Hautaki trust Board

George has a background in business, non-Government organisations and the Public Sector. A Chartered Accountant (with an MBA) his main interests have been in strategy and business development especially in on-line digital environments.

George is passionate about businesses in the Telco and IT sectors from start-ups to large enterprises. George is currently the CEO for Te Tai Whenua o Heretaunga, the health arm of Ngati Kahungunu.

Te Huarahi Tika has appointed George as its representative to the government’s Maori $30M ICT Advisory Group. In 2016, he assumed the chair of the Trust’s asset holding trust, Hautaki

Daphne has developed extensive networks in Māori tertiary education, community and Iwi development and business. Daphne has been self-employed for 20 years as a business coach and consultant.

Daphne is a member of Te Mana Whakahaere o Te Wananga o Raukawa, the governing Council of the Wananga. She is the current chair of the Raukawa Media Charitable Trust, Te Rōpū Pakihi the Kapiti Horowhenua Māori Business Network and she coordinates the affairs of a small Maori IT investor group. In 2009 Daphne was appointed to the Maori Economic Taskforce by the Hon Pita Sharples to chair the Small-Medium Enterprises portfolio. Consequently she served as an initial appointment to Ngā Pu Waea, the government’s Rural Broadband Initiative Advisory Group.

A key role for Daphne is to maintain our relationship with the WAI2224 spectrum claimants (Whatarangi Winiata for NZMC; Huirangi Waikerepuru and Piripi Walker for Ngā Kaiwhakapumau i te Reo and Graeme Everton for the Rangiaho Everton Estate).

Toa is a tertiary qualified Information Engineer with over twenty year’s New Zealand ICT industry experience. He has completed professional qualifications with Cisco, Microsoft, Citrix, Novell and Hewlett Packard.

Over his varied ICT career Toa has developed payroll and shipping container management systems, deployed Chartered Accounting Systems throughout NZ, implemented volcano and forest fire monitoring systems and worked on some of NZs largest ICT projects.

Toa is a senior manager at Spark NZ and a director of MicroCar Limited. He is currently the technical spokesperson for the National Environmental Society on radio frequency electro-magnetic fields and a professional member of the Bio-electromagnetics Society.

Lee Grace (Nagti Porou/Ngai Tahu) is a Chartered Accountant presently living in Kahungunu. Following University study and while working at Audit New Zealand, he was involved with both local and regional councils and central Government clients (including the then SOE’s/CCO’s). From 2006, dealings with Government agencies has been around the health initiatives, social impact and the housing sector.

He has been involved with the establishment of several local events and is working with many local charitable and community entities. His accounting practice recently sold after 8 years in operation and included a range of industries, sizes and locations.

Pentech is a specialised provider of information and communications technology who brings fast, reliable and secure IP communications to organisations of all sizes throughout New Zealand.  As the Managing Director for Pentech over the last ten years, Ty is responsible for setting the company’s direction and strategy. He also oversees Pentech’s operations management processes.  Ty recently accepted the role of Chairman of the Board.

Ty has 30 years of experience in the sector and his technical background is tempered with business acumen and governance roles.  He is the immediate Chair of Te Awe, the Wellington Māori Business Network.  Recently Ty established a Māori IT sector group in the Capital and is has also begun to develop a Māori IT recruitment company.  When he’s not bouncing around new ideas and resources, he’ll most likely be found coaching on the volleyball court.

Francene is driven and passionate about research,science and innovation and its commercial potential to drive economic development.

Francene brings a design thinking philosophy to her work and is a strategic thinker. With her previous experience in Callaghan Innovation and MBIE, Francene will bring her internationalnetworks to the table.