Geoff Bascand is the Government Statistician of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and the Chief Executive of Statistics New Zealand

Statistics New Zealand

Statistics New Zealand is the national statistical office of New Zealand.-Organisation:New Zealand's Minister of Statistics is Maurice Williamson who serves as a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives and holds several other posts within government...

. He was appointed to these positions on 22 May 2007.

Background

Bascand is a graduate of the University of Otago

University of Otago

The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...

 and the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

 with a BA (Honours) degree in Geography and a Masters degree in Economics.

Career

Bascand has worked for the New Zealand Treasury

New Zealand Treasury

The New Zealand Treasury is a public sector organisation and the Government’s lead advisor on economic and financial policy. Its role is to help the Government improve economic performance and manage scarce resources...

, the International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

 in Washington

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, and the New Zealand Department of Labour. He was appointed one of three Deputy Government Statisticians for Statistics New Zealand in July 2004 and was responsible for Macro-Economic, Environment, Regional and Geography Statistics. He was appointed Government Statistician and Chief Executive of Statistics New Zealand in May 2007.
He started his career in 1981 at the Treasury as an economic analyst and later became Director of Forecasting. From 1998 until 2004, Bascand was the General Manager of the Labour Market Policy Group at the Department of Labour. As well as holding senior policy and management positions at the Treasury and the Department of Labour, Bascand has been a Research Fellow at the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University in Australia, and from 1996 until 1997 he was a staff economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. In February 2005, he was a recipient of a Leadership Development Centre Fellowship award.