Our People
People are at the heart of what we do – get to know the crew.
Senior Leadership
Georgie Ferrari | Chief Executive
A life-long do gooder, Georgie finally found her way to the Trust in 2020. To find out how good she really is we threw a pandemic at her within the first six weeks. She made it through and now she’s part of the (upcycled) furniture. Georgie has more than two decades experience leading not for profit organisations here in Aotearoa and Australia. She holds a Masters degree in Human Service Management and Policy (RMIT) and a PhD in parenting one child and two dogs (here PhD stands for Pretty huge Decision).
Philip Squire | Fair Energy Manager
Phil has been with the Trust since the beginning of time. Prior to that he trained as an engineer, worked in waste treatment and spent ten years as a Zen Buddhist monk in California. Phil has the best ‘thinking’ face in the southern hemisphere.
Polly Griffiths | Sustainability Manager
Polly is the one-stop-shop for all your organisations' waste minimisation, resource consumption and emissions reduction needs. Polly is the person you go to if you want to improve your organisation's environmental footprint. She's a valuable asset to any business. You can borrow her, but we will be really mad if you try and steal her.
Caroline Drury I Finance Manager
Caroline is the type of person who likes to have all her bases covered - like a warm fuzzy merino shawl. After paying her dues to the public and private sectors, this mum-of-two is ready to help us finance our way out of a pandemic. We've promised her a bottle of 'fresh puppy smell' if she nails it. Stay tuned.
Trades & Installation
Nathalie Swords I Trades & Operations Manager
Nathalie Swords is a one of kind, and while we’re not sure how she ended up with us, we’re glad she did. She’s a qualified architect who did postgraduate studies in robotics and permaculture, has worked on the largest 3D printer in the world as well as being passionate about building houses from recycled materials. Oh, and she bakes a mean sour dough bread. Sorry, world. We got her first.
Bhupinder Singh | Electrician Team Leader
Van Dy Kim I Install Team Leader
Van Dy started off as an installer before moving up the ranks to become an Install Team Leader. If you say his name deep enough, he could be the terminator.
Colin McCall I Installations
Colin is as cool as a cucumber. Loves a hoodie, loves a questionable joke, loves looking like he doesn’t know what’s up and then throwing a curve ball and showing everyone that he knows exactly what’s up. Voted most likely to become a meme after naming his Sus Trust masterchef team ‘Ohhhh whhat?’
Jed Waterwoth | Electrical Apprentice
Healthy Homes
David Pierce | Healthy Homes Manager
David brings an ultra calming presence to the Trust. He’s interested in the social and financial impact healthy housing can have on families. He’s a big fan of sustainable living and he’s the kind of person we could all do with at least five more of.
Giovanni Morales | Healthy Homes Assessor
Meet Giovanni - hailing from Colombia, dad of two, and 'domestic engineer.' Having also lived in Montreal and Vancouver, it took everyone by surprise when he met his (now) Kiwi wife on a holiday in New York. These days, you'll find him playing lego at all hours of the day and exploring Aotearoa one tramp at a time.
Lisa Moore | Healthy Homes Assessor
Lisa is a self-identifying ‘mad urban farmer,’ but we think 'mad impressive' is more like it. Who else can say they have 3 chickens, a greyhound, 2 cats, fish, a kid, AND a thriving garden? With a post graduate degree in museum studies, Lisa spent nearly a decade working at Te Papa. A career change to healthy homes may seem a bit out of the gate, but Lisa likes life how she likes her food- fresh.
Vishal Gurudutt | Healthy Homes Assessor
Vishal’s mum was born in Nairobi, his dad was born in Burma and he was born in the UK. He moved here to NZ where he had his first child - who only makes appearances when cheese is involved. He now has two children and a cat.
Alistair van Hattum | Healthy Homes Assesor
Alistair is an all-round nice guy. With a background in the arts, food rescue and logistics and a love for community-based DIY projects, it was only a matter of time before he joined the Trust. Often found eating minute noodles in secret.
Karl Wheddon | WHESP Team Leader
Karl is a well-travelled Brit turned die-hard Wellingtonian, turned hobbit. He found his calling when he joined the Trust - helping warm up homes, while also fitting in to really small spaces. Somewhere along the line, he made some cute children with very impressive appetites.
