Jess Ashley

Calm under pressure, Jess supports clients with nuanced advice that includes planning for different scenarios. With plenty of political nous, Jess successfully manages sensitive and challenging policy issues. Along the way, she’s eager to challenge established ideas.

Jess has a lot of experience advising ministers on government priorities. This includes working as a Private Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, where she was responsible for managing environmental and climate-change issues.

Example of Jess's work:

• Supporting the delivery of an Indicative Business Case relating to marine biosecurity in New Zealand – Jess drafted the economic case, to a short deadline and with input from iwi, regional councils, and leading marine scientists  
• Supporting Auckland Council to consider alternative models for delivering open space, sport, and recreation, including helping the Council understand key trade-offs
• Providing a report to the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the COVID-19 Response setting out improvements that could be made to the methodology used to analyse Treaty issues and present findings.