Innovator, entrepreneur and philanthropist Andrew Barnes has made a career of market-changing innovation and industry digitisation. In New Zealand, Andrew triggered a revolution of the fiduciary and legal services industries, and the transformation he led as the founder of Perpetual Guardian has had positive implications both locally and globally.

Andrew is a director of Complectus Limited, the parent of the Perpetual Guardian Group of companies including the leading crowdfunding platform Givealittle of which he currently serves as chair. He is a shareholder in various other financial services companies both in New Zealand and the UK. He formerly chaired the Regional Facilities Auckland board and the board of New Zealand payroll provider PaySauce.

Andrew is the innovator and architect behind 4 Day Week Global, which was named as a 2023 TIME100 Most Influential Company. The trial Andrew led at Perpetual Guardian in 2018 made global headlines and reached billions of people in 70+ countries through widespread news and social media coverage. Andrew regularly addressed international audiences on the future of work and subjects such as governance, philanthropy, business leadership, entrepreneurship, company culture and change management. He presented a TEDx Talk and published a white paper on the 4 Day Week in 2019 and wrote The 4 Day Week book, released in 2020 in North America, New Zealand and Australia, the UK, and Europe, and in French and Danish translation. He is the only Kiwi to make the 2024 Thinkers 50 Radar list and was also named as Forbes’ inaugural Future of Work 50, in 2022.

Andrew established 4 Day Week Global, a not-for-profit, international community of people interested in ushering in the work model of the 21st century. 4 Day Week Global has triggered changes in government thinking in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand and generated interest from companies and academics around the world, including for its potential to generate massive change in how we manage climate change as a global community by reducing work-related travel and congestion. The Spanish government agreed to support a 4 Day Week trial for interested companies.

Designed as an open vehicle for businesses, employees, media, academics, government and political entities can connect and share ideas, 4 Day Week Global is the central hub for information, resources, research and funding via the 4 Day Week Global Foundation to support and deliver the 4 Day Week concept to the world.

Through this work Andrew is on the advisory boards of a number of local 4 Day Week campaigns and the advisory board of the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University.

Earlier in his career, Andrew identified the opportunity for the evolution of real estate in Australia and was chairman of realestate.com.au at the time of its IPO on the ASX. Later, he became CEO of Bestinvest, a US$5.7billion, UK-based investment management and advisory company, leading the sale to private capital in 2007, and was managing director of Australian Wealth Management Limited, a major Australian wealth management and trustee business that he led to IPO in 2005. Andrew holds an MA from Selwyn College, Cambridge and an ACIB (UK), and has attended the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School.

Philanthropic, Culture and Heritage interests

In addition to his corporate and entrepreneurial career, Andrew has a lifelong interest in archaeology and history. He holds a Master of Arts in Archaeology from Selwyn College at the University of Cambridge and has participated in archaeological digs in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help precious objects for the enjoyment and edification of future generations.

In 2016 Andrew saved the historic classic racing yacht Ariki from near-ruin by purchasing her and undertaking an extensive restoration project which saw Ariki re-launched in 2018 at the National Maritime Museum in Auckland, where she is now berthed.

In 2019 he and Charlotte ensured Perpetual Guardian’s funding support in the successful bid for forgotten letters and a pendant mounted with a stone from the summit of Everest of Sir Edmund Hillary; these important historical artefacts are now on permanent public display in the Hillary collection at Auckland Museum and at The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Andrew is behind the long-term sponsorships of the Perpetual Guardian Planetarium at Otago Museum and the APPA Music Festivals’ Choir.

Andrew and Charlotte were major benefactors to The New Zealand Memorial Museum Trust - Le Quesnoy which opened to the public in 2023. Andrew was appointed as a trustee at the end of that year.

At the beginning of 2024 he was appointed as a board member of the Prince’s Trust Aotearoa NZ (soon to be renamed the King’s Trust).

Andrew and Charlotte have personally gifted $300,000 in funding to The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, committed over three years. This funding has resulted in a more accessible gallery for all, with glass balustrades having been put in place across the Toi Art walkway and in front of Tiffany Singh’s Indra’s bow, allowing the public to view a larger section of the artwork from a much more accessible angle. The previous balustrades were opaque glass, meaning children and wheelchair users were not able to see through to the artworks in the gallery below.  

A noted art collector, Andrew and Charlotte have established a collection of mostly New Zealand artists to display at their home and businesses, sharing his love of art with his staff and clients. They directed Perpetual Guardian’s sponsorship of the biennial Perpetual Guardian Sculpture on the Gulf exhibition on Waiheke Island, where they live, to showcase newly created works by many of New Zealand’s top artists.

In 2017 Andrew led a campaign to raise funds in support of the establishment of the British New Zealand War Memorial in Wellington, an incredible sculpture by Weta Workshop.

When Laura Clarke was departing the British High Commission, mentioned to Andrew and Charlotte that she wanted a piece of art to symbolise the historical relationship between the UK and iwi Māori, and also that cooperation and shared aspirations for the future. They commissioned a sculpture at the British High Commission in Wellington in conjunction with Te Āti Awa, carved by the renowned carver, Anton Forde.

In 2019 Andrew and Charlotte drove Eleanor, their 1941 Chevrolet Coupe, from China to France on the famed Peking to Paris Rally. Through this, they raised funds via a subfund of the Perpetual Guardian Foundation in support of the Graeme Dingle Foundation and its flagship Project K programme. They are embarking on the 2024 Peking to Paris Rally in May.

When the first Auckland Wooden Boat Festival was proposed in 2024, Andrew encouraged Perpetual Guardian to be the presenting sponsor. As keen members of the classic boat community, Andrew and Charlotte felt this was a great way for them to help showcase this important part of Auckland’s maritime history.