Presenters

The Hon Erica Stanford, Minister of Education and Minister of Immigration
Hon Erica Stanford is the Minister of Immigration, Minister of Education, and the Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s Response to the Royal Commission’s Report into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith based Institutions. She has served as the Member of Parliament for East Coast Bays since 2017. As Minister of Immigration, Hon Stanford is leading New Zealand’s immigration system through a period of significant policy and operational recalibration. Her work includes updates to immigration pathways focusing on attracting highly skilled migrants into sectors with labour shortages, removing barriers to enable high-value overseas investment into New Zealand businesses, system lever changes to respond to labour market pressures, and ensuring immigration policy contributes to long term economic growth. As Minister of Education, Hon Stanford is leading substantial reforms focusing on lifting educational achievement. She oversees the international education space, an important export sector that intersects closely with immigration policy. Hon Stanford completed a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours at the University of Auckland, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Māori Studies. Before entering Parliament, she worked in export sales roles for New Zealand manufacturers and gained extensive constituency and casework experience during four years in the electorate office of former East Coast Bays MP Hon Murray McCully.


Harris Gu, Senior Lawyer, Queen City Law
Prior to joining Queen City Law, Harris used to work for a former Minister of Immigration as a licensed immigration adviser for 7 years. Harris has extensive experience in dealing with all types of visa applications, as well as appeals to the Immigration & Protection Tribunal (IPT), Section 61 requests, Ministerial special directions & Ombudsman complaints. Harris obtained his LLB and BCom degrees from the University of Auckland and was admitted to the High Court of New Zealand in October 2021. Harris is pleased to have joined Queen City Law’s large award winning Immigration Law team. Harris speaks fluent Mandarin. Harris currently serves on the Auckland District Law Society (“ADLS”) Immigration & Refugee Law Committee.


Marcus Beveridge, Managing Director, Queen City Law
Marcus Beveridge is the Managing Director of Queen City Law NZ Limited. His main areas of practice are construction and property law, commercial law, foreign investment, real estate services and immigration. Marcus has developed expertise in business-based immigration and has acted on literally 100's of successful business-based immigration applications over the best part of 3 decades. Many of these clients have subsequently become major clients of his firm. The total amount of business immigration funds invested in NZ in the last decade is close to NZ$10 Billion. Marcus is a regular commentator on immigration based issues on national Radio & TV and has presented and chaired many NZ Immigration Law conferences over the years. Marcus has also recently been on several Working Groups and Immigration Reference Groups liaising with senior INZ management about assorted immigration issues. His firm comprises one of NZ’s largest immigration law teams. Marcus was formerly Chairman of NZAMI and Convenor of the New Zealand Law Society Immigration Committee.