Te Pūoho Katene
Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Tama
Chair

Te Pūoho (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Tama) is steadfast in his pursuit of holistic prosperity for Māori. A Stanford graduate, Fulbright Scholar, and Obama Foundation Leader, he weaves together global best practice within an indigenous, values-based lens.

Te Pūoho is Kaihautū (Chief Executive Officer) at Tapuwae Roa, a leading Māori social impact organisation that funds, invests, delivers, and advocates for targeted social change in leadership development, education and training, and STEMM for all Māori across Aotearoa.

Te Pūoho serves as Trustee of his tribe, Ngāti Toa and is an independent director with Armillary Private Capital, a boutique investment bank. He is also on the Investment Committee for Te Pae ki te Rangi, a $75 million Impact Fund. 

Formerly a member of NZTE’s Māori Investment and KPMG’s Corporate Finance teams, Te Pūoho also spent 10 years working for New Zealand’s government, including within Parliament advising on prominent policy issues, such as regional economic development, Treaty settlements, and fisheries & aquaculture.

Cheryl Reynolds

Cheryl is an experienced leader, entrepreneur and innovator who has held a variety of for-purpose and for-profit executive and governance roles over the past 30 years.

In both her executive and governance careers, she has driven and contributed to multiple startup, change management and business transformation processes. Cheryl’s career as an entrepreneur and leader has equipped her with a high level of organisational and team development skills, relationship management skills and network building skills, including extensive experience and relationships across the innovation system in Aotearoa. Particularly the early-stage angel and business incubation space, and with government, crown entities and iwi as well.

Cheryl is community focused, having held a range of for-purpose governance and advisory roles in the entrepreneurial, environment and community wellbeing sectors. Never one to rest, in her spare time she is a cheesemaker, photographer, stargazer, and planet-lover, as well as a proud Edmund Hillary Fellow.

Rachel Sanson

Rachel has 20 years’ management and governance experience in the private, education and not-for-profit sectors. She co-founded and ran an internationally successful youth-focused global education and leadership development company, established as a social enterprise, with staff and partners across 18 countries.

Rachel is deeply committed to climate change mitigation and social equity - she believes we need to move swiftly towards a better way of doing things, to ensure a sustainable future for all. She sees business leadership in this space as vital, supported by community action, and local and central government policy (and action).

Rachel is focused on being a positive change-maker in her local community, and in local government as an elected member for Nelson City Council; and at a national level through governance roles. She holds a Master of Commerce from Canterbury University, is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors, a Resource Management Commissioner, and is studying te reo Māori through Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.