HARKNESS
FELLOWSHIPS TRUST
Championing innovation in Māori economic development: Jacob (Hākopa) Ashdown named 2025 Harkness Fellow
The Harkness Fellowships Trust (NZ) is proud to announce the selection of Hākopa Ashdown as the 2025 New Zealand Harkness Fellow.
Hākopa Ashdown, (Te Aupōuri, Ngai Takoto, Ngāti Kahu), currently Private Secretary to the Minister for Māori Development at Te Puni Kōkiri, will undertake a prestigious research residency at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, later this year.
The Harkness Fellowships, administered in partnership with the Leadership Development Centre at Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission, are among New Zealand’s most esteemed international awards for public sector leaders, supporting high-potential individuals to study or research in the United States for three to six months. The value of this year’s fellowship is $60,000.
The Fellowships aim to foster leadership, innovation, and the exchange of ideas between New Zealand and the US, empowering Fellows to address pressing challenges and drive positive change upon their return.
Ashdown’s project, Lessons Learned from the United States – Indigenous Economic Growth and Development in Underserved Communities, will examine successful US policies and initiatives that have accelerated economic growth for indigenous and economically disadvantaged communities.
His research seeks to understand how Special Economic Zones have attracted private capital into low-income communities designated as ’Opportunity Zones’, and how communities have established their own Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to address access to capital issues. Through the Fellowship, he will generate practical recommendations for New Zealand policymakers and iwi to improve economic growth.
“Hākopa Ashdown exemplifies the spirit of the Harkness Fellowship: a commitment to public service, a drive for innovation, and a vision for a more equitable and prosperous New Zealand,” says Aphra Green, Chair of the Harkness Fellowships Trust.
“His project promises to deliver real impact for Māori and for all New Zealanders, and we are delighted to support his journey.”
Dave Samuels, Secretary for Māori Development, Te Puni Kōkiri, added:
“We are very proud of Hākopa and delighted with his selection as the 2025 New Zealand Harkness Fellow. Hākopa joins a prestigious line of Māori leaders who have been awarded the Fellowship, including Kara Puketapu, Whaimutu Dewes, Dr Pauline Kingi, Hon Shane Jones, Hon Dr Shane Reti, Doug Jones, Peter Douglas, Anake Goodall, and Chief Judge Dr Caren Fox.
“We wish him well for his time at Harvard and look forward to following his work on community-led solutions and economic growth.”
Ashdown brings a distinguished record of leadership and service to the Fellowship. With nearly two decades of experience spanning roles in government, iwi, and community organisations, he has contributed to cross-agency initiatives such as Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga and the National Direction on Papakāinga, and holds a Master of Science in Psychology (First Class). He is also an active participant in iwi governance and a recipient of multiple leadership awards.
Reflecting on his selection, Ashdown said:
“I am honoured to be named the 2025 Harkness Fellow. This is a unique opportunity to learn from leading thinkers and practitioners at Harvard and across the US, and to bring back innovative ideas that can help accelerate economic growth and support community-led development. My goal is to forge new partnerships, share practical solutions, and inspire collaboration between government, iwi, and communities in Aotearoa.”
Ashdown’s research will include case studies, stakeholder engagement, and community visits in the US, culminating in a policy brief and a series of dissemination hui for New Zealand audiences. He will also participate in executive leadership programmes offered by Harvard.
The Harkness Fellowships Trust congratulates Hākopa Ashdown and looks forward to the insights and connections he will bring back to New Zealand.
About the Harkness Fellowships Trust
The New Zealand Harkness Fellowships Trust Board established the New Zealand Harkness Fellowships in 2009 to reinforce links between New Zealand and the US and to enable executive leaders in the Public Sector to benefit from study and travel in the US.
The Fellowships offer emerging leaders in the public sector the opportunity to spend 3-6 months undertaking research in the United States. The fellowships enable successful candidates to gain first-hand knowledge and build contacts in their chosen field of endeavour that will be highly relevant to the NZ context and future NZ/US links.
The Trust Board works to administer the fellowships in partnership with the Leadership Development Centre, which is acting on behalf of the Public Service Commission. The current fellowships continue a Harkness fellowship programme that stretches back over sixty years.
Harkness Fellowship – applications open!
The New Zealand Harkness Fellowship is for a high-potential senior leader in any field of study or vocation (excluding health care policy and practice) to study or research in the US for between 3-6 months.
One New Zealand Harkness Fellowship worth up to NZ$60,000 is being offered in 2025 (for travel in mid-late 2025), to a leader currently employed in in the New Zealand Public Sector. The length and total value of the Fellowship will be determined by the LDC and Harkness Trust Board, in conjunction with the successful applicant.
The New Zealand Harkness Fellowships were established in 2009 by the New Zealand Harkness Fellowships Trust Board to reinforce links between New Zealand and the US and to enable executive leaders in the Public Sector to benefit from study and travel in the US. Their purpose is to enable appointed Fellows to gain first-hand knowledge and build contacts in their chosen field of endeavour that will be highly relevant to the NZ context and future NZ/US links. The Trust Board is working in partnership with the Leadership Development Centre, which is acting on behalf of the NZ Government.
The programme has four goals:
- Reinforce New Zealand-United States links by enabling actual or potential leaders and opinion formers in New Zealand to benefit from new ideas, practices and new contacts in the US;
- Increase the Fellow’s ability to bring about change and improvements in New Zealand;
- Help improve the cross-fertilisation of ideas and experience between New Zealand and the United States; and
- Build a leadership network on both sides of the Pacific, encourage ongoing exchange between New Zealand and the United States and establish enduring relationships offering reciprocal benefits to both countries.
