Board of Trustees

Residing in Waitara Wiki brings a wealth of experience in governance roles including administrative and project management support for the Te Ātiawa Kaumātua Housing Trust, is a Trustee for Ngāti Rahiri Hapū and is an independent appointee working with Marae Trustees on the Owae Marae redevelopment project.  Wiki is also a Justice of the Peace, a Marriage Celebrant and is a Life Member of the Māori Women’s Welfare League, Waitara Branch.

Wiki is happy to bring her governance experience and cultural perspective to the Board of TWR, supporting a team whose work she believes is vital in Taranaki.

After returning from 3 years in Canada, Andrew was seeking opportunities to be more involved in the community when Taranaki Women’s Refuge were looking for a Board member with a financial background.  The opportunity to use his skills to help an organization that does so much amazing work for vulnerable woman in the community and with such a long history made for perfect timing.

Andrew is married with two children and can be found most Saturday mornings watching or coaching the kid’s soccer teams. He is also trying to play more golf, but so far his game is not improving that much!

Andrew is looking forward to learning more and being involved long term to help Taranaki Woman’s Refuge continue to do the amazing work they do.

In her day job, Kathryn is an environmental planner, running a business comprised of planners, surveyors and environmental experts. Her considerable experience includes housing, residential tenancies, resource management, and health and safety.  All of which support her role on our board.

Kathryns first began supporting Taranaki Women’s Refuge as a volunteer on our Crisis Line about 15 years ago.  She wanted to help after a close friend of hers was affected by Domestic Violence and discovered how important Refuge was not just in the immediate crisis, but in getting her back on her feet and rebuilding her confidence.  When the opportunity to join the board arose, Kathryn leapt at the chance.  The board of TWR is a small way she can support the amazing work of the staff and management of TWR, and in turn, our wider community. Kathryn is immensely proud of what TWR achieves for our whanau.

Her career has seen her specialise in strategy, communications and people and change management across various industries, and most recently in Law where she was the CEO of Govett Quilliam. She holds several governance roles; on the Board of Business Central, Trustee of Toi Foundation, Trustee of Taranaki Women’s Refuge since 2018 and Chair of our Board from 2021 to 2024. She is proud to work with community organisations that support women, children and families to lead happy, fulfilled and violence free lives.

Sophie and husband Michael have two children, Isabella and Theo and they lead an active life getting out in the ocean, in the bush, and supporting local community initiatives.

She took a career turn upon arrival as studied her Masters of Social Work extramurally at Massey University and has worked or volunteered in a variety of roles in the community sector. What started all this off was the huge challenge of becoming a parent, a different perspective and the lack of supports out there for life’s challenges.

She worked for several years with TuiOra, then moved over to a new start up at Te Puna Trust and onto Careerforce the Health & Wellbeing Industry Training Organisation. She is currently working for the newly created Workforce Development Council, Toitu te Waiora, representing the Social Services Sector for skills development.

Her two now grown children mean that she has more time on her hands to give back and hence it’s a passion and privilege to be on the board of TWR. She hopes that from her previous board experiences and her knowledge of the sector that she can make use of this at TWR.