Gas New Zealand, representing its members to ensure that the role of gas in the New Zealand energy mix was understood and supported by both Government and customers. Nick is a Chartered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors and is now a professional director and consultant.
Katja Feldtmann - Member
Katja Feldtmann is a cybersecurity, governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) specialist with over 13 years of experience across public and private sector organisations in New Zealand and internationally.
She is the Founder and Director of Cybershore Limited, a consultancy providing advisory services in cybersecurity, risk management, and the implementation of associated standards and frameworks. Her work includes supporting organisations in interpreting and applying standards such as ISO/IEC 27001 and the New Zealand Information Security Manual (NZISM), and designing and implementing information security frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. In her work, she sees how well-designed standards enable organisations to manage risk effectively, support good governance, and build confidence with customers, regulators, and partners.
Katja is also the President of the ISACA Wellington Chapter, where she leads a Board of professionals across audit, risk, governance, and cybersecurity. In this role, she has overseen governance reform, including alignment with the Incorporated Societies Act 2022, and contributes to strategic planning, member engagement, and professional development initiatives. She also serves on several local community committees.
Katja holds a Master of Digital Business (First Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Computing Systems (First Class Honours). She also holds multiple professional certifications, including CISSP, CCSP, CISA, CISM, CRISC, CDPSE, and ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Auditor.
Katja has a passion for standards and, in her work, sees how well-designed standards enable organisations to manage risk effectively, support good governance, and build trust and confidence with customers, regulators, and partners. At the same time, she regularly sees how standards can be misunderstood or applied in a purely compliance-driven way, which limits their value. This has driven her interest in ensuring that standards are practical, accessible, and clearly understood in terms of their intent so that they can be meaningfully embedded in organisations and deliver measurable outcomes. Katja is particularly motivated by the role standards play in supporting innovation, resilience, and international alignment, while ensuring they remain relevant to the New Zealand context.