Mahesh Muralidhar is the National Party’s candidate for Auckland Central. He is also the chief executive of Phase One Ventures, a New Zealand venture firm which supports and funds start-ups to grow and succeed. He mentors and invests into several start-ups in New Zealand and Australia. He's had extension experience at many startups with a broad range of outcomes. One of them you might have heard of- Canva, where we was the 25th employee and helped them grow to 250 people as Head of People. Please enjoy this conversation, I know I did.

Matt Lambert is a Michelin-star chef from New Zealand. Lambert has seen great success in the USA having lead the teams in AVRoKO kitchens like PUBLIC, Double Crown and Saxon and Parole. After going on to open his own restaurant The Musket Room where Matt designed and conceived everything from the plates to the bill folds. Here he quickly earned a Michelin star which he held from 2013-2020.
It was in his kitchen here he also achieved international acclaim with awards from "The Best Chef" awards & Star Chefs to name a few. He has returned home to New Zealand to be the executive Chef at Rodd and Gunn's The Lodge Bar in Queenstown and Auckland. Most recently he designed the food offering for Virgin Voyages ship The Scarlet Lady's restaurant "The Test Kitchen," Sir Richard Bransons first Cruise ship.
He is also a proud father, husband, amateur musician, and beginner BJJ practitioner.