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.
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. It listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange as part of this process.
Ross is a committed advocate for the human rights and protections of disabled people, and he has over 30 years’ experience in the management and governance of disability organisations.
For Mary-Jane, the importance of communities was reinforced though her family's involvement in their own neighbourhood and her senior management roles in local and central government, especially leading social impact assessment work in the late 1980s.
John Allen was appointed the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Racing Board in March 2015, having previously held the role of Chief Executive and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade since July 2009.
Minnie Baragwanath is the CEO and Founder of the Be. lab, a New Zealand based globally networked centre for access innovation! Eight years ago, she and her incredible team and Board established Be. Accessible, a social change agency committed to the creation of a 100% accessible New Zealand.
Lesley Slade 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.
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 Slade joined the Be. Leadership team as Programme Manager in 2015, and has provided support to the Communications, Events and Marketing team since 2016.
Neville has an extensive background in Customer Experience and taking services and products to market.
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.
Robert Westall is the CFO of Be. Lab, 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.
Nicky joined the be. team in 2019 as Communications and Marketing Manager. She has over 15 years’ experience in communications, PR, sponsorship and events.
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.