Peter Te Matakahere Douglas has worked in government, including at the highest levels in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. For more than twelve years he ran a complicated organisation, Te Ohu Kaimoana Trustee Ltd – the Maori Fisheries Trust, which achieved outstanding settlement results in areas where very few others could have.

He has been a General Manager in the Department of Child Youth and Family; Senior Advisor in the Ministry of Social Development and began his working career as a Social Worker in the Department of Social Welfare. He has also held senior roles in Business Banking for Westpac Banking Corporation.

He was an appointed member of the Capital and Coast District Health Board for three terms and on the Hutt Valley District Health Board for two terms. In 2015 he was appointed by Government to the Expert Advisory Panel Inquiry into Modernising the Department of Child Youth and Family. He chairs the Ruapuha Uekaha Hapu Trust which owns the Glow Worm Caves in Waitomo; and chaired the Board of Trustees at Hato Paora College, a Maori boy’s boarding school, for ten years. He was one of the negotiators to settle the Ngati Maniapoto Treaty Claim with the Crown, after leading the mandating process in 2016.

He has a degree in Social Science from Waikato University ( B.Soc.Sci 1986) and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University (MPA 1994). He is married to Hera Douglas with two sons, Uekaha (26) and Kohu (21).