OUR 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.

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.

Phil as a contract business analyst consultant has worked for a range of private and public departments in Wellington on a range of both information technology (IT) and complex business projects. His firm, Next Chapter a Wellington based company that specialises in business analysis, project management and career consulting and transition services.

Gisborne born and bred with strong Ngāti Porou and Te-Whanau-a-Apanui connections, he is passionate about getting more Māori into high demand technology professions especially in his home region of Tairāwhiti.

As the Managing Director for Orawa Tairawhiti (A not for profit organisation which he is co-founder of) he is focused on helping whānau into future-ready employment and exploring entrepreneurship opportunities.

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.

Warren Williams is the former National IT Manager for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. He has been in the ICTT and tertiary education industry for over 15 years. As a national IT manager he oversaw the IT strategic and operational direction of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

Warren is focussed on strategic ICTT relationships and partnerships that provide positive contributions to students and the communities they live in. He feels that through the use of technology, skills and knowledge can be easily accessed wherever they are. He is an advocate of “mobile” working and encourages people to drive technology to work better, and not let technology drive them.

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.

Riann is a director of the award-winning Convex Accounting firm in Wellington. She has a strong background in finance, accounting and business both as a corporate warrior and as an entrepreneur with businesses in hospitality, health and fitness and share trading.

Following two years in Japan, Riann joined Hamish Mexted as a Director of the award-winning Convex Accounting firm in Wellington.

Riann brings people skills, real life problem solving and is keen to “build a community of likeminded people changing the game and not becoming resigned to doing things the way they’ve always been done”.

Past directorships include Aohanga Incorporation, Landcorp Farming Ltd and Massey University. Being Patron of the Agri-Women’s Development Trust gives opportunity to share skills and experiences with rural women engaged in self development. As past chair of Te Huarahi Tika Trust (Māori Spectrum) and chair of Hautaki Ltd, the NZ shareholder within 2degreesmobile, Mavis has been integral to the development and commercial utilisation of spectrum for mobile technologies.

Her own company, Paewai Mullins Shearing Ltd, was the first globally in the sector to achieve ISO 9002 certification. Other acknowledgments include Golden Shears the agrisport of shearing and woolhandling Awards Māori Businesswoman of the Year (1998), Queen’s Birthday Honour MNZM for service to the wool industry (2002), Māori Sports Administrator of the Year for Shearing & Woolhandling (2005, 2012), Safeguard NZ Health & Safety in the Workplace Award to Paewai Mullins Shearing (2008). She was inducted into the Business Hall of Fame in 2017. Mavis was a significant In early 2019, Mavis accepted the Trust’s invitation to become the Group’s Patron.

Mavis was a long-time Chair of the Poutama Trust, supported the Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre and was a negotiator on the Rangitāne Settlement Negotiations Trust and PSGE Rangitāne Tu Mai Ra Trust.