New trustees appointed for Creative BOP

Creative BOP has seven new trustees. File photo.

Creative Bay of Plenty has appointed seven new trustees, following an interview process with ‘high calibre' applicants.

The new trustees are Shirley-Marie Coffin, Steve Graveson, Debra Laraman, Kristen Joiner, Suzanne McNicol, Jo West and Paul Whitaker.

The interview panel to decide on the appointments was made up of Creative BOP chair MichelleWhitmore, arts sector representative Simone Anderson, and the mayors of Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Greg Brownless and Garry Webber.

'The calibre of applicants was extremely high and we made the decision to expand our board numbers to ensure that the organisation is in the best position possible to deliver on our current contracts and to take on any new deliverables that emerge from the draft Arts & Culture Strategy,” says Michelle.

The new appointees will join incumbent chair Michelle Whitmore and fellow trustee Thoje Hood.

With the new appointments, the board will say farewell to Dean Wearne and Awhina Thatcher who have been long term trustees of the organisation. Both will be formally recognised for their contribution.

The new expanded board will assemble for its first meeting later this month and will undertake a strategic planning workshop in October.

Trustee Profiles

Shirley-Marie Coffin

Shirley-Marie is an experienced consultant having worked in the arts, heritage, environmental and cultural sectors for more than 20 years. She balances a multitude of commitments whilst running a busy household, maintaining professional affiliations and working as a consultant with her husband Antoine Coffin in their own heritage and environmental consultancy business.

Shirley-Marie enjoys being on boards that are positive and proactive in creating new and exciting experiences for all communities and she equally enjoys the challenge of making Tauranga a vibrant and progressive place to live.

Steve Graveson

Steve is passionate for the arts and enjoys seeing the effect art and culture has in our communities. He has been the project manager for Katikati Open-Air Art since 1999 and became president in 2009. Since 2005 Steve has also been heavily involved with the organisation of the New Zealand Mural & Art Festival also held in Katikati.

He has worked as the property manager at Katikati Primary School since 1999, and was involved on Waimata, Katikati Primary and Katikati College Board of Trustees for a number of years.

Steve enjoys time spent with his whanau, his paint brush and time away relaxing at his bach.

Kristen Joiner

Kristen is a producer, writer and activist with a background in gender and human rights. She is co-founder of the award-winning New York City-based non-profit production company Scenarios USA. Scenarios' pioneering scriptwriting program is used by over 4000 teachers in the United States to shift young people's attitudes toward gender. Kristen has produced 15 shorts written by youth from impoverished communities and directed by some of Hollywood's finest filmmakers. She has recently stepped down from her executive director role with Advancing Girls Education in Africa, a Malawi-based NGO, to move to Tauranga with her family.

Debra Laraman

Deb is the head of creative art and design at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology. She is a multi-award-winning designer, academic and author and is passionate about education and how creativity and innovation can transform lives, business and community. Deb is pleased to be part of the revitalised board of trustees for Creative Bay of Plenty and is looking forward to working with the community and arts sectors to help the region develop into one of the leading art and cultural centres in New Zealand.

Suzanne McNicol

Suzanne is a marketing communications consultant with a 20 year career in consumer marketing, brand management and media relations. She has worked extensively in broadcast media and across several projects in New Zealand's creative industries. Suzanne is experienced in governance, revenue development and partnership marketing for the arts and culture and Not-for-Profit sectors as a founding trustee of the NZ Music Commission and through director roles at YWCA Auckland, and Auckland's indie radio station, 95bFM. A self-confessed ‘arts junkie', Suzanne is thrilled to be working with the refreshed board to help the region's creative sector to flourish.

Jo West

Jo is a primary educator with 23 years national and international experience, including senior management roles from Special Needs Co-ordinator to Deputy Principal. She is currently the specialist arts teacher at Bethlehem School. Jo is passionate about the arts and the significance they have to play in the future success of our city. A musician, dancer, choir trainer, musical director and admirer of artworks, she has always been an advocate for the arts and has fostered her love of the arts through travel, singing, reading and attending shows, exhibitions and events.

