Healthy Families Waitākere

Lynette Adams, CEO, Sport Waitākere

Lynette chairs the Healthy Families Waitakere SLG and is the current CEO of Sport Waitakere. She has held this position since 2004 and is strongly passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of West Aucklanders. With Sport Waitakere 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 Waitakere 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 Waitakere 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.

Peter Caccioppoli, Senior Activation Advisor, Auckland Council

As an Auckland Council Senior Activation Advisor, Peter has the leadership of a key work stream for the Pools & Leisure Team called Activating Aucklanders. As it suggests; it encapsulates a number of projects to support a more strategic and aligned internal and external focus on supporting the health and well-being of Aucklanders across all life stages.

It is about being really clear about the value proposition to Aucklanders and identifying key partnerships to help realise the goal of more Aucklanders, more active, more often, but with a far greater focus on supporting the journey of insufficiently active Aucklanders.

Peter’s previous role included centre manager of Te Matariki Clendon Community Centre & Manurewa Leisure Centre included secondment to work with the Recreation Programme and Planning team to implement youth initiatives as part of the Sport and Recreation Strategic Action Plan.

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 (Ngati Whatua, Nga Puhi) is the CEO of HealthWest Te Puna Manawa (Est in 1993). HealthWest has Maori Provider Trust Status and operates as a Not For Profit Charitable Trust. Healthwest provides free health, social, whanau ora and community support services especially to vulnerable communities of including Maori, 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 Tamaki Me Hoturoa and has additional governance roles including National Maori PHO Coalition, Director Auckland PHO, Council Member Unitec, Health Research Council, Heart Foundation NZ Institute of Management & Waitemata District Health Board. Her advisory roles includes member Maori 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.

Hare Rua, Tumuaki a te Kura Kaupapa o Hoani Waititi

Hare is currently the Tumuaki of Te Kura Kaupapa o Hoani Waititi and working at many levels to support Hoani Waititi marae and the wider whanau. Hare has influence at all levels from ECE through to tertiary education; with a specific focus of interest for Maori achievement and Te Reo.

Hare sits on the Runanga for Unitec providing strategic direction and leadership, he has strong stakeholder relationships and works collectively to influence policy for tamariki Maori, Maori whanau and community. His connections with the local boards as well as advocating nationally for the Maori Voice – by Māori for Māori, holds him in the highest regard in our region. His interests expand across the arts and cultural pursuits and he is a senior member of Te Waka Huia.

Hare brings a strong policy development background, te ao maori worldview and advocacy to our stakeholder group.

Jade Tang-Taylor, Foundation North

Jade comes with a wealth of skills and knowledge in Design for Social Change, Design in Business, Creative and Social Entrepreneurship as well as founding and hosting creative agencies that work to make the world better and global lectures for creatives.

Presently Jade is working as an independent consultant but her previous roles include lecturing at AUT, Leadership NZ and directing Curative NZ Ltd. Jade has a Bachelor in Design and a Masters of Arts Management.

Jade has a fantastic personal mantra “I'm a self-confessed "networkaholic" and believe in both the strength of grassroots communities & leadership networks to connect, collaborate and create change for a better New Zealand/ World. Most of the membership networks I belong to relate to design, diversity, creativity and women who get sh*t done”.

Melanie Turner, Senior Portfolio Manager, Healthy Families NZ

Melanie is the Senior Portfolio Manager in the Healthy Families NZ national team at the Ministry of Health. 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.