Michael Player

Michael had a career of nearly five decades in New Zealand public sector communications. 

During that time he held a variety of communication roles serving many ministers, crown entities and departments. He was on-call for disaster communications duties in the National Emergency Centre for most of his working life. 

His longest and the most senior role was as General Manager of Public Affairs in the NZ Police/Ngā Pirihimana o Aotearoa where he participated in the response to the Pike River Mine disaster, the wreck of the Rena container ship and the Canterbury earthquakes.  Michael was also appointed by the State Services Commissioner as the first Head of Communications, an extracurricular role that had as one of its purposes the coordination of central government communications during national emergencies. 

Michael is no longer in active work but continues to take a strong interest in emergency media and public affairs as a Board Advisor of EMPA.