Building confidence and governance to transform Stats NZ, Grayson Mitchell and Matthew Treadwell

Building confidence and governance to transform Stats NZ Grayson Mitchell, Stats NZ and Matthew Treadwell, Databricks This presentation took place as part of the GOVIS 2026 Courage to Deliver conference. The recording is published with the permission of the presenter. See here for more information about the conference, for any available presentation slides, and the transcript: https://www.govis.org.nz/conference-2026 Join this fireside chat as Stats NZ moves beyond project-based delivery and take on the challenge of enterprise-wide transformation. Real progress isn’t built through isolated initiatives, it requires the courage to align strategy, data, and technology across the entire organisation. At the core are the people making the climb. It’s their culture—how they collaborate, build trust, and support each other—that determines how far and how fast they go. With strong teams in place, data and AI become opportunities to explore, not barriers to overcome. Grayson Mitchell is Head of ICT Architecture at Stats NZ, leading the organisation’s enterprise architecture and data platform strategy. Grayson has been closely involved in programmes such as the modernisation of Stats NZ’s cloud data platform, helping teams shift from traditional approaches to scalable, future-ready capabilities. He is passionate about aligning technology, governance, and people to deliver sustainable change, and about building confidence to embrace new ways of working." Matthew Treadwell is a senior leader at Databricks, helping organisations adopt and accelerate Data and AI transformations. Based in Auckland, he works with Public Sector Leaders and their agencies to modernise business strategy and transform technology stacks by unlocking value from data and implementing secure and sustainable AI. Matt draws on 15 years experience across Cyber Security, Cloud modernisation, Data and AI and has a key focus on supporting the modernisation and transformation in the New Zealand Public Sector.