In November 2024 we welcomed three new Trustees to our Board – Denise Church, Anna Davison and Simon Wallace. In 2024 we also farewelled Trustees Renée Sara and Mary Schumacher who we thank for their valuable contributions to Te Hopai over many years.
Denise Church QSO CFInstD
Denise is a Wellington based company director and consultant. Denise currently chairs the Boards of Airways New Zealand and Predator Free 2050 Ltd and has been a past chair of Zealandia, the Wellington Zoo Trust, and ESR (the Institute of Environmental Science and Research). Through her company Leadership Matters, Denise also provides leadership development activities for senior teams and boards.
Denise’s earlier career was in environmental management, where she was Chief Executive of Ministry for the Environment. Denise has bachelors and masters degrees in zoology, economics, resource management, and urban and regional planning, and she has attended leadership programmes at Harvard and Stanford. Denise is involved in a range of community activities including Scouts, Rotary, and her church in Kelburn.
Dr. Anna Davison
Anna is a long term associate GP at Newlands Medical Centre in Wellington where she has worked since 2006. Anna has a wide interest in all aspects of family medicine including geriatric medicine and has postgraduate diplomas in paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology.
Anna has been a tutor in medical student training and has been extensively involved in her community as a volunteer with her children's schools and sports teams. Since 2020 she has been part of the Wellington Regional Charity Hospital Trust (He Ringa Āwhina) whose aim is to set up a charity hospital in the Wellington region for day case surgeries.
Simon Wallace
Simon was Chief Executive of the New Zealand Aged Care Association (NZACA) from 2015 to 2023, the peak membership body for the aged residential care (ARC) sector. In his role, Simon led the policy and advocacy activities for the Association, highlights of which included stewardship of the sector through the Covid-19 pandemic, leadership of the annual negotiation of the ARC contract and involvement in the historic Pay Equity settlement.
Simon brings this aged care experience to his role on the Te Hopai Board, as well as knowledge of the policy, political and regulatory environment. Simon’s current role is as Chief Executive of the Aviation Industry Association, which like the NZACA, is the lead membership organisation for the commercial aviation industry in NZ.