Engagement Forum

Raymond re-joined Taituarā in June 2014 as Sector Improvement Manager, before commencing his current role as Chief Advisor at Taituarā. He has spent most of the last 20 years in local government related roles, most recently with the Department of Internal Affairs.

He describes his job as two-thirds providing assistance to the local government sector and one-third providing advice to central government on local government matters. His ambition is to help develop a Local Government Act that doesn’t require changes every 18 months. He asks that you wish him well with this task.

Kath is a highly experienced local government leader and manager, with 25 years’ experience in local and central government, including regional (Northland), city (Wellington) and district (Masterton and Far North) councils, the Environment Agency (England and Wales) and a stint at LGNZ. She is a passionate, dedicated public servant that has led teams covering the full range of local government responsibilities, including: strategic and district planning and policy; finance, risk, infrastructure and asset management; governance; communications, events and marketing; and community, social and economic development.

Kath holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a Bachelor of Arts (History and Politics) from Victoria University of Wellington and a Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Law and Management from the University of Wales.

Elizabeth’s career spans 35 years in the local government sector including Hamilton City, Tauranga City and Waikato Regional councils. She also spent six years as communication and strategy leader for Local Government New Zealand. Her qualifications include a degree in resource management and a post- graduate diploma in communication.

She is passionate about local democracy and engagement with local communities.

For the past 10 years Elizabeth has run her own business working with elected members and council managers as a facilitator and consultant advisor around strategic change, communication and engagement and crisis management. She is also a columnist for the LG News magazine - providing fresh insights and/or practical advice on local government issues.

Simon has held a range of policy, planning and management roles in and consulting to local and central government in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch over 30 years, and has worked offshore in relation to local government best practice.

He has 20 years executive team experience in medium-large Councils and an academic background in social science and urban planning.

Simon has extensive experience with councils and communities in diverse community engagement projects, and shares in national and international awards through this experience.

He is a Chartered member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors and an Associate member and former Board member of Taituarā.

Simon Markham Consulting Ltd was (re)established in 2021. A key focus of SMC’s consulting services is on assisting councils and central government agencies shaping and engaging with the local government sector, at a time of major structural change and reform.

Emily has worked in local government for over 10 years, the last seven being at Western Bay of Plenty District Council. She’s managed a diverse range of policy, planning and bylaw processes, including project managing the 2018 and 2021 Long Term Plans. She has a strong interest in community engagement and the use of innovative approaches to connect with harder to reach audiences. Emily values working in the District where she grew up, and for an organisation where there is an emphasis on place-based planning and community relationships.

Luke leads a communications and engagement team out to prove that ‘Council’ doesn’t equal boring, creating new opportunities that make it easier for people to connect with Council.

As a Council that wraps around one of the country’s biggest cities, Tauranga, and features several satellite communities, Luke believes nobody is impossible to reach, it just needs the right approach.

A former journalist and public relations specialist, Luke gets a kick out of plain English, and the odd pun, simplifying complex information with the reader in mind.

Sophie Handford is a 22-year-old Councillor, activist from Kāpiti, New Zealand. Since a young age, Sophie has held the environment closely and always felt a strong connection to and need to protect this one planet we share. She founded School Strike 4 Climate in Aotearoa NZ and went on to coordinate the movement which mobilised 170,000 people across the country in September of 2019, united for climate justice. She then ran for Council at the age of 18 and was elected as one of Aotearoa’s youngest Councillors, now holding the Climate & Youth portfolios on the Kāpiti Coast District Council. She is also studying part time at Victoria University of Wellington, doing a Bachelor of Communications, Majoring in Political Comms. Having represented NZ through APEC Voices of the Future and Ship for World Youth, Sophie is committed to seeing us as communities and as a country lead our world to a better future for the next generation.

Anne is the founder and director of Pattillo. With over 30 years' experience in facilitation and consulting, she is a strategic thinker, an international leader in stakeholder engagement and a generous sponsor of artists.

Anne has become best known for her transformational work with leadership teams. There's nothing she loves more than working with leaders to reignite their energy, realign to purpose and galvanise them into action.

"I work best when I'm given a gnarly problem and then work with my clients to nut out a way forward. I love that."

Anne's restless desire to solve problems sees her work with leaders in government, corporate and NGOs sectors across Australia and New Zealand.

Anne is also recognised for her work as a leader in community engagement and the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2), including taking a central role in the design of the current IAP2 engagement frameworks and training.

We love art. but our commitment has been not to build a large art collection. It has been to work with the Sarjeant Gallery and the arts community of Whanganui to support the artist behind the art."

A purpose-driven leader in her own right, Anne's determination is to align organisations and their leaders to their higher purpose. "I like the thought that when I'm in my dotage, I'll be able to tell a story or two about how I helped someone solve a problem or create something with real purpose. My hope is that together we can tilt the world on its axis just a little bit, to a better place."

Natasha Stubbing is the Marketing and Engagement Manager at Northland Regional Council. She was the joint winner of the Taituarā 2022 Emerging Leader Award and in 2018 won the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand’s (PRINZ) Young Practitioner Award.

Natasha has worked in community engagement within the local government sector for a decade and has a strong track record of working with others to generate creative and innovative solutions.

She is passionate about Te Taitokerau and ensuring diverse communities have the opportunity to engage and participate with council either kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face) or pūnaha rorohiko (digitally).

To be a successful leader she believes you need to continuously push the boundaries of ‘what’s possible’, collaborate with others and think creatively and innovatively.

Natasha believes this whakatauki highlights the importance of working together - Ko tāu rourou, ko tāku rourou, ka ora ai te iwi, with your contribution and with my contribution the people will survive and grow.

Check out her article on leading for the future following her experience at the 2022 ICMA conference. https://taituara.org.nz/Story?...

Carol is an award-winning engagement professional with a passion to identify ways to ensure diverse voices are heard during decision-making processes.

She has experience facilitating deliberative democracy processes in both the UK and New Zealand such as “What next for Waste?” - a citizens jury to understand how to progress with new waste and recycling initiatives in Bristol and a civic forum to understand community perspectives on how to manage Auckland’s growth. She is currently planning a youth deliberative democracy which is intended to be piloted in the early part of 2023.

In 2022, she was appointed an inaugural Fellow of the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Australasia in recognition of her service to the organisation and to the developing profession of community engagement within Australasia.

Nigel Bickle describes himself as a “boy from Porirua” and he is certainly proud of his roots. He started his working life as a 20-year-old, processing benefit applications in the local welfare office.

He has now worked in the public sector for 30 years including eight as deputy chief executive of Immigration New Zealand, a role which gave him a lot of experience with Hawke’s Bay working with the horticulture and viticulture sector. Other previous roles include Acting Chief Executive of the Department of Labour and Acting Chief Executive of the Department of Building and Housing. He spent 9 years working in the Housing area at Government across areas of leading the leaky home service and the implementation of changes to the Building Act in response to those issues. More recently, Nigel was the head of the government’s Provincial Development Unit, which manages the Provincial Growth Fund. Nigel took up the role as Chief Executive of the Hastings District Council on February 11, 2019.

A self confessed policy geek and placemaking tragic, Erin’s passion for all things local government is a contagious commodity.

With 17 years working in local government spanning both city and provincial settings, Erin brings a breadth of experience, including a stint in central government.

As Strategic Partnerships and Governance Manager for Matamata-Piako District Council her portfolio includes policy and strategy, placemaking and engagement, iwi liaison, legal services and governance.

She is leading the Council’s foray into design thinking, community co-design and placemaking (including tactical urbanism) and has recently founded the Waikato Placemaking Collective.