Our Team

Current Trustees

  • Kate Waterhouse (Chair) - 2011-present

  • George Perry - 2017-present

  • Barry Scott - 2021-present (Newsletter Editor)

  • Bree Biederman - 2021-present

  • Jennifer Neads - 2022-present

  • Kim Bannister - 2022-present (Treasurer)

  • Philippa Howcroft - 2023-present

PATRON

NON-TRUSTEES

  • Hannah Smith - Coordinator

  • Lucy Dixon - Financial Assistant

Science AdvisorS 

Professor John Ogden MSc., PhD., DSc., FRSNZ – Founding Trustee (2002-2017) and Chair (2002-2013), and former Chair of Windy Hill Trust.

Andrew Veale MSc, PhD - Trustee (2019-2023) and current ecologist and geneticist at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research.

Our Trustees

Kate WaterhousE

Kate was asked to join the trust in 2011 and became Chair in 2018.  She is an experienced business and conservation leader with strategy, governance and change experience across local government, the public sector and in service industries in New Zealand and globally. She advocates for the environment and is a member of the Auckland Conservation Board, appointed in 2019.  She was appointed to the Aotea Conservation Park Advisory Committee in 2016 and served until 2022 and is currently a community representative on the steering committee of Tū Mai Taonga. Kate has a BCom/BA and Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland. Of Scottish and English ancestry, her family connections to Aotea span five generations. She is married to a descendent of a Wairarapa survivor and has three daughters, and lives part time on Aotea.

Professor George Perry

George completed undergraduate and Masters studies in the Departments of Geography and Plant and Microbial Sciences at the University of Canterbury, before completing a PhD at the University of Melbourne. He worked in the Department of Geography at King's College London for four years before moving to the School of the Environment at Auckland University.

George is interested in the dynamics of forest ecosystems at spatial scales from the population to the landscape and at temporal scales from decades to millennia. All of his research involves a strong field-based component supported by simulation and/or statistical modelling.

His current research is primarily focused on understanding the effects of humans on forest ecosystems. George is particularly interested in how anthropic changes to disturbance regimes, especially fire, have restructured ecosystems and the legacies and challenges this has left for modern ecosystems

Barry Scott

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Barry is a Molecular Geneticist who has worked at Massey University for 35 years. His research interests are in Plant-Microbe symbiosis. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand/Te Apārangi and was a founding Board Member of the Environmental Risk Management Authority. He has been actively involved in conservation in New Zealand for 50 years, an interest developed from his many trips into the mountains in New Zealand and overseas. He has been actively involved in forest restoration and predator control of two Palmerston North City Council reserves in Aokautere. He has a property at Awana where he has initiated a number of conservation projects.

Bree Biederman

Bree has been a resident of Aotea since 2018. Before moving to New Zealand she had been traveling for a few years and prior to that, worked in the Tech sector in Boston. Since being here, she has discovered a passion for conservation and regeneration, utilizing her past experience to educate and motivate the general public. She works for a native nursery conducting a large regeneration project, has a small website consulting business, and also works with waste management on the island. She manages the Okiwi Community rat lines, maintains her gardens and loves to try new, creative ways to live lightly.

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JENNIFER NEADS

Jennifer is a recently retired general practitioner. She and her family fell in love with Aotea/Great Barrier over twenty-five years ago, coming regularly to their holiday home overlooking the Oruawharo-Medlands wetland. She now spends most of her time living on island with her husband.

She has always had a keen interest in the natural world, the sea and the land, forests and wild life. The forests of New Zealand, with their ancient tree forms and unique wildlife, are her special place. She has a passionate interest in conservation in New Zealand and a strong desire to restore the environmental balance and birdsong to so many places where it has been lost.

In her Barrier garden, she notes just how rich the birdlife can be with the trapping of rats and planting of bird friendly trees, and she’s now an enthusiastic member of the Oruawharo-Medlands Ecovision group working to restore the wetland, and protect the wider area from introduced predators - especially rats. Jennifer has been a supporter of the Aotea Great Barrier Environmental Trust for many years, and now as a Trustee she believes she can make a more direct contribution to the work of the Trust to fulfil it’s goals.

KIM BANNISTER

Kim lives with his wife at Medlands/Oruawharo on a block of land which has been evolving and thriving under their care for many decades. He has also found much satisfaction from involvement with the local conservation group, Oruawharo/Medlands Ecovision, especially working to restore the local small wetland. His background as a general practitioner nurtured a strong love of science, nature, and the human condition. Since retirement he has transferred much of his enthusiasm for care of living things to the biota in his local environment. The unique and precious flora and fauna of both Aotearoa and Aotea in particular inspire him to do whatever he can at both individual and collective levels to preserve and restore the ecosystems in which he lives. A love of gardening and growing things is very helpful, alongside a relentless drive to control local invasive mammals, especially rats. Over time the resulting explosion of original, restored and evolving bush, edible and decorative gardening, and bird and invertebrate wildlife has been hugely rewarding. Kim understands the practical and social barriers to achieving conservation goals but hopes that his experience and enthusiasm can help the Trust achieve its goals.

PHILIPPA HOWCROFT

Philippa Howcroft is currently a Kiwifruit and Avocado orchardist in Tauranga, but spends as much time as possible on Aotea. She has admired the work and expertise of the Aotea Great Barrier Island Environmental Trust since coming to the Island.

The Trust’s continued dedication and expertise on a wide range of issues, its ability to make a difference to the restoration of the Island and its environs has been inspirational.

She sees the trust as way we can begin to understand and repair the damage wrought by us all. The work of the trust enables a more hopeful future for all creatures.

Former Trustees and Contributors

Former Trustees

FORMER NON-TRUSTEES

  • Fenella Christian (2002-2013) - Coordinator

  • Jo Leary (2014) - Coordinator

  • Kay Stowell (2015-2018) - Coordinator

  • Marea Gorter (2019-2021) - Coordinator

  • Lynda Moran (2019-2023) - Treasurer

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