Today's speaker is Dr Richard Meade, who is an economist and a Senior Research Fellow at AUT.  Richard originates from Wellington, where he graduated with degrees in economics and finance, and statistics and operations research and in 2014 completed his PhD in Industrial Organisation and Regulation at the Toulouse School of Economics in France.  Richard began investment banking in 1992, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, privatisations, and valuation and since 1992 he has also advised numerous iwi on Treaty settlements.  Richard is Principal of economic consultancy, Cognitus, which he founded in 2002. Through Cognitus he services public, private and Maori organisations in a wide range of sectors.  Richard was also a Research Principal at the New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation, where his research focused on the organisation and regulation of sectors such as electricity, agriculture and climate change policy.