As part of your fellowship proposal, you will need to;
- State the objectives and methodology of your proposed project.
- Describe the significance of your project for your field in both the US and New Zealand.
- Outline your ideas for how your experiences in the US will be communicated and applied to the New Zealand context to effect a particular outcome(s).
- Demonstrate a track record of learning and growth in characteristics representative of the future leadership that the New Zealand Public Sector needs.
- Provide evidence of a planned and purposeful approach to the Fellowship.
Fellows are expected to be based at a government agency, university, research institute or ‘think tank’ for a significant part of their stay in the US.
Entitlement
One fellowship valued at up to NZ$60,000 will be offered in 2025 (for an award start date in mid-late 2025). New Zealand Harkness Fellowships are intended to contribute towards travel costs (international and domestic), accommodation and per diem expenses. Additional costs in excess of NZ$60,000 must be met by the Fellow and/or their New Zealand employer.
Read about previous fellow’s experience:
2024 fellow: Sarah Box (Harkness Fellowship Trust)
2023 fellow: Aimee Hadrup (Harkness Fellowship Trust) and Jym Clark
2016 fellow: Aphra Green (Public Service Commission)
Sarah Box: Where to for AI policy under Trump II?
Panel discussion with Tino Cuellar (President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Dario Amodei (CEO, Anthropic) and Elizabeth Kelly (Executive Director, U.S. AISI)
The United States is in the countdown to both the festive season and a new administration. In Washington DC, Halloween pumpkins and Biden-Harris yard signs have given way to Christmas trees and intense speculation about what President-elect Trump will do once in office, including on the AI front.
Not much was said on the campaign trail about AI and technology. Priorities on tax, immigration, and tariffs may be front of mind in the initial phases of Trump’s new Presidency. That said, AI’s potential to strengthen U.S. industry, and its central role in America’s economic and geopolitical contest with China, will surely push the issue forward.
A stronger focus on innovation
The Trump campaign’s “Agenda 47” stated an intention to repeal President Biden’s Executive Order on “Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of AI” to help champion innovation. Republican lawmakers considered the EO’s reporting requirements on firms to be onerous and potentially scaring away would-be innovators.
Tech firms – whose views permeate the policy discussion – don’t speak with one voice on AI regulation. But recently they’ve made large language models available for national security purposes (Scale AI, Meta and OpenAI) and offered recommendations to the government to tackle AI infrastructure bottlenecks (OpenAI), which seems in line with a strong pro-innovation narrative.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, who played a visible role in the election campaign and remains closely connected to the President-elect, sees efforts to use guardrails to limit AI speech as efforts to censor the truth. His interests in AI (including xAI’s expansion of its Memphis data centre) will certainly weigh in.
Actual change could be limited
What may change in practice is unclear. Commentators say much of Biden’s EO is well in train and hard to reverse, though there is scope to roll back the reporting requirements on firms.
If you look back at documents issued under the first Trump administration, and compare them to Biden-era policies, there is also a shared interest in harnessing AI for competitiveness, building up U.S. AI talent and capabilities, and protecting civil liberties.
And of course, the Executive branch of the U.S. government is not the only source of AI policy. States continue to formulate draft bills (Republican Texas is mooted to be one to watch) and Congress is apparently keen to push legislation forward during the “lame duck” period ahead of the inauguration.
AI safety may be the first sign
I had the opportunity to attend the inaugural meeting of International AI Safety Institutes in San Francisco (in the midst of an “atmospheric river” storm event – TBC whether this was itself some sort of sign). The US AISI is spearheading the initiative, joined by Australia, Canada, the EU, France, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.
Alongside some keynotes (including a comment from the CEO of Anthropic – Dario Amodei – that he’s worried about autonomous systems “running wild” in future), the purpose of the meeting was to tee up AISI inputs for an AI Summit in France in early 2025. The French event follows AI safety meetings in Bletchley Park, UK and Seoul. It is expected to attract high-level attendance from countries (including, perhaps, New Zealand, given we have signed both the Bletchley Declaration and the Seoul Ministerial Statement).
Under Trump II, it’s not clear what the future of the U.S. AISI may be. Its work currently includes work on issues like content authentication (which may fall foul of “woke policy” concerns) as well as the development and use of chemical and biological AI models (which has clear national security relevance). The AISI has also just set up a TRAINS taskforce (Testing Risks of AI for National Security), which will coordinate research and testing of AI models across nuclear security, military capabilities, etc. It’s possible the U.S. AISI will be told to amplify work related to standard-setting and national security and to tone down work on issues such as bias.
It will be instructive to see what priority the Trump administration gives to the French event. This could be a sign of their willingness to engage internationally on AI and of their attitude towards AI safety issues. Would Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, participate? Or Howard Lutnick, the pick for Secretary of Commerce? Both these positions will oversee important work on AI. A Chief Technology Officer could also attend, though February may be too early to have this job filled. Under Trump I, the CTO (Michael Kratsios, who is advising on tech policy in the transition) played a strong role in pushing the OECD AI Principles and in setting up a refreshed policy direction for AI.
Much to watch…
All in all, it’s a pivotal time for AI policy in the U.S. Having a front-row seat for a few months has been fascinating, and there will be plenty to follow when I return to New Zealand in mid-December.
HARKNESS 