Bill Kermode

An ex-director of an investment company who’s giving away $100 million in ten years

Bill Kermode is on a mission to give away money. Since 2014, he’s been working towards giving away $100 million in ten years, and to do it well.

In 2021, Bill was appointed Executive Chairman of NEXT, having been NEXT’s Chief Executive since its launch in 2014. The NEXT Foundation is a privately funded New Zealand strategic philanthropy foundation launched in March 2014. It has a mandate to spend down $100 million over 10 years into environmental and educational projects that will benefit future generations of New Zealanders. Bill has led NEXT’s environmental and educational investments as well as providing oversight of the previous philanthropic commitments made by Neal and Annette Plowman.

Before becoming a serial philanthropist, Bill spent the previous two decades as a founding Director of Direct Capital, New Zealand’s most experienced private company investor, and Director of a number of private companies, including Ryman Healthcare, PF Olsen, NZ Pharmaceuticals, and EziBuy.

In his spare time, Bill was also the Director of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship from 2016 until 2020, offering global social change-makers a path to New Zealand citizenship through New Zealand’s Global Impact Visa. He is currently Chairman of the Palmerston North BHS Educational Foundation Trust, and a graduate of Massey and Oxford Universities.