Board & Executives

Our global team is dedicated to bringing more people together to experience the magic of movies and cinema by creating the platform that connects the industry and powers the moviegoer experience. They are led by our board and executive team.

Susan Peterson

Independent Chair

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Susan Peterson
Independent Chair
BCom and LLB (University of Otago) Susan is an experienced business leader with a particular interest in helping companies to drive growth through technology, innovation and organisational culture. Susan has a wealth of corporate governance experience. In addition to her position as Independent Chair of Vista Group, Susan is also an Independent Director of Xero, Arvida Group, Property for Industry and Craigs Investment Partners, and was previously an Independent Director of Trustpower and ASB Bank. Susan is a member of the New Zealand Markets Disciplinary Tribunal and is a Board member of non-profit Global Women (NZ). Susan was a finalist in the 2014 Westpac New Zealand Women of Influence Awards.

Cris Nicolli

Independent Director

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Cris Nicolli
Independent Director
Bachelor of Management Studies, Business, Marketing, Accounting (University of Waikato) Cris was appointed as a non-executive director of Vista Group in February 2017. Cris brings strong expertise in the IT Industry, together with experience in growing and building multi-faceted IT-based businesses including a publicly listed ASX Company. He has a great balance of commercial and governance skills. Cris started his professional life in Finance and Accounting with roles in New Zealand and the UK. He subsequently moved into the IT industry and has had a significant career across the Asia Pacific region in sales, sales management, consulting, software and leadership roles including 12 years with previously ASX-listed UXC Limited – five of those years as CEO and Managing Director. Prior to UXC, Cris held senior roles with Digital/Compaq for 20 years. Having recently retired from UXC Limited, Cris is looking to provide his business skills in a non-executive capacity. Cris is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) and a past member of the New Zealand Society of Accountants. He is a New Zealander who has been living in Australia for the last 30 years.

Murray Holdaway

Executive Director

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Murray Holdaway
Executive Director
BSc, Mathematics and Computer Science and BCom, Accounting, (University of Auckland) Murray is the co-founder and product visionary of Vista Entertainment Solutions, and served as CEO from 2001-2017 along with being Chief Product Officer of the Vista Group of companies. Prior to Vista, he was a founder of Madison Systems Ltd, a joint venture partner in Vista when it was formed in 1996. Murray has been dedicated full-time to Vista since Madison was sold in 2001. He has over 20 years’ experience in building innovative software for the film industry, and sits on the Vista Group board.

Claudia Batten

Independent Director

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Claudia Batten
Independent Director
LLB (Hons), BCom (Victoria University of Wellington) Since Claudia graduated Victoria University of Wellington with degrees in Law (Hons) and Commerce, she has been a founding member of two highly successful entrepreneurial ventures. As part of the founding team of Massive Incorporated, she helped pioneer “digital” as a media buy. Massive was sold to Microsoft in 2006, where Claudia then spent three years scaling the in-game network. In 2009, Claudia co-founded Victors & Spoils, the first advertising agency built on the principles of crowdsourcing. After two years in-market, Victors & Spoils was acquired by French holding company Havas Worldwide. Claudia most recently spent three years running North American operations for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE). In addition to being an Independent Director of Vista Group, Claudia is the Chair of NZX and ASX listed digital travel company Serko and a digital advisor to the Board of Westpac New Zealand.

Kirk Senior

Non-Independent Director

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Kirk Senior
Non-Independent Director
BBus (Swinburne) Kirk brings a strong international film industry background acquired from 18 years with the Village Roadshow Limited Group. Kirk was formerly CEO (and prior to that, CFO) of Village Cinemas, one of the world’s leading cinema companies. Kirk was also a director of Village Cinemas and many of its subsidiaries and joint ventures throughout the world. Prior to Village Cinemas, Kirk was a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young in Australia and the UK. Kirk also advises and provides consulting services to other companies in the film and entertainment industries.

James Miller

Independent Director

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James Miller
Independent Director
BCom (Otago University), FCA, graduate of The Advanced Management Program (Harvard Business School, USA) James Miller is an experienced commercial director and is regarded as one of the country's most experienced Audit and Risk Committee Chairs. James is currently Chair of NZX and is the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committees for each of Vista Group, Mercury and Channel Infrastructure. James has previously held Board positions with Auckland International Airport, the Financial Markets Authority and Accident Compensation Corporation. He has been the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee for Auckland International Airport and was Chair of the Investment Committee for Accident Compensation Corporation. James is a qualified Chartered Accountant and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand, a Certified Securities Analyst Professional, an accredited Director of the Institute of Directors New Zealand, a Fellow of the Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand and a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

Stuart Dickinson

Chief Executive

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Stuart Dickinson
Chief Executive
Stuart was appointed Group CEO in April 2023. He is an experienced global technology executive with more than 25 years of technology leadership experience. Formerly, Stuart was the APAC Enterprise Applications Practice Director and New Zealand Country Manager for NYSE listed DXC Technology. In these roles he helped organisations across APAC improve the lives of their customers, become more competitive and help them succeed on the world stage. Stuart has also led global networks of technology partners to offer organisations independent digital innovations that provide real business advantage. Stuart has extensive experience in delivering technology transformation programmes for enterprise customers across Australia, New Zealand and internationally. He holds a Master of Business Administration, from the University of Auckland.

