Community Wellbeing 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.

Ganesh is well known to local government having previously been the Chief Economist for BERL.

As the Former Chair of the Productivity Commission, he oversaw the Fair chance for all inquiry into reducing persistent intergenerational disadvantage in Aotearoa.

Ganesh outlined some of the findings from the inquiry, including a review into the recent progress of joined-up social services. Read the review Together alone: A review of joined-up social services or a summary here

Jean-Paul (JP) is the Deputy Chief Executive, District Development, at Rotorua Lakes Council. Jean-Paul has more than 25 years’ experience in senior roles providing policy and strategy advice and operational leadership in local government. Jean-Paul has previously worked in three other New Zealand councils and for the Audit Commission in the UK.

His current role focuses on economic development, responses to growth and the delivery of effective land development and planning services. Jean-Paul coordinated Councils funding applications to Government for the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), Crown Infrastructure Partnerships fund and Infrastructure Acceleration Fund (IAF).

Jean-Paul has a Master’s in Public Policy.

Dr Penny Hagen assists organisations and teams to apply participatory and developmental approaches to the design, implementation, and iteration of strategy, programs, policies and services, for the purposes of advancing equity and intergenerational wellbeing. Penny has supported cross sector teams and communities in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand responding to complex social issues including youth employment, youth mental health and wellbeing, chronic health conditions and family violence. Penny’s work sits at the intersection of design, wellbeing and systems change and she is a keen advocate for growing participatory social innovation practices that are of Aotearoa. Penny is currently the Director of The Auckland Co-design Lab (The Lab), which prototypes, shares and experiments with what more participatory and collaborative ways of working in the public sector looks like. Current areas of focus for The Lab include systems approaches to wellbeing, the role of central and local government as a platform, learning partner and enabler for place and community-led responses, and commissioning and investment for wellbeing capacity and conditions.

Ko Panikere te Maunga
Ko Mataatua te waka
Ko Waikaremoana te awa
Ko Te Kuha te marae
Ko Tūhoe me Ngāti Ruapani ōku iwi
Ko Hinekura te hapū
Ko Tūhoe Lambert rāua ko Ada Lambert ōku mātua.
Ko Celia Hirini nee Lambert tōku ingoa.

I was born in Wairoa and raised in Hastings. I graduated from Te Rangakura bilingual teacher training in 1999 and completed a Master of Applied Indigenous Knowledge from Te Whare Wananga o Aotearoa in 2019, I've worked as a whanau worker for Papakura Marae Family Start serving whanau to reach their aspiration, and then took up a role with Great Potentials as the Finlayson Park School HIPPY coordinator working on the frontline with whanau and tamariki supporting the first 3 years of education. I am now back at the Papakura Marae with an invigorated passion looking at innovative ways to co create alongside whanau so that they can experience more sunny days.

Ko Hikurangi te Maunga
Ko Waiapu te Awa
Ko Ngāti Porou te Iwi

Angie Tangaere was born in Papakura and raised in South Auckland with a whakapapa to Ngāti Porou on her father’s side and Pākeha from Taranaki on her mother’s side. Graduating with a law degree Angie was keen to work at a community level and took up a role at Te Puni Kōkiri working with iwi and Māori trusts in South Auckland. Angie then worked with the Ministry of Social Development in South Auckland communities looking for ways to develop better services and engagement with communities and whānau, as well as with Māori health NGO, the National Hauora coalition. She has a Masters in Māori and Indigenous Leadership at University of Canterbury Aotearoa New Zealand and is currently Kaitohu Tangata Whenua, Auckland Co-design Lab where she combines her experience with government agencies, community and whānau to develop and co-design whānau-led innovation initiatives, disrupting ineffective ‘business as usual’ systems.

