Ross Stevens
Ross Stevens is an industrial design icon and design futurist. He has worked with many of the world’s leading designers, including Philippe Starck, and with high end audio brands, and continues to influence and shape the world’s design landscape. He co-founded Design Led Futures – exploring ideas 80 years in the future for major international brand leaders of innovation. He is senior lecturer on complex 3D digital form at Victoria University School of Design in Wellington, New Zealand.
Jodi Newcombe
Jodi Newcombe founded Carbon Arts in Melbourne, Australia following a 15 year international career as an environmental economist and sustainability consultant. Her work on natural resource management and policy design, green technology and low-carbon design inform her work with the creative sector.
Lorri Lennon
Lorri Lennon is the founder of the Centre for Leadership Communication, a Sydney-based consultancy. For 30 years she has witnessed the failure of leadership communication to engineer effective change in organisations. She has seen employees’ passion, creativity and productivity wither as mechanistic organisations snuff out opportunities for building meaning, connection and growth.
Frances Valintine
Frances Valintine is the Chief Executive and founder of The Mind Lab.
The Mind Lab is an inter-disciplinary learning lab designed to contextualise education in a 21st century setting, reflecting best practice teaching methodologies and authentic technology integration to develop skills and knowledge.
Charles Royal
Charles Royal is a leader in the field of traditional kai (Māori food), indigenous fusion, sustainable foraging and harvesting, and experimentation with native plants and bush herbs of Aotearoa.
Charles is committed to indigenous culinary experiences, and has played a leading role in establishing the New Zealand indigenous food identity.
He provides a personalised experience of foraging for edible harvest food in the native bush. Charles talks about Māori indigenous native plants and their medicinal properties, biodiversity and sustainable harvesting, traditional remedies, and healthy native food infusions.
Qiujing Wong
Qiujing Wong is co-Founder and Chief Executive of Borderless Productions Ltd. – a company catalysing positive change results throughout the world.
Borderless works cross sector and independently to deliver engaging stories, unique social change activations and to incubate ideas that create meaningful change.
Christian Silver
Christian Silver is the Deputy Head Boy of Kristin School, Auckland and has been developing software in whatever capacity he can. In 2008, when he was first drawn to game design, he joined the team at Abscure Games. As a programmer and a designer, Christian worked with the team to develop games that he loved and were enjoyed by others. Christian’s most recent project with the team is Sling Defense, a first for him in many areas, including the first venture into the complex world of mobile gaming. Abscure still remains to be a side project by all of those that are involved as other parts of life often get in the way.
Thomas E Stazyk
During his 28 years with a global accounting firm, Thomas pioneered the integration of computers into the professional audit practice and oversaw the development of a paperless audit system for the global audit practice that was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as a significant innovation producing beneficial change for society.
Mike Shaw
Mike Shaw is part of the Communications Team at Plant & Food Research – one of New Zealand’s largest scientific research organisations. Mike is passionate about the power of digital communications and the new tools and technologies that allow companies to communicate with their stakeholders.
Judi Clements
Judi Clements has been the leading force within the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand since 2005. The Mental Health Foundation, a charitable trust since 1977, is the only organisation that focuses on wellbeing for all New Zealanders and has developed a strategic approach to meet their vision of a society where all people flourish.
Paul Cameron
Paul Cameron is CEO and co-founder of Booktrack, a company that has developed the technology for a new medium of digital entertainment content that provides synchronized movie-style soundtracks to eBooks. With Booktrack, music and ambient audio are automatically paced to an individual’s reading speed to match the storyline evoking emotion and bringing scenes to life while they read.
Dr. Ignazio Maria Viola
Dr Ignazio Maria VIOLA is a lecturer in the Institute for Energy Systems at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. His research focuses on viscous fluid flows. He is internationally renowned for his research on the aerodynamics of sailing yachts. Ignazio’s study includes new technologies inspired by the wings of gliding insects and birds, and on modern yacht sails to improve the efficiency of tidal energy converters, which will be able to supply almost half of Scotland’s energy needs.
Minnie Baragwanath
Minnie Baragwanath has played a leading role in effecting social change for disabled New Zealanders over the past decade. She is the Chief Executive and creator of the Be. Institute, a social enterprise that inspires and enables an accessible society for all people.
Dr. Siouxsie Wiles
Award-winning scientist and communicator Dr Siouxsie Wiles describes herself as a microbiologist and bioluminescence enthusiast but to others she is “that lady with the pink hair”. Head of the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland, Siouxsie combines her twin passions to understand infectious diseases. Siouxsie also has a keen interest in demystifying science for the general public, and raising awareness of the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
Sarah Amazinnia
Sarah Amazinnia is the Strategic Arts Advisor to the Christchurch City Council working to insure the arts – visual, literary and performing are integrated into the rebuild of central Christchurch following the 2011 earthquakes. Sarah leads the design, management and delivery of the Creative Industries Fund, and is the Arts Advisor on the development of the Performing Arts Precinct Anchor Project and rebuild of the ChristchurchTown Hall.
Jamie McLellan
Jamie McLellan runs a small product and furniture design consultancy in the heart of downtown Auckland, New Zealand. His studio thrives on a great diversity of projects and he believes there has never been a better time to be a designer working from these remote islands in the bottom of the South Pacific.
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Dr Joe Harrop – Programme Director, Sistema Aotearoa
Joe Harrop took on the role of establishing and leading the Sistema Aotearoa programme in Otara, Auckland in 2011. His previous role was at the University College Falmouth, where he was Programme Leader for Music. He has worked at Dartington College of Arts, the Royal Academy of Music, London and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Joe has recently been elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his contribution to the music profession.
Alongside Joe’s higher education and academic work, his experience as a professional violinist within a
wide variety of musical genres informs his work in teaching and practice. His specialist area is the effective teaching of ensemble technique, and he believes strongly in Sistema’s group teaching ethos and its approach
to musical awareness.
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Ros Giffney – Programme Facilitator, Sistema Aotearoa
Ros Giffney joined Sistema Aotearoa at its inception in April 2011. As a highly experienced paediatric developmental therapist, and having worked in the health and education sectors in the UK and New Zealand, Ros brings a special set of skills to Sistema Aotearoa. A key part of her work as programme facilitator is integrating and enhancing the behavioural and social development of the students and evaluating the longer term outcomes in those areas. This holistic approach is a critical success factor in engaging the children and impacting on their well-being and that of their whanau and the wider community.
Ros established training programmes in child development for professionals and parents and the evaluation and treatment of special needs children at Guy’s Hospital and St Bartholomew Hospital, London.
Read more about Sistema Aotearoa →
Jill Walker
Jill Walker is a community artist. She is passionate about the magic and power of community art-making in making the world a better place : the world of a person, a family, a community, a town.
Gerbrand van Melle
Gerbrand van Melle is a senior lecturer in Typography at Massey University. In 2013 he joined the Colab team at AUT University, Auckland. Currently his design research domain is defined by Transmodular Design and Transmedia Narratives.
Kiri Jarden
A move back to Christchurch was equally motivated by whanau (family) and by a sense that things were indeed changing in the city post February 2011 earthquake. Kiri believes there has been a cultural shift and a greater appreciation and desire for understanding local history, for the Maori story, and for community devised and driven projects.
