Who We Are

Board of Trustees

The Trust is governed by the Board of Trustees who are elected at the annual general meeting of members.

Current Trustees

Paul Scholey, Chair

Before moving to New Zealand in late 2006, Paul worked in social housing for a variety of housing associations and local authorities in the UK for 13 years. He was also a non-executive director on the board of Amber Valley Housing for over five years, which owned and managed over 5000 homes in the east Midlands. During his time on the board he was audit committee chair and the board’s equality and diversity champion. Paul has an honours degree in economics, a postgraduate diploma in housing and successfully completed an MBA in 2004. He has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing since 1996.

Paul came across the Wellington Housing Trust not long after moving to Wellington and did some unpaid work before joining the Board in June 2007. Paul currently works for central government in the education sector. His spare time is spent walking and cycling up and down and around Wellington’s hills, and following the contrasting fortunes of Arsenal and Notts County from afar.

Stephen Cross, Vice Chair

Stephen is a Senior Property Consultant working for The Property Group. He has 20 years experience working across the broad spectrum of social housing including community group housing, tenancy law, lending, community capacity development and large deinstitutionalisation projects.

In his role as Delivery Manager with the Housing Innovations/Partnerships team within HNZC he was responsible for the overall co-ordination and delivery of the operational products and services of the Housing Innovations Group within several Housing New Zealand Corporation regions. He coordinated the activity of the Wellington based Partnerships team to maximise projects that effectively grew third sector organisations, iwi, Maori and local government in social housing.

As the Private Secretary to the Minister of Housing he provided advice and assistance on policy and operational issues to the Minister; attended Ministerial meetings relating to housing and managed the relationship between Housing New Zealand Corporation and the Minister’s office.

Jon Holmes, Treasurer

Jon is a Partner in the Middle Market Advisory Division of the Wellington office of KPMG. Jon joined KPMG in 1995 and has significant experience auditing services and providing accounting, tax and group structuring advice to an extensive range of clients in this market. Jon provides many of his clients with specific advice on business planning, budgeting and cash flow forecasting.

Jon has a passion for assisting organisations in the NGO sector and has provided business planning, budgeting and cash flow forecasting services to a number of NGOs. Jon holds a Bachelor of Business Studies with first Class Honours and a Diploma in Professional Accounting from Massey University and is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Jon has been involved with the Trust since 2001 and is currently the Treasurer. He is also involved in the Governing and Staffing sub committees.

Peter Jones

Peter graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from Wellington’s Victoria University in 1972 and was admitted to the Bar in 1974.

Since then, Peter has practiced as a property/commercial lawyer, mostly in Wellington, but also in Hawke’s Bay. Peter was an in-house solicitor at the Wellington City Council for 10 years from 1983. He then practiced at multinational firm Phillips Fox in Wellington for 8 years becoming a senior associate there and then worked as a senior solicitor at Langford Law in Wellington for 5 years.

Jones Law was established in June 2007 by Peter and his wife Barbara, his legal assistant. Jones Law’s consultant is John Langford, LL.M.

Jones Law’s mixed client base of families, individuals and businesses reflect Peter’s skills as a general practitioner. He is also an active member of the “Positively Wellington” Chapter of Business Network International, a business network group.

Don Borrie

Don Borrie has worked as a community based Presbyterian/Methodist Minister, paid and voluntary, in Porirua since 1973. During that time he has been a member of the Area Health Board, Wellington Harbour Board, Wellington Free Ambulance Board, and Porirua City Council.

Don brings to the Trust 35 years of compassionately working in the community sector, experience in being a landlord, and experience in developing community groups. He helped establish the Porirua Housing Action Group, and has been Chair of NZCOSS, Co Chair Te Kaiawhena Ahumahi, Chair CORSO, General Secretary NZ Student Christian Movement and Chair of NZ DPRK Society.

Don has a MA in History, Otago University, STM (Master of Systematic Theology) Social Ethics, Andover Newton, Boston.

