Meet the team
Our founder
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Trevor Grice, MNZM, CNZM Trevor is the Founder Director of Life Education NZ and has been in the Education Business for the past 30 years. He is the co-author of the best-selling book - The Great Brain Robbery. He assists throughout the public and private sector and has received several accolades for his work. |
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Board of Trustees
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Chair: Rob Simcic Rob Simcic is a company director specialising in the New Zealand food sector and community wellbeing initiatives and CEO of Little Beauties a specialist gourmet food producer. Rob spent over fifteen years in ANZ Commercial & Agri Banking, most recently as the Food & Beverage Sector Specialist. He was Board member of Eat NZ and vice chair of Festival Marlborough. He lives on a small holding in Tasman with his wife Niki and four school aged children. Rob was the Chair of Life Education Trust Marlborough when he joined the LET NZ Board in 2016, was appointed Deputy Chair 2019 and Chair in 2021. Rob holds a degree in Applied Science from Massey University. |
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Deputy Chair: John Spring John is managing director of the Beacon Media group which includes newspaper and printing businesses started by his father with the Whakatane Beacon in 1939. John has been chairperson of the Eastern BOP Life Education Trust for 20 years and is a Life Member of Life Education Trust (NZ). John joined the Board in 2016 and was appointed Deputy Chair in 2021. He is a passionate golfer and has various community roles including the golf club committee and Board of Trustees at St Joseph’s School. |
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Trustee: Cameron Bagrie Cameron has been an economist for 20 years and was the Chief Economist at ANZ Bank for 11 years before leaving in late 2017 to establish his own economic advisory business. Cameron is a regular commentator in the media and now spends his time working with a range of NZ businesses and institutions both on today’s issues, and future trends and potential disruptors. He grew up in Central Otago and has two school aged daughters who were excited when they learnt he was coming to work with Life Education. |
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Trustee: Dee Lambie Dee is an HR Practitioner and was a founding employee and then Director at HR management company Humankind, working across both public and private sector business. Several years ago Dee left Humankind to pursue a consultancy career and worked in a variety of organisations including MoE, NZTE and Russell McVeagh post the Dame Margaret Bazeley review. Dee is currently the People & Capability Manager at CreativeNZ. She has four school aged children and lives in Wellington. |
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Trustee: Graham Lawrence Graham is a Chartered Accountant and Partner of The Advisory Group in Auckland. Graham is a tax specialist and Senior Member of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia, Associate of the New Zealand Institute of Management, and independent director and Trustee on a number of boards and Trusts. Graham has three children. |
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Trustee: Christine Goodin Christine’s involvement with Life Education began 25 years ago and is a founding Trustee of the Life Education Taranaki Trust and a Life Member of LET NZ. Christine’s family are actively involved in Life Education across different parts of NZ. Christine has a long history of supporting at risk youth, providing care for more than 100 young people since 1995 and is heavily involved in the Taranaki Community. |
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Trustee: Jacqueline Taylor Jacqueline began her career as a primary school teacher before pursuing her interests in financial education, investments and publishing. She founded JUNO magazine (now Informed Investor) and engaged in all roles of this publication for five years. This later led to the launch of the JUNO KiwiSaver Scheme, of which she co-founded. She served on the boards for Pie Funds Management as Adviser and Executive Director, and SPELD NZ. Jacqueline is an elected Councillor for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. She lives in Hawke’s Bay with her two school aged children. |
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Trustee: Jeff Hart Jeff is CEO of the Benton Group, managing a diversified portfolio of assets and family office and has extensive history working in the area of business turnaround and insolvency. As a father to three young boys, Jeff sees first-hand the challenges that our kids are facing and places importance on empowering our children to help them grow. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Marketing and Accounting. |
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Trustee: Dr Geoff Kira Dr Kira is Ngaitupango of Ngāpuhi and holds co-director role for of Te Hau Kori, the Centre for Physical Activity and Wellbeing at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington and for PAI Ltd, an independent community health equity research unit that supports the work of non-government health and social services organisations. He undertakes health research in the fields of physical activity, nutrition and sleep with a current research interest in play, food security and cardiac rehabilitation. Geoff specialises in applying mātauranga Māori and science to obtain the most promising outcomes from that interface. |
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Trustee: Ross Taylor CNZM Ross joined the Board following his retirement from professional cricket, where he was one of New Zealand’s most successful players. He played 450 international matches and was the first cricketer to play in 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket. Ross has fond memories of Life Education Trust lessons from his time at school and now has three children of primary school age. He is looking forward to contributing to the development of young people through his role as a trustee. Ross works in Business Development for Castle Point Funds. |
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The National Office Team
Situated in Wellington the National Office team support the community trusts, are responsible for programme development, the professional development of educators and the overall philosophical and strategic direction of Life Education in New Zealand.
The team are:
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Chief Executive - John O'Connell |
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Education Support Manager - Michelle Dow |
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Learning and Development Manager - Tracey Scott |
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Finance Manager - Susanna Norris |
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Marketing and Communications Specialist - Hayley Sims |
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Content Specialist - Lisa Crombie |
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Projects and Partnerships Manager - Belinda Cordwell |
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Programme Coordinator - Lizzie Barnett |
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Office Administrator - Abby Saywell |
Life Members:Life Education is proud to have the following Life Members |
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2011 Val Whyte* Ian Holyoake John Spring Stephen Burnett |
2012 Joslyn Tjeerd Lance Hutchison, QSM John Beattie Bruce Darvill, QSM* Rob Wilton |
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2013 Trevor King, QSM* Robyn Paterson Margaret Radford Peter Cox Roy Savage* |
2014 Michael Cooney, QSM Pat Seymour, OBE Paul Cressey, ONZM* Jeanette McIntyre |
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2015 Steve Graves Brian Shearer Steak (John) Goodin, QSM Graeme Pentecost |
2016 Kay Crosby Astrid Martin Jo Coughlan Ian McBride |
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2017 Chris Kirk Burnnand, MNZM |
2018 Allan Nichols Brian Kelsey Ian Emmerson Debbie Given Christine Goodin |
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2019 Ray King Grant Coward Janet Lean Keith Trembath Roger Scammell |
2021 Mark Biggs Dianne Henderson Alison Gilbert Mike Collins Sheila Ellis Ken Miller |
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2022 Joanne Wansbone Kay Moir Jeff Paul Tony Sullivan |
2023 Michelle Fitzgerald Malcolm Leeming Mandy Rasmussen |
* Deceased