Penny Tucker

Penny is a regulatory and trade specialist who has decades of experience working in the public and private sectors. Drawing from her extensive professional network, Penny helps companies overcome challenges through strategic advocacy campaigns and targeted risk analysis. She is a respected figure in New Zealand’s policy circles and has a nuanced understanding of the sector-specific issues facing her country’s business community.

Penny began her career at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, where she specialized in trade and economic issues. Following diplomatic assignments at the New Zealand embassies in Manila and Brussels, where she worked on trade issues, Penny left the foreign service and moved with her husband to Washington, D.C.

In Washington, she worked for and later became a director of a U.S. trade and regulatory consultancy affiliated with one of Washington’s largest law firms. She developed a practice looking at the unintended consequences of international regulation and politically motivated policy changes for businesses, particularly in the health sector. In this role, she represented corporate interests at the World Health Organization, World Trade Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization’s Codex Alimentarius Commission.

After returning to New Zealand, she established a company called Advocacy Works, which worked with companies and industry associations to predict, analyze, influence and manage government initiatives that impact business in New Zealand. Apart from a recent sabbatical, when her husband was appointed New Zealand’s ambassador to Canada, Penny has been involved in the New Zealand policy environment for years. Her expertise spans a range of sectors, including agriculture, medical technology, film, pharmaceuticals, technology and fast-moving consumer goods.