Trust Board

Rachael is a descendant of the Tainui Waka and of Ngāti Maniapoto. She is Co-Director of MAPSS (Māori and Pasifika Support Services) which focuses on the intersection between indigenous people’s and improving social outcomes. She is a former academic of the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education; Education Manager of the Auckland South Corrections Facility, and a former Secondary School Teacher. 

Rachael’s recent governance experience includes the Boards of Education New Zealand, The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), Manukau Institute of Technology, Voyce: Whakarongo mai, Variety Children’s Charity, Man Alive Charitable Trust, Auckland Community Law Centre and COMET Auckland.

Alastair Carruthers is the co-founder and director of Homeland, a food embassy based in Auckland.  He is a member and was the interim chair of Ringa Hora, the Services Workforce Development Council for the Tertiary Education Commission. He is a Board member of Auckland Unlimited, the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Board and Cornwall Park Trust Board.

He has been Chair of the Allpress Espresso group, Co-Chair of Te Papa Foundation, Chair of the NZ Arts Council, Creative NZ, and its investment board, and a member of supervision boards for the Transport and Statistics Ministries.

Lupematasila Misatauveve Dr Melani Anae, QSO is Associate Professor in Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland. Her sustained leadership in research and teaching is based on three interconnected strands – Pacific activism/social justice; Pacific empowerment/leadership and ethnic identity work; and a liberating education/teu le va (relational ethics).

Professor Anae was one of the foundational members of the Polynesian Panther Party and over the last 50 years she has continued to advocate for human rights in Aotearoa. She is a recipient of a Fulbright New Zealand Senior Scholar Award and a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Award, and in 2008 was made a Companion to the Queen’s Service Order for services to Pacific communities in New Zealand. She hails from the villages of Falelatai, Apia, Lalovaea and Siumu, and is a mother of three children, and grandmother of two moko.

Penny has over 27 years of experience in local government around the wider Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland region. She served on Waitakere City Council 1992-2010, holding the position of Deputy Mayor from 2007-2010. With the amalgamation of the Super City in 2010, she was appointed as Deputy Mayor of Auckland Council from 2010-2016 as well as chairing the Auckland Development Committee. She then chaired the Community and Environment committee with responsibility for a wide range of operational aspects of Council, before stepping down in 2019.

Penny is currently a board member at Kāinga Ora, New Zealand Conservation Authority, Link People and is an elected member of the Waitakere Licensing trust. She also maintains strong links with her community and holds a number of community related roles including Chair of the Waitakere Anti Violence Essential Services (WAVES) Trust and Patron of the Waitakere Ethnic Board, WALSH Trust and Community Waitakere.

John Judge holds a number of director and trustee positions for private companies and trusts. He is the Chairman of Biotelliga Limited, Hydraulink Group and the Auckland Arts Festival Trust.

He has previously held the position of Chairman at ACC, ANZ Bank, Auckland Art Gallery Foundation and the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa.

John’s governance experience is underpinned by his commercial and strategic acumen as a former partner and Chief Executive of Ernst & Young New Zealand (EY).

He honore he kororia ki te Atua, he maungarongo ki te whenua, he whakaaro pai ki nga tangata katoa. Tamaki Paenga Hira is a repository of knowledge, endeavour and the industry of people. It provides insights to the past, stands in the present, and offers pathways to the future.

Martin Mariassouce was chairperson of the Museum's Māori advisory committee, the Taumata-ā-Iwi, from 2007 to 2013. In October 2013 he joined the Trust Board as the Taumata's representative. As an avid student of 'te reo me ona tikanga' he contributes keenly to the Māori dimension established in the museum’s bicultural and 'He Kōrahi Māori' foundation adding value to museum practice. Martin currently works with Māori micro-enterprises and small businesses to increase productivity and business capability.

Ben holds governance roles in a range of not-for-profit and for-profit organisations. He currently serves as a member of the Risk and Audit Committee for The Treasury Te Tai Ōhanga, as well as a co-opted member of the Audit and Risk Committee for Foundation North. Ben is also chair of SPCA Trust and a long-time trustee of the Melanesian Mission Trust Board. He previously served as Chair of Mercy Breast Clinic Limited and Lifeline Aotearoa. Ben retired from Ernst & Young in 2011 after a career of 35 years. He has been involved at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum in the past both as a Trust Board member and as a co-opted member of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Paul Spoonley is a sociologist from Massey University where his specialist area is social and demographic change and how these changes impact on policy and public understanding. A former Pro Vice-Chancellor of Massey University's College of Humanities and Social Sciences, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and affiliate of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. He is Chair of Metropolis, the largest global network of immigration and diversity specialists.

Paul is a regular commentator in the news media. His work on racism, immigration and ethnicity is widely discussed in the wake of the Christchurch Mosque shootings (2019) and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr David V Williams FRSNZ is a Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Law at The University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau. He is a Member of the Waitangi Tribunal appointed for a three year term commencing 31 March 2023. 

After study at the Victoria University of Wellington, he was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. He has tertiary qualifications in history, law and theology including a PhD from the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He has taught at the University of Dar es Salaam and the University of Auckland. He was an independent researcher (1991-2001) specialising in legal history research relevant to Treaty of Waitangi claims and he resumed that work after his retirement from teaching in 2018 to 2023. 

For many years he was an activist in the Citizens Association for Racial Equality (CARE). He has worked with many iwi, but especially with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei from the days of the Bastion Point/Takaparawhau occupation in the 1970s through to the enactment of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Treaty Settlement Act 2012.

Melissa has over 20 years’ experience in digital innovation, transformation and product development across media, culture and private sectors. She has served in governance and advisory roles with NZTech, National Museum of Australia, and WeCreate (Creative Industries Alliance). She is also founder and director of Again Again and product consultancy Horizon Three. 

Her executive leadership career includes roles at Storypark, Chorus, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Te Papa Museum of New Zealand, where, as Chief Digital Officer, her leadership earned recognition among 2018’s Top 100 CIOs. Currently, Melissa is the Chief Experience Officer at fintech Farm Focus and works “fractionally” with tech companies to help them hurdle product growth and transformation challenges.