Don has been a Trustee since 2003.

Clare Aspinall

Since 2003 Clare has worked for Regional Public Health Wellington, as a Public Health Advisor specialising in housing and homelessness.

She obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health through Otago University and is working towards her Masters in Public Health researching boarding houses in the Wellington Region.

Clare is currently the Chair of Street Football Aotearoa. The Trust has built a network of social football teams around New Zealand to encourage people who have been marginalised to "give football a go". It also organised a New Zealand National Street Football competition and took a New Zealand Team to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil to compete in the Homeless World Cup.

Clare originates from Devon in the UK and before moving to Aotearoa in 2002 worked as a Tuberculosis Nurse Specialist in London.

She joined the Board in 2008.

Raewyn Bates

Raewyn Bates has 22 years multidisciplinary senior management experience in both the private and public sector across a variety of industries, this includes retail, manufacturing, hospitality and the building industry in private sector. Public sector experience spread across Education, Justice and Health which includes 12 years at Whanganui DHB in a variety of senior management roles.

Raewyn’s areas of expertise include business development and re-engineering, financial and management accounting and both change and project management. Raewyn has a Bachelor of Business Studies (accountancy and management) and is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.

Steph Forrest

Steph has had an extensive background in property, construction and asset management. Her career has included new business development for Fletcher Construction, GM of a commercial property management company and co-leadership of Wellington City Council’s property business unit.

For the past two years she has been with Victoria University and is currently Associate Director, Facilities Management. Steph is a branch committee member of the Property Institute of NZ (PINZ) and branch chair of the Facilities Management Association of NZ (FMANZ).

Staff

Director

Alison Cadman

Alison is the Trust’s Director and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Trust. Alison’s background is in financial management and community development. She worked as a Community Development Adviser at Wellington City Council before she came to the Trust. Her other work experience includes the Department of Social Welfare (now WINZ), various roles at the Housing Corporation and Coordinator at the Wellington Peoples Centre.

Alison is passionate about the role social enterprises like WHT can play in community and economic development. She has been involved in the community and voluntary sector in many organisations in various roles for a long time. Alison has a BA in Sociology and is completing a postgraduate qualification in Management Studies and a Diploma in not-for-profit management.

Housing Officer

Fiona Burke

As the Trust’s Housing Officer Fiona is responsible for our tenancy and asset management services. She also works along side the Director to support our business development work.

In late December 2010 Fiona returned to NZ after living in London for 8 ½ years. Fiona has considerable experience in the social housing sector gained from working in the Homeless Persons Unit followed by Housing Provision Department at the London Borough of Hounslow Council.

As a Resettlement Officer in the Homeless Persons Unit, Fiona provided strong customer focus in the support of vulnerable families in the borough. This role demanded strong customer relationship management and communication skills to articulate services provided through the local authority to families with highly complex needs.

Working within Housing Provision Fiona led on a range of initiatives involving the procurement and contract management of housing provision delivered through public/private partnerships. This role enabled Fiona to build a range of skills including; service design and development through to contract negotiation, monitoring and evaluation. Fiona began working at the Trust in January 2012.

Housing Administrator

Chris Coles

Chris is the Housing Administrator and is responsible for the administration and office management work of the Trust, as well as providing support to the Director. He has worked in a variety of areas including libraries, community support and web design.

His experience in the voluntary sector includes work at IHC, Volunteer Wellington and the Kilbirnie Drop-In Centre. Chris has a post graduate diploma in Library and Information Studies.

Members, Volunteers and Supporters

Members, volunteers and supporters have played an important role in the Trust’s success since its formation in 1981 and you can learn about the different ways you can get involved our work on our Support Us page.

Special thanks go to the following organisation for their generous support: Housing New Zealand Corporation, Community Organisation Grants Scheme, Wellington City Council Grants Scheme, Lion Foundation and The G Trust.