Trustees

Rob Fenwick CNZM

Rob's an environmental entrepreneur and an advocate for sustainable development and environmental responsibility through his business and several governance roles.

He is a founding director of Living Earth Ltd the country's principal commercial composting business and chairman of the Government's Waste Advisory Board. He's chairman of Antarctica NZ and helped set up the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development.

He's busy on the conservation front having covenanted his family's coastal block on Waiheke Island and organising a pest management plans and reafforestation programs in the Hauraki Gulf to allow the release of native birds on the island. He's a patron of many conservation organisations like Trees for Survival and NZ Native Plant Conservation Network and a long time trustee of WWF.

He's also a director of TVNZ, St John, carboNZero and NZ Fast Forward. In 2008 he received a CNZM for services to conservation.

Ruud Kleinpaste

Ruud Kleinpaste was born in Indonesia and raised in the Netherlands, before migrating to New Zealand in 1978. After completing an ecological study on kiwi, he joined MAF as entomologist in 1982 and became an independent scientist and international consultant fourteen years later. His scientific work still focuses on entomology, biosecurity and biodiversity, all in an attempt to make this world a better place to live.

Most New Zealanders will be familiar with Ruud 'the Bugman' because of his 21 year old radio show 'Ruud's Awakening' on Newstalk ZB, 12 years on Maggie's Garden Show (TVNZ) or his series on Animal Planet and Discovery Channel (Buggin' with Ruud). His crusade to highlight the incredible value of invertebrates and to stress the importance of biodiversity and sustainability has taken him right around New Zealand and indeed, right around the globe, as he lectures on (and writes about) the magnificent performances of our tiny tyrants and mighty midgets.

Recently he was humbled and 'flattered' when the Waikato University awarded him an honorary Doctorate.

Professor Mark Orams

Mark is a Professor of Sustainable Tourism based at AUT University where he is an Associate Director of the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute.  While his work has primarily focused on managing coastal and marine resources, he has also undertaken a range of work on nature based tourism and ecotourism.

Born in Taranaki and raised in a family where coastal and marine activities were always a part of family holidays, Mark is passionate about conserving New Zealand's coastal and marine ecosystems.  In 2000 he founded the Coastal Marine Research Group at Massey University's Albany campus and he has supervised a range of post-graduate research students who have undertaken marine conservation related projects.

Mark has been a professional sailor, a winner of the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, part of the 2000 America's Cup winning team and a three times world masters sailing champion.  He remains an enthusiastic surfer, sailor and SCUBA diver and is now enjoying introducing his young children to Aotearoa/New Zealand's wonderful natural environment.

Mark is active in the community, he serves as a trustee and an advisory trustee for a number of charities including the Sir Peter Blake Trust, the Motu Kaikoura Trust and the Sir Peter Blake Marine Education and Recreation Centre.  He is also a Justice of the Peace for New Zealand.

Norm Thompson (FCILT)

Norm joined Air New Zealand in 1968 and began his career in the Finance Division. He moved on through various roles in Sales and Marketing before being promoted in 1989 to Regional General Manager, NZ and Pacific Islands. From 1991 to 1992 Norm held the position of General Manager, National Airline, before being posted to Los Angeles in 1992 as Regional General Manager - Americas.

He then returned to New Zealand in 1997 to take up the position of Regional Director New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands, leading to the appointment of Vice President Regional Sales for the Air New Zealand Ansett Australia Group, which he held for two years before being appointed as Group General Manager Marketing, Networks and Sales in November 2003.

In July 2006 he was appointed to the position of Group General Manager Shorthaul Airlines, and in September 2007 was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer. In addition Norm is also the Chairman of the New Zealand Tourism Industry Association. He is married with 2 children, and lives in Auckland.

John Blair LLM (Hons)

John's career as an in house lawyer spans many industries and jurisdictions. After qualifying in New Zealand his OE took him to in house corporate legal work in Europe and the USA covering industrial manufacturing, insurance, recruitment and the motor industry.

John returned to New Zealand in 1996 to the General Counsel role at Air New Zealand. Since then, twelve years in the aviation industry have emphasised the constantly challenging nature of this fast moving industry.

On the environmental front, John has a strong view that New Zealand has a lot to learn from the legal regimes in the USA and Europe which are far more protective of the environment than our red tape based local laws.

He thinks that we are living under a delusion about New Zealand's clean green credentials and we have to wake up quickly to that fact before the rest of the world does!