Creative Welly Episode #48 | Hannah Wignall & Craig Mildenhall

Courageous conversations with bold humans (from the most creative little capital in the world).

Hannah Wignall, Senior System Development Manager, Te Whatu Ora & Womens Development Officer, Seatoun A.F.C

I was born and raised in Manchester, moving to Aotearoa as a lively teenager. When I asked to describe myself at ten years old, I conjured up “sporty, annoying and hungry”. I’ve always been energetic and curious and my desire to understand and bring people together has put me in good stead as I move through the world.

I have a PGDip in Public Health and have worked in many parts of the health system, grappling with the challenge of providing equitable and effective healthcare for our communities. Over the last nine years I have delivered and supported TEDxWellington in various capacities and the continued exposure to unique and innovative ideas has been instrumental to my professional life.

The thing that excites me the most at the moment is football and creating a thriving women’s football community in Wellington.

Craig Mildenhall, Head of Digital at Kowtow Clothing

Craig is a proud Wellingtonian, brings over two decades of expertise in loyalty, retail, eCommerce, and digital marketing strategies. Having worked with renowned brands like Fly Buys, Adidas, and Icebreaker, he now serves as the Head of Digital at Kowtow Clothing, based in his hometown of Wellington.

With a profound understanding of the values instilled by sports, Craig constantly seeks to merge the worlds of business and sports. Immersed in the sports environment at adidas, he drew inspiration from the All Blacks, infusing his work with their winning mindset.

As a leader, Craig strives to cultivate a team environment that encourages courage, humility, and focus, propelling the team towards collective success.

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Creative Welly Episode #37 | Kimberley Gilmour & Joseph Harawira

Courageous conversations with bold humans (from the most creative little capital in the world).

Kimberley Gilmour, Chief People Officer, Groov

Kimberley has spent most of her career leading People & Culture in startups / scaleups, helping build foundational people processes/practices and nurturing strong cultures. She has worked with some of New Zealand’s most iconic and successful high growth companies through periods of global expansion, including Icebreaker (in its Wellington days), Vend, 8i, UneeQ and currently Groov. She is passionate about using her experience to help individuals and organisations thrive.

Outside of People and tech, Kimberley is passionate about supporting wellbeing in all its forms and is partway through her masters in Health Psychology.

Kimberley spent 12 years living in Wellington and always loves returning to see old friends and run familiar trails.

Joe Harawira, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Wai Mānuka

Joe is of Ngāti Awa and Ngāi Te Rangi descent. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Director at Wai Mānuka – a premium non-alcoholic beverage that builds off the off the success of New Zealand’s mānuka honey industry. Joe has served in the military and prior to starting Wai Mānuka he worked for New Zealand Rugby leading the national injury prevention strategy.

He is passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation, Māori culture, wellness and paying it forward. In 2015, Joe also founded a social enterprise to support youth well-being in school. Joe comes from Whakatāne, Bay of Plenty and holds an Executive MBA and Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science.

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Creative Welly Episode #32 | Michelle Kitney & Rob Cousins

Courageous conversations with bold humans (from the most creative little capital in the world).

Michelle Kitney, Chief Executive at Volunteering New Zealand

Michelle Kitney lead’s Volunteering New Zealand. Originally from Taranaki, she lives in Te whanganui a tara with her three boys and husband.

Volunteering New Zealand is the national umbrella organisation for volunteers and volunteering. It’s purpose is to empower volunteers to enrich Aotearoa New Zealand.

Michelle has a background in communications, marketing, social enterprise and not for profit experience. She has also worked in the public sector in New Zealand and the UK. She says she volunteered her way into her current job. Gaining relevant experience through a variety of volunteering roles.

She cooks and plays Floorball in her spare time.

Rob Cousins, Innovation Manager

Being honest, I’m a jack of all trades and master of none, who often seems to land on my feet, and somehow finds a way to make a difference with the people I meet. After a mediocre degree in Psychology, I worked in insurance and risk management in the UK, whilst pursuing hobbies that were both uninsurable and risky in many other parts of the world. Instead of a career, I’ve followed opportunities as they’ve arisen, and as I’ve pursued various different interests.

All of this has taught me that they key to most challenges is people, their experience, being curious and caring. Right now I am bringing this to how health and safety is understood, and how we might regulate that, from WorkSafeNZ. Shifting away from paperwork, compliance and rules. Moving towards caring about people, creating improvement, and giving people power over the things that affect them.

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Creative Welly Episode #7 | Pia Steiner & Thomas van Raamsdonk

Courageous conversations with bold humans (from the most creative little capital in the world).

Pia Steiner, Senior Advisor Organisational Development at Ministry of Justice

Before Jacinda made it cool, Pia had ‘Be kind’ tattooed on her arm – part inspiration, part reminder. As an Ambassador Melbourne-based workplace kindness initiative Yes Queen, and co-founder of Canary Collective, it’s Pia’s mission to ‘build better business’ – and a better society – by helping organisations make inclusion, behaviour change, and equity real.

Curious and restless, Pia has studied coding, education, fine art, graphic design, and psychology. She’s worked across a number of industries from tech start ups to electricity to banking to public service.

Thomas van Raamsdonk, Irritator and Inspirer. Building performance geek. GM for Pro Clima in Australia & New Zealand

Thomas’ vision is to create healthy, long lasting and energy efficient surroundings for all families, schools and businesses in Oceania. Having worked in Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Thomas gained extensive knowledge on airtightness, thermal bridging and healthy homes. He is passionate about knowledge transfer and sharing knowledge with industry and research institutions on how building standards can be improved.

Thomas has been the General Manager of Pro Clima NZ Ltd and Pro Clima Australia Pty Ltd since 2006. Pro Clima is a leader in development and manufacturing of intelligent high performance sealing systems in construction.

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Creative Welly Episode #5 | Hiria Te Rangi & Guled Mire

Courageous conversations with bold humans (from the most creative little capital in the world).

Hīria Te Rangi, Kaiwhakahaere o Whare Hauora

Hīria (Ngāti Porou, Tūwharetoa) loves her community and loves technology, so Kaiwhakahaere for Whare Hauora was a natural role for her. With almost 20 years in tech with numerous technical and business roles in open data, open source, digital technologies, open banking and infrastructure, Hiria used all of her technical expertise to create the Whare hauora sensors and data platform. But it was for the love of her grandmother and the trust of her people that she determined that Whare hauora would be kaitiaki, not owners of the data collected, as it rightfully belongs to the family.

Guled Mire, Community Advocate & Co-founder, Third Culture Minds

Guled Mire is a senior policy advisor by profession and a writer, speaker and community advocate in his spare time. He was a finalist for the 2019 Wellingtonian of the Year Award and is recognised as one of New Zealand’s most prominent young voices advocating for a more humane, inclusive and welcoming society. Guled uses his platform and profile to facilitate courageous conversations about racism and discrimination in New Zealand and what we need to do to build a truly inclusive, welcoming society. He is a big fan of having open conversations about mental health and has been championing work, through Third Culture Minds as a founding member, to support young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds get the support they need.

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