Susan Wakefield

Susan Mary Wakefield (formerly Lojkine, née Turtle; 25 November 1942 – 12 November 2022) was a New Zealand tax expert. She was also noted for her interest in art and her philanthropy, establishing Ravenscar House Museum in Christchurch with her second husband, Jim Wakefield.

Early life and family Wakefield was born Susan Mary Turtle in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, on 25 November 1942, and she gained her primary education at schools in Plimmerton and Te Puke, before attending Te Puke District High School for two years and then Cashmere High School in Christchurch from 1958 to 1960. She excelled academically, achieving a total of 465 marks out of a possible 500 in her five School Certificate examination papers in 1958, believed to have been the highest in the country that year. She completed a Master of Arts degree in 1964, with a thesis on early 19th-century Russian poetry, and then a PhD in 1968, both also at Canterbury. The title of her doctoral thesis was The defective verb in modern Russian.

In Christchurch in 1965, Turtle married Alex Lojkine, a lecturer in Russian at the University of Canterbury, and the couple went on to have two children before divorcing in 1989. In 1978, she became a naturalised New Zealand citizen.

Career After her doctoral studies, Lojkine trained in accountancy, graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1975, and worked as an accountant. In 1979, she became a partner at the international accountancy firm Peat Marwick. In 1987, she resigned and co-founded a specialist tax practice. In 1987 and 1988, she served on a consultative committee for the Inland Revenue Department to review New Zealand's international tax regime.

Wakefield held a number of directorships including director and deputy chair of the Bank of New Zealand, and chair of the Commerce Commission from 1989 to 1994. In 2000, she was one of three members of a ministerial inquiry into the New Zealand electricity industry.

Honours and awards Wakefield was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services in the 1993 New Year Honours. Also in 1993, she was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal. In 2006, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in commerce by the University of Canterbury. She died in Christchurch almost two years later, on 12 November 2022, aged 79.