Our Board and our team are innovators with diverse backgrounds and experience, from human rights, to technology start-ups, to design and innovation, to corporate leadership, to social enterprise and social innovation.
John Allen has been Chair of the Be. Institute since its inception in 2011 and is the current Chief Executive of WellingtonNZ, formerly known as the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency.
Prudence is the Chief Executive of the Disabled Persons Assembly NZ (DPA), a Be. Leadership alumni, and a proud disabled woman dedicated to designing a more accessible Aotearoa for all.
Aroha Lowe is a fluent speaker of Te Reo Māori and a social justice activist, community worker, educator and advocate. She co-founded NOA Open Art Studio at Te Manawa Museum and Art Gallery in Palmerston North.
A former CEO of Wang New Zealand (now known as gen-i), which under Ant's leadership reinvented itself from a product company to become one of the country’s most innovative and successful systems integration and services companies.
A positive, visionary, optimistic and authentic leader with a blend of public and private sector experience and strong academic qualifications.
Minnie Baragwanath is the Founder of the Be. Institute and Chief Possibility Officer of the newly established Global Centre of Possibility @ AUT.
Neville has an extensive background in Customer Experience and taking services and products to market.
Tonya is Be. Lab’s Talent and Employment Lead and brings with her decades of experience in building people capability and business improvement.
Lesley has a long history in leadership development working with individuals, organisations and communities. Lesley began her adult life by training to be a teacher and has worked as a community worker - initiating and setting up community programmes.
Robert joined Be. Lab in 2019, taking the reigns of the financial side to ensure the organisation has the means to pursue it’s aims of social change – ensuring an accessible Aotearoa for all.
Philip has over 25 years professional experience in counselling, social work, human rights promotion, creative and social entrepreneurship, as well as co-directing Be. Leadership since 2011. He also had a thirteen-year career as a professional, award-winning comedian (1997-2010)
Hannah joined the Be. Leadership team as Programme Manager in 2015, and has provided support to the Communications, Events and Marketing team since 2016.
Minnie Baragwanath is the Founder of the Be. Institute and Chief Possibility Officer of the newly established Global Centre of Possibility @ AUT.
Brittany has a background in Urban Design with a passion for how people move to and through spaces to create accessible and equitable spaces and places for us all to live in and enjoy. She holds an Honours degree in Spatial Design and is a qualified personal trainer.
Sarah has more than 20 years of experience in employee advocacy, recruitment and professional development facilitation.
Aimee has a bachelor's degree in commerce, majoring in design for business. Her degree built up her capability around design thinking processes, user experience and CRcritical thinking.
Lauren's journey with Be. started at the very beginning, as Minnie's first employee and personal assistant in 2011.
Nick joined the Be. Team in March 2019 with previous experience in the sporting world with Auckland City FC and Central United FC and in the not for profit world with Lifeline Aotearoa.