Mō mātou | About Us

Dr Cheryl Doig is a leadership futurist with a passion for supporting leaders and organisations to think differently in order to adapt to a rapidly changing and complex world. Cheryl is an accredited member of the Association of Professional Futurists and her business, Think Beyond, focuses on leadership at the edges. In 2017 Cheryl was a finalist in the Westpac Women of Influence Awards, Innovation and Science category.

Cheryl is currently the Board Chair of the NZ Brain Research Institute  and serves on a number of trusts. She is also involved in a range of collaborative projects including Grow Waitaha, the Future of Learning and Learning City Christchurch, Ako Ōtautahi.

Elle is passionate about helping to create purpose-driven, connective, collaborative, and innovative communities. She has been engaged in various business, industry, and community development initiatives for the past 24 years. Having been involved in geospatial technology and sustainable solutions since 2006, she is now a recognised Senior Technologist, is multi-science educated and certified, and applies this knowledge and experience to aid in providing specialist STEM educational and skills development programmes across multiple industry sectors. She is currently the Managing Director of ELG (Purpose Cultivation), sits on the Central Plains Water Trust (Sustainable Water and Biodiversity Scheme) and Accurate NZ (Geospatial Technology) boards, and is the President of the Industry Association Nulca NZ (Utilities Infrastructure).

Elle also works in and advocates for: Smart Cities Council (Smart Societies), Smart Industries Global, Industry and Professional Pathway Development, STEM and Youth Empowerment Aotearoa – within NZ and Asia Pacific.

Louisa is the Business and Project Manager of Recalibrate, an IT Management Consultancy, and Event Manager of  The Future of Learning Conference which is about how accelerating technologies are affecting our learning environments  in the future.

Louisa completed her MBA in 2011, and is currently a Board member of the Canterbury MBA Graduate Association. She enjoys growing her own organic produce in a permaculture garden just west of Christchurch.

Erica Austin is a multipotentialite – person with multiple passions – experience curator, community weaver, lifelong learner, facilitator, mentor, photographer, serial volunteer and #ChChAmbassador.

She started E.A.Curation so she can embrace all her passions. E.A.Curation focuses on experience curation and inclusive practice aimed at creating safe and dynamic spaces for collaborative impact. She works with non-profits, government agencies, startups, social enterprises and education providers across New Zealand to encourage cross sector conversation and co-create forums and platforms for collective contribution. With a Master’s degree in Architecture, Erica has a passion for human-centric design approaches to solving local and global issues. She also loves working with young people and believes a strengths and values based education system is the future.

Ben originates from the UK where he studied Mechanical Engineering and worked for 20 years prior to coming to NZ.  The majority of this time was spent with Caterpillar developing diesel engines and transmissions for heavy duty equipment.  He climbed the ranks of engineering to Chief Engineer and Engineering Manager level before being tempted away to NZ in 2013 to work for HamiltonJet.

After a few years running product development for HamiltonJet, Ben was offered the job of replacing the retiring Managing Director.  Since then he has lead this global export business in the commercial and military marine industry, growing the workforce to 450 and introducing significant advances in marine propulsion as the business transitions to be a technology-lead company.  He brings a wealth of industry and business knowledge and is passionate about the transition to a less linear learning style needed at all levels in this fast paced modern world.

Robin has worked in education and the not for profit sector during a forty year career. He taught at Hornby High School in the late 90s before beginning a 15 year spell at Christ’s College as Senior Master Curriculum (Assistant Principal). He returned to Hornby High School as Principal in 2016 where he has been privileged to lead the staff team redeveloping the school’s physical building infrastructure, its curriculum, and its pastoral systems. These have all evolved to build on those things that he believes are the fundamental building blocks of all learning: student efficacy, agency, and self belief.