OUR BOARD
MIKE BISHOP - CHAIRPERSON
Mike is an experienced and accomplished Chief Executive and Director / Trustee. Mike's core skills include Leadership, Financial Management, Marketing, Strategy, Governance, and Workplace Health and Safety. He has considerable experience in Business Growth, Stakeholder Relationships, Change Management, Culture Change and Financial Growth and Sustainability and is adept at building high-performing, focused and successful teams.
In addition to his current role as Chief Executive of Harbour Sport and previous Chief Executive roles in sports over 28 years, Mike has held Board and Trustee positions in a number of organisations. He is a passionate advocate for the disabled community.
JIM HOGG - TREASURER
Jim is a well-known local business owner, who has served in many volunteer roles over the years, including as treasurer for Athletics New Zealand, and several board roles for Athletics Auckland.
PHILIP STEVEN
Philip joined the Disability Sport Auckland Board in 2017 and has been involved with a variety of sports clubs in governance, recreational participant and parent support roles. Sports include tramping, skiing, tennis, jogging and cycling and he also co-founded Padel New Zealand Society Inc. He initially became involved with Disability Sport Auckland through his daughter’s participation in a junior para-athlete development programme leading to a variety of overseas events with High Performance Sport New Zealand and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
He is a Professional Project Manager with extensive experience consulting for organisations within both the public and private sectors on project establishment, procurement and completions mainly in transport and property-related fields.
GRANT SHARMAN
Following the recent announcement about the building of the new Rehabilitation facility to replace the Otara Unit, I wanted to play a small part in ensuring that Parafed had the best possible facility and access in order to continue its proud history of supporting people with a physical disability. We have a new President, Mike Bishop, and I’m keen to support him and the Board as we build for the future.
RACHEL GRUNWELL
Rachel Grunwell is an award-winning journalist and author with 30 years of experience in the media industry. She is a skilled communications specialist. Since becoming an author, she has also become comfortable on the other side of the media i’e’ she appears on TV, radio or in magazines regularly as a wellness specialist. She’s the director of Inspired Health, which designs tailor-made wellbeing experiences, retreats and coaching for clients to elevate their health (i.e. in how they eat, move, sleep or manage stress).
Rachel joined DSA as a board member in 2022. She has also been an ambassador for a decade for the NZ arm of the global charity, Achilles, which helps people with any kind of disability to participate in mainstream run events. Many of her 25 marathon finishes were dedicated to guiding athletes with disabilities throughout New Zealand, Sydney and New York. It’s the reason she has run the New York Marathon four times. Rachel has a long history of helping other various NZ charities too in the social media space.
HEIDI WILDE
Originally from the UK, Heidi started her professional career in finance, and after a period living in Perth, Australia working as an Evaluation and Research officer for WA Police, Heidi and her husband moved to New Zealand in November 2017. Heidi is currently the Funding and Partnership Manager of Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ).
In collaboration with the Commercial and Marketing team at PNZ, Heidi has developed and executed strategies to increase the funding streams of the organisation and to improve the efficiency and continuity of business processes. Heidi has also worked in a fundraising capacity for the south Auckland based social services charity, ATWC. Heidi’s professional experience and education are a positive addition to the Parafed Auckland Board that will help achieve our mission and goals.
LEE TANIWHA
Lee is a Peer Supporter with Spinal Support New Zealand and is based within the Auckland Spinal Rehabilitation Unit. Having had first-hand experience with Spinal Cord Injury as a C4/5 Asia B break he has had almost 16 years experience of wheelchair life and the challenges of navigating the journey.
At the age of 16, he took up Target Shooting under the guidance of Mike Johnson and was an original member of the Parafed Auckland Shooting Club as well as playing a small part in the establishment of the Mt Eden Shooting Range.
He has held many advisory roles within the community with organizations such as ACC, Health Quality and Safety Commission, Auckland Transport, Counties Manukau District Health, Humans of South Auckland and Te Roopu Waiora Trust.
He aspires to enable his community to achieve highly in chosen aspects of their life and to have the opportunity to make a positive impact on their own communities as a result.
LINCOLN JEFFERSON
Lincoln is currently the CEO of the Warriors Community Foundation, which connects, educates and inspires the community through the mana of the One New Zealand Warriors. The Foundation tackles social issues with programmes and community initiatives that support mental health, anti-bullying, literacy and other wellbeing skills that support the success of tamariki, rangatahi and whānau.
Recently, the Warriors Community Foundation collaborated with DSA and other rugby league organisations to deliver Wheelchair Rugby League at the Spinal Unit in Otara. The sessions have been well received and Lincoln is keen to develop the area of his foundation to be an inclusive delivery agent to the disability community.
He is passionate about the DSA community and the opportunity to add value to the DSA board is an exciting one for him.
He has also worked alongside organisations such as Physical Disability Rugby League NZ, Special Olympics, Boccia NZ and Halberg Foundation.
OUR CO-OPTED
BOARD MEMBERS
ANDRE LUBBE
Andre is a respected Barrister and Solicitor who has a long association with both Disability Sport Auckland and Paralympics New Zealand, serving in a number of volunteer roles for both organisations.
MARIE LECLERC
NATHAN HART
Nathan Hart has developed his media career over the past 23 years, working in senior roles for some of the largest media companies in New Zealand and the UK, including Bauer Media. His expertise and skills include commercial sponsorship and promotional strategy, creative content creation and production within digital, print and radio media.
That's why he understands the power of communicating to mass audiences, and how genuinely ethical stories not only deserve to be told, heard, seen and read but also how powerful these stories can be if they are truly society-centric.
His daughter (aged 7) has Cerebral Palsy so his passion for people/families with a disability is personal and passionate. He has seen first-hand how powerfully positive having access to activities, therapies, sports, people and programs like those provided by Disability Sport Auckland can be.
Nathan wants to use his skills, connections and experience to help develop the great work that is already happening to reach more people, creating more connections and helping people from Auckland excel.
OUR OBSERVER
BOARD MEMBERS
As the manager of a recruitment agency, Marie’s role is to attract new clients, new candidates and new team members. Marie’s skill set and experience will help promote Parafed to new members, partners and sponsors through her marketing and business development expertise
After leaving France 2 years ago with her family, Marie came to Auckland with 15 years of experience as a recruiter, business developer and people manager, in France, Switzerland, and the last 2 years in New Zealand. My current employer, The Adecco Group, is a strong partner of Paralympic NZ.
KELVIN PORTER
Kelvin has been involved with DSA through his son Kyle who won Youth of the Year in 2022. Kyle is currently 9 years old and attends various DSA activities on an almost weekly basis and in some cases attends two or three events a week. Through these events, he has come to know the organisation reasonably well. From this, he has developed a huge amount of respect for what DSA is, what they represent and what they have to offer.
In return, Kelvin would like to offer his services. He already has a good relationship with a number of parents with whom he interacts regularly, so he can offer the voice of the combined group.
On a professional basis he manages a team of 9 to 13 engineers across AU and NZ so has a skill set of team leadership, process review and management, and risk analysis. On a personal level, he is approachable, willing to listen to people’s suggestions for improvement, and has a logical approach to strategy and considerations. Kelvin would like to be involved in keeping DSA on the right track and ensuring it continues to grow and be the community family Aucklanders currently enjoy.