Healthy Families Waitākere

Lynette Adams, General Manager Community Engagement - West Auckland Trusts Services Ltd

Lynette chairs the Healthy Families Waitakere SLG and is the previous CEO of Sport Waitākere. She held that position since 2004 and is strongly passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of West Aucklanders. With Sport Waitākere vision of: Everyone connected, active and healthy she is able to align her beliefs through her work for the community she loves.

Lynette is also an Elected Member of the Waitākere Licensing Trust, a Director on The West Auckland Trust Services Limited (WATS) and a board member of Belong Aotearoa. She has held previous governance roles including the Waitākere Regional Hockey Turf Trust and NZ Bowls.

Stefan Crooks, Managing Director, Westie Food Group

Stefan is the Owner and Managing Director of Westie Food Group which create fresh chilled food products. Manufacturing, marketing and distributing affordable savouries, family meal solutions and ready to eat snacks for New Zealand families, the strength of the company lies in its ability to identify market opportunities, create new products and deliver these extremely quickly to market using innovative marketing techniques.

Stefan has worked with the local board and community to create Suburbs into a thriving vibrant club. He also sits on the Auckland Rugby Chairs group. In 2020, Stefan was appointed to the role of Chair for the Rosebank Business Association.

Fole (Daleki) Finau, Intrapreneur - Community and Social Innovation, The Western Initiative at Auckland Council

Fole (Daleki) Finau is of Tongan descent from the villages of Masilamea, Tongatapu on his father’s side and Ma’ufanga, Tongatapu on his mother’s side. Born in Aotearoa and raised in Tonga and around the Pacific, he now lives in west Auckland and is married with two wonderful daughters, who keep him grounded yet ambitious.

Fole has worked extensively within tertiary education, community health and local government. He has well established relationships across academic, health, central government, local government and the Pasifika community.

Fole is currently a part of The Western Initiative (TWI) team at Auckland Council. TWI deliver and facilitate economic initiatives that build social, human, cultural and financial capital that enables west Aucklanders, particularly Pasifika and Māori, to create socio-economic transformation for their communities, while also influencing change at a system level.

Matt Grey, Director / Head Coach, West Auckland Youth Development Trust - West Auckland Boxing Academy

Matt is a current member of Auckland Council’s Henderson-Massey Local Board and is in his second elected term. He started a charity called the West Auckland Youth Development Trust using the discipline of boxing, health and fitness to work alongside youth in their journey throughout adolescence. Born and raised in West Auckland, Matt currently resides here with his wife and two children and is proud to call it home

With twenty years of experience in youth development, starting out as a school guidance counsellor working in youth drug and alcohol, to being CEO at one of New Zealand's most successful youth charities, Matt is committed to making a difference in his community. Recently completing a Masters degree in community safety, he has gained a new passion and insight to how to ensure communities are safe and connected.

Penny Hulse MNZM

Penny has been a councillor and local body elected member for the last 27 years. She served as deputy mayor for Waitākere City and then deputy mayor for the newly amalgamated Auckland council for six years.

She has been closely involved in city planning and development of housing policy chairing a variety of committees responsible for these areas.

Penny has also been a member of the Auckland Housing First governance group, and was appointed to the board of Kāinga Ora (formerly Housing New Zealand) in January 2020.

Aroha Hudson, CEO and Director, HealthWEST

Aroha Hudson, ACA, MBA (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi) is the CEO of HealthWest Te Puna Manawa (Est in 1993). HealthWest has Māori Provider Trust Status and operates as a Not For Profit Charitable Trust. HealthWest provides free health, social, whānau ora and community support services especially to vulnerable communities of including Māori, Pacific, children, young people, families and other high needs groups.

Aroha has been on the Spectrum Care Trust Board since June 2013 and currently chairs the Finance and Audit Committee. Aroha is a Board member for Te Hononga O Tāmaki Me Hoturoa and has additional governance roles including National Māori PHO Coalition, Director Auckland PHO, Council Member Unitec, Health Research Council, Heart Foundation NZ Institute of Management & Waitematā District Health Board. Her advisory roles includes member Māori Advisory Committee Clinical Trials School of Population Health University of Auckland. Aroha won young chartered accountant of the year and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of NZ.

Mark Allen, Executive Officer of Community Waitākere and Waitākere Ranges Local Board Member

A dedicated westie, Mark lives in Te Henga/Bethells Beach with his partner Janet Cole. He has been Executive Officer at Community Waitākere since 2018, after 30 years in local government.

He worked at Auckland City Council, Waitākere City Council and Auckland Council in a variety of roles including Community Development Team Leader, Leisure Services Manager, Social Wellbeing Collaboration Project Manager and Strategic Advisor.

He is also an elected member on the Waitākere Ranges Local Board and is on the Waitakere Licensing Trust and a Director on West Auckland Trust Services.

Aimee Hadrup (Pākehā)

With a background in Public Health, Aimee has dedicated more than 15 years to improving community health and wellbeing through a variety of roles spanning the commissioning, development, implementation and evaluation of prevention-focussed initiatives. This included playing a key role in the establishment of Healthy Families NZ while at the Ministry of Health. Aimee brings expertise in the fields of systems change, leadership in complexity and whānau-led innovation.

Aimee currently leads the Tamariki Wellbeing team at The Southern Initiative, an innovation unit embedded within Auckland Council that is focussed on social and economic transformation for South Auckland.

A proudly born and bred Westie, Aimee is passionate about unleashing the potential of community-led approaches to deliver more equitable wellbeing outcomes for our whānau and tamariki.

Melanie Turner, Senior Portfolio Manager, Healthy Families NZ

Melanie is the Senior Portfolio Manager in the Healthy Families NZ national team at Health New Zealand. Melanie has worked in the public sector since 2006, first in local government (Auckland City Council and Auckland Transport), and more recently, as the national strategy manager at the Commission for Financial Capability.

Melanie has a passion for community-led development, collective impact and co-design, and was a key contributor to the redesign of budgeting services (MSD) and the establishment of the National Building Financial Capability Trust (FinCap) as a board member.

She has a Masters degree (Hons) in Sociology, and a post-graduate diploma in social sector evaluation research (Hons) specialising in evaluating complexity. Melanie lives in Auckland and sits on the Strategic Leadership Groups for Healthy Families Far North, Waitākere, South Auckland, East Cape, Whanganui Rangitīkei Ruapehu and Hutt Valley.