Rob McGhee | WHESP Assessor
Rob actually began his career in sales and real estate. Luckily, it didn’t take him long to realise that real estate wasn’t his thing and that he was more passionate about environmental conservation management. These days, he’s all about having his feet in the sand, doing yoga, meditating and plotting his off-grid house.
Assessors
Andrew Mcleod I Assessor Team Co-Team Leader
Andrew is straight outta the south island. Born in Dunedin where he developed some specific views on the humble cheese roll. These days, he lives on top of a hill with his wife, daughter and doggo. He enjoys helping people make informed decisions and saying ‘happy days’… a lot.
Shane Thomas I Assessor Team Co-Team Leader
Shane almost lost his position as the tallest person at the Trust when Greg arrived. Almost. These days we he’s all about being the tallest and wearing burgundy - as demonstrated on the Little Yellow Bird website.
Chris Mischeski | Home Energy Assessor
Chris is the guy with the last name everyone struggles to pronounce. If you see a Trust car blasting The Rock there’s a good chance that Chris is the one behind the wheel. Best known for winning stuff off the radio.
Community
Kim Tabrum | Community Education Manager | Ext 7150
Kim chose her path at a young age by declaring she wanted to be a street cleaner. Instead she became an environmental educator and has worked in this field for almost a decade. She has a real passion for sustainable living, strengthening community and building and fixing stuff.
Heather Horswell I Marketing and Communications Lead
Heather only planned to come to New Zealand as part of her around the world trip, but one husband and two children later, she forgot to leave. And boy are we pleased about that. She is a sustainability junkie with a passion for food resilience in the community. Oh, and she’s a bit of daredevil as well, since one of her first jobs in New Zealand was driving along a one-lane rocky ridge at Treble Cone.
Ali Kirkpatrick I Project and Operations Manager
Onstage sheep wrangling and fake blood engineering foreshadowed Ali's inevitable career path: the thrilling world of reusable serviceware. When Ali’s not dismantling the patriarchy, she can be found doing project manager stuff or gearing up for Formula 1 in the FillGood van… what can’t she do?
Curtain Bank
Julie Gunn | Curtain Bank Manager
Julie loves helping others declutter their space while she lives by the saying "one person's trash is another person's treasure". This is no less true in the Curtain Bank as she reduces wastes and upcycles curtains to keep people in Te Whanganui-a-Tara warmer. If she could be anywhere but here, she would be on a boat in Turkey.
Juliet Daniel | Curtain Bank Machinist
Juliet is probably the fastest sewer you will ever meet. She’s probably one of the sweetest people you will ever meet too. Every family wishes they had a Juliet, but their waistlines are grateful that they don’t. Whenever there’s a morning tea, we unashamedly fight dirty for her food.
Our Pups
Meet the furry friends who frequent the office
Hero
Nervous
sunny & scamp
Tiny
Pepper
Baby
YOKO
Chill
Our Board
+ Leigh Macdonald | Board Chair
Leigh has built a busy and successful career in Sales & Service and Distribution across a number of industries. He’s spent more than 15 years in frontline, strategy and leadership positions before joining Kiwibank in 2005 as General Manager of Direct Channels leading their digital, self-service and telephony channels.
+ Judi Jones | Board Member
Judi has a varied career including Australia's Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, and before that as New Zealand's Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner. She has served on Boards and Administrative Tribunals, including as Chair. She has also worked in community groups and has a passion for taking action that makes a difference to people and for the world.
+ Mat Walton | Board Member
Mat has always been interested in the way politics and policies shape our environments. He’s made a career of it – studying social policy, systems thinking and public health and working for nearly a decade in central and local government before taking on a role as senior lecturer at School of Public Health, Massey University in Wellington.
+ Mattie Geary Nichol | Board Member
Mattie has spent the last decade in the international development sector - building partnerships, managing programmes, and advocating for equity and locally-driven development. Through her roles at Family Planning and Volunteer Service Abroad, she’s had the privilege to learn from Pacific organisations about innovative approaches to support communities. Mattie lives in Tītahi Bay and has Pākehā and Taranaki iwi whakapapa.
+ Yareev Nathan | Board Member
Yareev is passionate about sustainable business practices and conservation. He brings varied experience across a range of industries, including media, software development, telecommunications, IT services and cloud software (#salesforceTrailblazerBC) to our Board. A proud husband and father of two, Yareev has lived in Wellington since moving from India in 2006.