Organisational Structure

Dr Robin Olds joined the HRC as Chief Executive in May 2007. Prior to this, Dr Olds was Professor of Pathology and Head of Department at the University of Otago, Dunedin. He has a significant track record as a productive researcher in New Zealand and the United Kingdom with an overarching research interest in the molecular genetics of human disease.

Dr Olds was born in Cromwell, received secondary education at Timaru Boys High School and attended the University of Otago in Dunedin. He graduated with distinction in medicine in 1981, after completing his first research degree, a BMedSc, in 1978.

After a year as a house surgeon in Otago, he began his postgraduate specialist training in pathology, completing this in 1988 and becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. During this period Dr Olds also completed a PhD at the University of Otago. In 1989 Dr Olds took up a Nuffield Dominions Medical Fellowship in the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University in the UK, where he worked on the molecular basis of disorders affecting blood clotting.

In 1994, Dr Olds returned to New Zealand to take up a senior lecturer post in the Department of Pathology, at the Dunedin School of Medicine of the University of Otago.

Within the University of Otago, Dr Olds has had roles as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, for Research and for Academic and Curricula Affairs, as Director of the Medical Education Group in the Dunedin School of Medicine, and as Deputy Dean of that School. In addition to being an enthusiastic teacher, Dr Olds maintained an active research group that in recent years has focused on the genetic basis for major mood disorders, particularly manic depression.

Chief Executive Expenses

Every six months the HRC discloses the Chief Executive's expenses, including gifts and hospitality (visit www.data.govt.nz for general information about Chief Executive expense disclosure).

• Chief Executive expenses for the period 1 July 2011 - 31 December 2011
• Chief Executive expenses for the period 1 January 2011 - 30 June 2011