Ko Ngāi te Rangi, Ko Ngā Pōtiki, Ko Ngāti Ranginui, Ko Ngāti Maniapoto ngā iwi

Jodie has worked across a District Health Board, Crown Entity, Kaupapa Māori Research Unit, Charitable Trusts, both Local and Central Government and has operated her own research consultancy while raising her children. Her background lies in community psychology, research and evaluation, project management, and partnership brokerage. Jodie is passionate about equity and ensuring programmes and outcomes are evidence based and designed to reach the right people. You will usually find her scoping new ideas, facilitating discussions, holding the whiteboard pen, planning, and turning most things into diagrams to simplify the complexity.

Dr Mike Reid, Principal Policy Advisor, LGNZ. After starting his local government career at Christchurch City council Mike has been with LGNZ since 1996, during which time he has worked in a diverse range of policy areas ranging from local governance and social policy to legislative change and local democracy. He currently leads LGNZ’s localism programme. Mike completed his PhD on the topic of strengthening local governance and local government in in 2011 and is currently on the board of the Institute of Governance and Policy Studies. He speaks regularly on local government matters and has published widely.

Geoff is the Chief Executive of Rotorua Lakes Council and has more than 20 years’ experience leading complex, multi-site, client-focussed service organisations.

Before joining Rotorua Lakes Council in July 2013 he was executive director for Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA), the Auckland Council CCO (council-controlled organisation) responsible for the city’s major regional venues.

Geoff has a Masters in Education and Psychology and has also held executive positions in central government agencies, including the Ministry for Social Development. He was Child, Youth and Family’s Regional Director for the Bay of Plenty and Waikato prior to his roles in Auckland.

Hannah is the director of the Child Wellbeing and Poverty Group at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. She has twenty years’ experience in public policy in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Prior to joining DPMC, Hannah was Group Manager Strategy and Policy at Whaikaha, the Ministry of Disabled People. The Child Wellbeing and Poverty Reduction Group supports the government to achieve the vision of the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy that Aotearoa New Zealand is the best place in the world for children and young people.

In his current role as a Local Government Play Advisor, Mark is working to grow a national workforce which supports Territorial Authorities to consider tamariki in their planning. Prior to this, Mark has a long history in local government, regional sports trusts and active transport, both in Aotearoa and the United Kingdom. The common thread in each of these roles was driving the growth of physical activity across our neighbourhoods. Mark is a Cantabrian living in Lower Hutt with his wife Kelly, Frankie (6) and Marcel (10).

Experienced in senior roles across local government, central government, and not-for-profit organisations, Barbara has a strong focus on facilitating and supporting comprehensive, locally-led development.

For many years she has been involved in the Eastern Bay of Plenty under the auspices of Inspiring Communities, Toi EDA and Ōpōtiki District Council. Her focus has been to awhi economic development initiatives which realise Iwi aspirations, and enable increased local wellbeing through better jobs and incomes.

Originally from Waihopai in Te Waipounamu, Barbara has been Bay of Plenty based for nearly four decades.

This organisation is an Education, Health and Social Service subsidiary of the Whakatōhea Maori Trust Board located in Ōpōtiki. Their vision ‘Ko te kai hoki i Waiaua’ means ‘To be the food bowl that feeds the world’.

In her role, Louisa works closely with Council in the areas of education, housing, employment and social wellbeing.

Louisa led the 2010-2011 Wellbeing Survey of 750 members of the iwi living locally. This helped form the basis of six fifty-year strategies for Culture, Health, Education, Economic, Social and Envrionment Wellbeing.

She has 3 children and 20 grandchildren and lives on a papakainga on whanau whenua.

Nicola is Head of Community Strategy and Policy at Selwyn District Council. Prior to this, she spent several decades honing a broad range of leadership, operational, and engagement skills in the community and voluntary sector. Following post-graduate study in public policy, Nicola managed a central government policy team focused on vocational education reforms and qualifications recognition. After moving to Rolleston, Nicola joined the Council as a policy advisor before taking up her current leadership role. She is interested in the role of local government in enhancing community capability and resources, and in ensuring a broad range of community views are surfaced.

A proud Palmy local, Stephanie has been working with the Palmerston North City Council since 2017 and has been in the role of Community Development Manager for two years. A graduate of Massey University’s politics and social policy programmes, Stephanie has worked across central and local government and has a passion for community-led development.