Jo has been on the Bethlehem School Board of Trustees since 2013, is a selected member of the Technical Advisory Group for the Heart of the City project and is a member of Tauranga Sunrise Rotary Club. She has travelled extensively and has lived in both the UK and USA. However Tauranga, where she was born and has spent most of her life, has been home for the last 19 years. Jo is married with two wonderful children.

Paul Whitaker

Paul's purpose in life and his passion is to make a positive difference and be instrumental in helping individuals, groups and organisations reach their full potential and to live a full and productive life. This is his motivation in being involved with Creative Bay of Plenty.

Paul originally hails from the north east of England where he became a qualified educationalist with a passion for making education more powerful and more relevant. As the Director of the Sir Peter Blake Marine Education Centre he continued this work in New Zealand. On arriving in Tauranga, Paul and his wife Lynne (born and bred in Katikati) ran a number of businesses before Paul took on the role of Executive Director of YMCA Tauranga. Over the last nine years Paul has worked for the Wright Family in a leadership and training role. He is currently the support manager for the Wright Family Foundation, a member of the Establishment Board of Trustees for Pyes Pa West School and a member of the organising committee for TEDx Tauranga.

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8 comments

Let the

Posted on 17-09-2017 11:30 | By MISS ADVENTURE

"creative" continue and multiply, god help the Tauranga Ratepayers!


Bring on the arts.

Posted on 17-09-2017 12:54 | By Pamaxx

Congratulations for selecting such a talented board, Tauranga & the BoP are a rapidly growing region and a vibrant arts/culture vision is essential to compliment our expansion. The skills and expertise this group bring will ensure our city/region Is an even more desirable place to live, work, play and bring up a family. Well done and all the best.Max Lewis, Visionary, Mt Maunganui


Muliplication!

Posted on 17-09-2017 13:19 | By Maryfaith

Two leave and they employ seven more in their place!!!! What the hell is going on in with these fanciful appointments?Would someone on the council please explain what Creative BOP actually does apart from creating jobs for the unemployed? .... and what salary has been created for each of these seven people?More snouts in the trough - seven to do the work of the two who left! It is criminal that ratepayers have no redress to this stupidity!!!


@ Pamaxx

Posted on 17-09-2017 13:21 | By MISS ADVENTURE

It is indeed a stretch of the imagination that you claim that "rapidly growing region..." and then unbelievably "even more desirable place to live". This is dreamer stuff. Our kids can not even write, read and above all else reason. The life of a Mellinial resides inside a cell phone, not art or anything art like. Yet life goes on without any of that stuff. Art galleries, Museums and the like are simple the dreams of a few hanging on to teh a past that should have been buried in the Dark-ages.


Voluntary!

Posted on 17-09-2017 19:17 | By Lillybeth

Miss Adventure - the trustees position is non-remunerated, aka UNPAID.


here we go again

Posted on 17-09-2017 19:19 | By old trucker

another 7 so called high class staff, what a lot of fooe,and more on the payrole, i thought i was very skilled in my work, and agree again with MISS ADVENTURE you are so right, everybody wants all the Baubles, and as you say life goes on without all this BS stuff, Tauranga will die,and all the empty shops,and a person wanting to put up parking charges to get people on buses, my thoughts on this is, EVERYBODY STAY AWAY FROM TCC main shopping for 2 weeks and see how it goes, im SURE this would work if they all thought about it, anyway there must be over 650 staff in tcc with this extra 7 ,to join ALL THE OTHER BLUDGERS, that SCREW us at any given time over SILLY THINGS like over parking for a few minutes, they donot relize the STRESS that this causepeoplethanksSUNLIVE.


Who cares who they are?

Posted on 17-09-2017 22:51 | By MISS ADVENTURE

Or anythign about them, what is important is that they stop sucking off the TCC broke and debt buried ratepayers. If what they were doing had any use then they would be out in the real world doing it, make a living and earning for real. Not this make believe stuff that they are all indulging in now.


Millenial?

Posted on 18-09-2017 03:46 | By Jane Harmer

Would Miss Adventure please define her use of this word?


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