Meet the Trust Board

John had careers in hospitality and financial services before founding New Zealand Home Loans in 1996. As founder and CEO, he grew the business to be one of the most successful non-bank mortgage providers in NZ, with a franchise network of over 65 offices. Since selling to Kiwibank in 2012, John has been building a diverse business portfolio in the tourism, mining, agriculture, and marine sectors. He works actively in all these businesses and also holds several governance roles as chair.

John is a serial entrepreneur, with an immense ability to cast a vision and then motivate and coach people to achieve the outcome. He has unique skills in developing sales systems and sees every business as a sales business. He is passionate about building things - businesses, people, teams, boats, buildings - but mainly people!

Monique is a Partner at Lewis Lawyers in Cambridge and is independent of St Peter’s. Qualifying with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Social Sciences from the University of Waikato in 2006, Monique now primarily practices in property and commercial areas of Law.
Monique is currently the Deputy-Chair and has been a trustee at St Peter’s since 2015.

Craig is a Partner at Bakertilly Staples Rodway Chartered Accountants in Hamilton. He works with commercial entities and Māori organisatons and provides strategic and commercial advice on all aspects of their business. He is passionate about innovation and value add to improve economic performance. Craig has a Bachelor of Management Studies from the University of Waikato, majoring in Accounting and Finance, and is a chartered accountant. He is also a member of the Institute of Directors. Craig also holds a number of trustee and directorships. Craig lives in Hamilton with his wife and has a young family with children attending Southwell. Craig has been a member since 2016 and is Chair of the Finance Committee.

Raewyn has a Bachelor of Electronic Commerce, majoring in Management Information Systems from Waikato University, a National Diploma of Science and is currently studying towards a law degree. Raewyn has worked extensively in the information technology and services industry, including work in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), E-commerce, Google Analytics, Integration, and E-commerce Consulting. Raewyn joined the Trust Board in 2010, is a St Peter’s Alumni and her children have attended St Peter’s.

David is the Managing Director of Bakertilly Staples Rodway, a past student and currently has two children attending the school. David joined the board in 2007 and shortly after took responsibility of the chair of the finance committee. In 2012 David stepped into the role of chair after acting as deputy chair. David stood down as chair of the board in 2018 after serving the maximum 6-year term in that position.

David holds a Bachelor of Business Studies with honours from the University of Waikato and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and a Chartered member of the Institute of Directors.

David holds numerous trustee and director positions, including the Home of Cycling Charitable Trust, the Chartwell Trust group and the John and Glenice Gallagher Foundation.

Aksel is the Deputy Mayor of Waikato District Council and Councillor for Tamahere, the immediate northern neighbouring district to St Peter’s, and is a parent of current students at the school. He has a commercial background in both Human Resource Management and equipment sales & service, particularly to the Dairy, Wine and Brewing industries.
He received a B.Sc. in Microbiology and Psychology from Massey University and a M.Soc.Psy. in Industrial & Organisational Psychology from the University of Waikato.
Aksel started his professional career working for Natural Gas Corporation (a Fletcher Challenge company), then Cedenco Foods in Gisborne and was part of the successful management buy-out of NDA Engineering in 1998 -Australasia’s premier fabricator of stainless steel. Here he continued as an owner/manager until the business was sold a decade later, after which Aksel held Board of Trustee roles in primary schools as well as directorships in private sector companies whilst focusing most of his time around family.

Graeme has extensive experience in sports development, with a passion for the positive nature of holistic education. After attaining bachelors and doctoral degrees from Loughborough and Wollongong Universities, respectively, Graeme has left world-class sports and coaching programmes on three continents. His former role as Director of Sport at Millfield School in England, and his relationship with the Avantidrome, creates a strong affinity with St Peter’s School and aligns with the school’s holistic philosophy. Graeme has been a member since 2016 and is co-chair of the Education Committee. He is also a trustee of the Adastr
a Trust, member of the Waikato Pathway to Podium, and NZ Rugby 7’s innovation advisory groups. He is vice president of the Loughborough Students Rugby Club, and was a member of the New Zealand Olympic Committee’s Rio Planning Group.

Principal Tangaroa College (1999-2005)
Principal of Botany Downs Secondary College (2005-2014)
Headmaster Kings College (2014-2016)
Michael trained as a primary school teacher and spent his first few years teaching at Papatoetoe intermediate. His shift to secondary education saw him experience a number of diverse learning environments and communities. More recently at Botany Downs Secondary College he was fortunate to position the College as one of 30 Microsoft World Tour schools where the school was show-cased by Microsoft for its innovative learning programmes. The last few years of his career has enabled him to experience learning and teaching in the independent sector.
Michael was the Auckland Secondary School Principals’ representative on a number of committees. He was the Chairman of the Auckland Secondary Schools Headmasters Association that governs College Sport in Auckland, represents Auckland Principals on the National Secondary Schools Sports Council, and is a member of the STEAG committee which is an advisory reference group for teacher training. He has been a member of the Auckland University Principals’ Centre which develops professional development opportunities for educational leaders and a first time principal mentor.
He was on a ministerial reference group for boys’ education which was formed in 2005 and was working with four other principals, ministry representatives and an Australian researcher, Peter Cutternance, on this project.
He has been on the PENZ board (Physical Education New Zealand) and is currently on the Counties Manukau Rugby Union Board.

John has worked in both the public and the private health sector in senior leadership roles. He has delivered a range of digital and service innovations that have changed how you and your family experience health care.

John is currently working in New Zealand, Australia, UK and the Middle East with start-ups, NGOs, private and public sector organisations in advisory and governance roles.

John holds a BLS and MBA from the University of Waikato, and advanced leadership and system design qualifications from Harvard University and Henley Business School.

John is married with 3 children - 2 current St Peter’s students and one recently graduated.

John is passionate about seeing St Peter’s continuing to develop as an independent school, producing critical thinking leaders of tomorrow, equipped to make a difference.

Emily works as an independent business consultant. She has 25 years’ experience working in commercial and strategic roles across the Dairy, Energy and Telecommunications sectors.
Emily has a first-class honours degree in Marketing Strategy and Statistics from Otago University (1993). She has a track record of leading high performing teams and has been involved in many exciting and intellectually challenging businesses in the past, both here in New Zealand and overseas.
Emily lives with her husband in rural Cambridge and has three sons who attend St Peter’s School.

Gina is a commercial lawyer with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts (Political Studies) from the University of Otago. Gina is currently employed at Gallagher Group Limited as Senior Legal Counsel. She has previously worked in corporate law firms in Auckland, and recently was Senior Associate at a large Waikato based law firm. She also has a Diploma in Management of Not-for Profits and has spent time working in the not for profit sector and in politics. Gina is the mother of four children, two currently attending St Peter's, with two more to follow, and is involved in various local community and sporting organisations.