Victoria Spackman

Born in New Zealand, Victoria Spackman grew up in Wellington and London. Her father worked for the NZ Meat Board, and his work took him across the world. The family joined him for a six year stint in Thatcher-era England. They returned home when Spackman was 10, where she continued to thrive academically.

In an interview with RNZ National’s Kim Hill, Spackman spoke of her early love of the theatre — but how when she was at school, it was common for young women to be directed towards studying law or medicine. "There was no way I wanted to do medicine. I know the power of words and the power of language, and so law was much more attractive in that way."

At Victoria University Spackman stoked her passion for the stage. She graduated with a combined arts/law degree, and a post-graduate diploma in languages, film and theatre. In the late 1990s she tried her hand at many facets of theatre, producing and/or directing numerous Wellington Fringe Festival plays, sometimes gracing the stage herself. (In 2002 Spackman took her relationship with BATS Theatre to a new level, becoming chair of its board. She stood down in 2014 — overseeing BAT’s renovation remains a highlight.)

From the early 2000s. Spackman’s law career ticked along. At Cullen Law and Buddle Findlay, she practised employment and litigation. In 2003 her creative and analytical skills began to fall into alignment, when she joined South Pacific Pictures as their Legal and Business Affairs manager. In 2006 she was a business advisor for Kura Productions and Australia’s SLP Productions, two joint ventures with South Pacific Pictures. That year she also got her first executive producer role, on high profile show NZ Idol.

As the year ended, she began her relationship with Wellington company Gibson Group. She started as their Legal and Business Affairs Manager, and went on to executive produce a number of productions including 2014's The Trouble With Murder, a three-parter investigating the history of murder sentences in New Zealand, and  Operation Hero, which follows children undertaking adventures inspired by real New Zealand heroes.

Spackman’s ability with languages has provided a number of career opportunities. She has studied German, speaks some Italian, and after several work trips to China decided to try to learn Mandarin by immersing herself in Chinese life for a month in Wellington’s sister city of Xiamen. Her close engagement with China has played a key role in several joint productions for Gibson Group (including TV series Dragons in a Distant Land, which looked at education in New Zealand through the eyes of Chinese students). 

Spackman’s appointment in April 2012 as Chief Executive of Gibson Group marked the end of an era. In late 2013 company co-founder Dave Gibson moved on to lead the NZ Film Commission; Spackman and colleagues Allan Smith and Brett Tompkins bought Gibson Group. Spackman spoke of how the company gave her "the opportunity to use both my creative and analytical skills. Plus it’s damn exciting getting to hang out with super creative people all day".

Spackman has been a director of Australasian copyright organisation Screenrights, did six years on the  board of Kiwi screen industry organisation SPADA, and was a committee member of FirstBoards, an initiative by the NZ Institute of Directors. In 2012 she won the prestigious Private Sector In-House Lawyer of the Year award, acknowledging her successful transition from law to leading Gibson Group. In 2015 she won the Arts and Culture category of the NZ Women of Influence Awards; the following year she was made an Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit, for her contributions to theatre, film and television. 

In 2012 Spackman gave a TEDx talk in Auckland called 'The Wall - Making History Social'. She described "a slow revolution" in the way museums think about and attract modern audiences. "At Gibson Group we’ve been thinking about these different audiences for a while now, and the way we can welcome them into museums." One example of this thinking was The Wall, a joint venture with the Museum of Copenhagen.The large interactive touch screen was set up in a 40-foot shipping container on a Copenhagen street, allowing the museum’s collection to be viewed and added to by multiple users. The award-winning project provided a calling card for more of its kind.

In July 2015 Spackman joined the board of education marketing organisation Education New Zealand. In May 2017 she left Gibson Group — although she remains a co-owner — to lead new Wellington creative campus Te Auaha. The school serves students from Whitireia, WelTec (Wellington Institute of Technology), the NZ Film and Television School and the NZ Radio Training School. Te Auaha is unusual in offering such a wide range of courses, from dance, acting, hair and make-up, to film production and digital art.

Part of Spackman's role as Director involved overseeing the building of an ambitious six-story campus in the Wellington city centre, which includes a cinema, theatre and dance studio. Speaking to Stuff when the school opened in February 2018, she said it was a facility for "jobs that even haven't been invented yet". After successfully establishing the school, Spackman left the Director position in June 2019.

As hoped, the facilities offered at the school have also become a hub for local performers, artists, filmmakers and businesses to host events. "You will feel part of it whether you're a student or a visitor, or simply a citizen of Wellington."

Spackman is herself a fixture of the arts scene and capital city. She sits on a number of boards such as the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace museum, Toi Mai WDC (Workplace Development Council), and events company Uno Loco — which she also chairs. 

Profile written by Gabe McDonnell; updated on 24 November 2023 

Sources include
Victoria Spackman
'Our People - Victoria Spackman' Gibson Group website. Accessed 24 November 2023
'Victoria Spackman - The Wall: Making History Social' (Video Talk) YouTube website. Loaded December 2012. Accessed 22 November 2023
'Playing Favourites with Victoria Spackman' (Radio Interview) RNZ National website. Interviewer Kim Hill. Loaded 24 November 2014. Accessed 22 December 2015
Amber-Leigh Woolf, 'Te Auaha, the New Zealand Institute of Creativity, opens its doors' (Interview) Stuff website. Loaded 26 February 2018. Accessed 24 November 2023
Unknown writer, 'Passion leads to perfect mix' (Interview) Victorious, Autumn 2014
Unknown writer, 'Victoria Spackman Appointed To Lead Te Auaha New Zealand Institute of Applied Creativity' (Press release) Scoop website. Loaded 27 March 2017. Accessed 24 November 2023
Te Auaha website. Accessed 24 November 2023