Kelvin Preston

General Counsel & Company Secretary

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Kelvin Preston
General Counsel & Company Secretary
Kelvin leads Vista’s legal team, providing legal support to all of Vista Group’s businesses globally. Prior to joining Vista Group, Kelvin worked in private practice for over 12 years advising listed issuers, private businesses and private equity sponsors on corporate and commercial matters as well as a wide range of significant corporate transactions, including public and private acquisitions and divestments, takeovers, and corporate structuring.

Matt Cawte

Chief Financial Officer

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Matt Cawte
Chief Financial Officer
Matt leads Vista’s group finance team, providing finance support and commercial guidance to the Vista ecosystem. Prior to joining Vista, Matt headed the sales, marketing and finance functions at Biomatters, a bioinformatics SaaS and subscription business, including its successful sale to the US software investor Insight Partners. Prior to that he spent five years as General Manager for Ixom NZ (formerly Orica), NZ’s largest chemicals business. Matt has a strong background in innovative and high growth technology companies; he was CFO for Wellington Drive Technologies and has held commercial, finance and technology leadership roles in Lion Nathan, Mediasoup, Sony Playstation Europe and Oracle Europe.

Anna Ferguson

Chief People Officer

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Anna Ferguson
Chief People Officer
Anna leads Vista Group’s people and culture team, providing support to all of the group’s businesses globally. Prior to joining Vista Group, Anna held a group executive role responsible for people and culture at Kordia. Previously Anna was based in Australia, working for professional services firms including Bain & Company and Baker & McKenzie in senior HR roles.

Jason Madsen

Chief Business Operations Officer

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Jason Madsen
Chief Business Operations Officer
Jason heads up the commercial function within Vista Group and is responsible for providing innovative commercial solutions as well as sales and operations planning. Prior to joining Vista Group in 2018, Jason held senior commercial roles in New Zealand with Spark and Vodafone. Jason also spent 10 years in Europe working in the media and telecoms sectors with companies such as Orange and FremantleMedia.

Grant Smith

Chief Cinema Officer

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Grant Smith
Chief Cinema Officer
Grant joined Vista as a software engineer in 2001, back when one could count the number of engineers on one hand. Prior to his role as Chief Cinema Officer, Grant was Chief Operating Officer for Vista Cinema for 5 years, and before that led the technology team as Director of Software Development. For over two decades Grant has been instrumental in leading technology, process, and organisational improvements across the business, to keep Vista’s people, products and platforms evolving to meet the needs of their clients.

Matthew Liebmann

Chief Product, Innovation and Marketing Officer

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Matthew Liebmann
Chief Product, Innovation and Marketing Officer
Prior to his Group role, Matthew joined Movio in 2014 in LA to expand Movio’s presence in the Americas. He relocated to Auckland in 2019 to become Movio's Chief Operating Officer, accountable for operational performance and profitability. Before joining Movio, Matthew held senior positions at leading cinema exhibitors in Australia and New Zealand, was a consultant to the entertainment and media sector for PwC, and served two terms on the Board of Screen Australia.

Leon Newnham

Chief of Strategy and Partnerships / Global Head of Cinema Sales

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Leon Newnham
Chief of Strategy and Partnerships / Global Head of Cinema Sales
Leon joined the company in 2009 to assist in establishing the Vista USA Office in Los Angeles. In subsequent years, he worked with the team to grow the US market share significantly – from approximately 3% to 37% of the Large Cinema market. During this time Leon held senior roles in both Operations and Business Development. Key responsibilities included leading the deployment of significant exhibitors, driving local product innovation, building industry partnerships, and establishing a team to provide exemplary service, support, and sales to the North America market. Leon became President, Vista Entertainment Solutions USA in 2016 and in 2018 was appointed to his former role as Chief Executive of Vista Cinema.

Chris South

Chief Technology Officer

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Chris South
Chief Technology Officer
Chris has 30 years of technology experience in both the UK and NZ in a variety of industries from investment banking to the public sector and healthcare. Chris is responsible for ensuring the organisation's global technological capabilities and strategy are aligned with the overall corporate strategy, running the Group’s distributed engineering teams, delivering technical outcomes, and generally making Vista Group a great place for technical folk to be.

Simon Burton

Chief Film Officer

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Simon Burton
Chief Film Officer
Simon is the co-founder of Numero and has held various international management roles with global organisations specialising in media channels measurement and analytical services. Specifically, Simon has more than 20 years’ experience in the entertainment industry managing theatrical box office tracking services. Specialising in international business development, Simon has launched multiple services throughout the Asia Pacific region as well as co-ordinating numerous collaborations and acquisitions to deliver to clients increased global coverage of daily box office results.

Ste Thompson

CEO/Creative Director, Powster, Los Angeles, USA

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Ste Thompson
CEO/Creative Director, Powster, Los Angeles, USA
Ste is the Chief Executive and founder of POWSTER, an interactive creative studio and production company for over 150 movie distributors including all five major studios, streamers, broadcasters, brands and various major music labels globally. Ste's primary skill is product development and innovation and he has led the POWSTER creative vision since its foundation in 2009, winning many prestigious awards. Prior to POWSTER, he developed creative content for the music and brand industries and studied multimedia, computer game design, and digital media.

The global leader in delivering software and tech solutions to the film industry

Vista Group brands provide an innovative range of complementary products across the film industry, from production and distribution to cinema exhibition through to the experience of the moviegoer.