Our Board

Emeline is a social entrepreneur who founded Affirming Works in 2001. This organization uses a Pacific mentoring model to equip young people in Auckland with essential life skills. Over the years, Affirming Works has mentored thousands of children, youth, and families in Auckland.

Together with her husband, Alipate, Emeline also owns Tupu'anga Coffee. They harvest, roast and package coffee in the Kingdom of Tonga, supplying local establishments and exporting to New Zealand. This led them to start Community Café social enterprises based in Mt Eden, Mt Wellington, and Otara. Emeline is a mother of three boys and has a BSW (Honours), a MPhil in Social Policy, and a PGDipSocSci. She is currently working towards an EMBA at Massey University.

Emeline has won several awards for her work as a leader in social enterprise. In 2006, she was named a Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader, and in 2014, she won the Westpac Woman of Influence award. She was also awarded the Queen’s Order of Merit in New Zealand in 2015. Emeline currently serves as a board member on the NZ Westpac Sustainability Panel, which aims to tackle poverty and support disadvantaged individuals, and the Tearfund Trust of NZ.

Danny is the Interim Regional Way finder for the Northern Region. He is responsible for the commissioning of health services in the community across Te Tai Tokerau and Tāmaki Makaurau.

A pharmacist by training, Danny has had clinical leadership and management roles in health across Aotearoa. More recently, Danny has had operational leadership roles in surgery at Middlemore Hospital. He has extensive experience in strategic policy and change management and is excited by the opportunity to be part of the leadership to transform the health system. The objectives of the transformation of the health system are well aligned with the South Auckland Wellbeing Board and involve thinking beyond the narrow definitions of health.

Ali Rei is currently the Acting Northern Region Deputy Regional Commissioner for Department of Corrections. Ali is responsible for undertaking governance oversight on behalf of the Regional Commissioner across a number of critical business operations.

Ali’s substantive role is that of Operations Director Northern Region and she has worked for the Department of Corrections for 26 years.

The Northern Region’s main priorities are the safety and security of staff, prisoners and communities. The regional team work tirelessly to change lives of the people in their care, underpinned by the Department’s five values of Kaitiaki, Manaaki, Rangatira, Wairua and Whānau.

“He waka eke noa”

A canoe which we are all in with no exception

Moana Ieremia is the Regional Manager for the Northern Region’s Courts and Tribunals covering courts in Pukekohe through to Kaitāia.

Prior to taking up this role, Moana worked in the Chief District Court Judge’s Office in Wellington supporting the District Court judicial leadership (the Chief District Court Judge, the Principal Family Court Judge, the Principal Youth Court Judge and National Executive Judge) to progress the Te Ao Mārama vision for the District Court – Enhanced Justice for All.

Moana has extensive experience in the public sector with over 18 years of service with the Ministry of Justice. Moana has held various roles in legal & research, operational, national office and judicial offices where the areas she has worked in include the Auckland High Court, all District Court jurisdictions, coronial services and tribunals.

Currently Director of Education and Learning Support South, South East and Central Tāmaki Makaurau, Deidre started her teaching career in the early 80’s and taught in a number of schools in South and East Auckland and in South East London. She has held a number of leadership positions within education including president of the Howick and Pakuranga Principals’ Association, president of the Auckland Primary Principals’ Association, and an executive of the New Zealand Principals’ Association. She has participated in numerous education panels, advisory and working action groups. She has a particular interest in equitable outcomes for learners and developing leadership.

In 2019, Deidre was appointed to the position of Deputy Director of Education in Auckland with responsibility for Learning Support, and in 2021 to the interim position of Director of Education and Learning Support for South, East and Central Auckland.

Aimee leads the Tamariki Wellbeing team at The Southern Initiative, an innovation unit embedded within Auckland Council that is focussed on social and economic transformation for South Auckland.

With a background in Public Health, Aimee has dedicated more than 15 years to improving community health and wellbeing through a variety of roles spanning the commissioning, development, implementation and evaluation of prevention-focussed initiatives. Aimee brings expertise in the fields of systems change, leadership in complexity and whānau-led innovation.

Māmā to two young boys, Aimee is passionate about unleashing the potential of whānau and community-led approaches to ensuring all tamariki have a great start in life. Aimee has a strong interest in growing the mechanisms that enable whānau to play an active role in guiding our system transformation efforts to deliver equity and intergenerational wellbeing.

Gary is the Director of Population Health at Counties Manukau Health (CM Health). The team he leads is responsible for population health measurement, health system strategy, health service evaluation and assessment, and evidence-based health service planning, including integration initiatives. Gary is the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) member responsible for the host function activities CM Health provides for the SASWB.

Gary has worked in the health sector for over 35 years including internationally in planning, advisory and health intelligence leaderships roles. Medically trained, specialising in epidemiology, informatics, and population health, he has a particular interest to use data and evidence to measure and understand unmet need and inequity, and to develop ways to address them. As one delves into problems of disease and early mortality in the health sphere one is increasing led upstream to the social determinants of health as being where most problem stem from, and where the most effective interventions lie. The SASWB is the strongest attempt yet seen to work in this space.

John is a proud Tongan, hailing from his mother Vasiti’s village of Kolomotu’a and father Topuluka’s villages of Utulau and Lakepa. He is married to Maria and has twin sons – Topuluka and David-John.

As Deputy Secretary for Regional Partnerships, John is responsible for leading the delivery and administration of key programmes and services, as well as drawing insights from our community relationships through ongoing two-way communication channels that shape policy development and service delivery.

Prior to joining the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, John has had a varied working career that has spanned across business ownership, and leading organisations in the not-for-profit sector focusing on youth development, community development, community education, training, and employment.

Tēnā koutou. He uri ahau no te tokerau. Ko Ngāpuhi te Iwi.

Scott Gemmell is married to Grace and together have five children aged 18, 15, 13, 12 and 9, residing in rural South Auckland.

With 21 years of service, Scott now holds the Director role for Tāmaki Makaurau Partnerships.

His extensive experience with NZ Police involves various roles as a Detective, Māori responsiveness manager, Operations manager, Area Prevention manager and most recently the Area Commander for Counties Manukau East. Scott was also the chair of an Operational Advisory Group to Understanding Policing Delivery – a programme of work focussed on achieving fairness and equity in Police operations, deployment, and service.

Of Te Arawa and Waikato-Tainui descent, Jules is passionate about the role of agencies working collaboratively with iwi/Māori, community and partners for collective impact and better wellbeing outcomes for all New Zealanders. Jules has wide-ranging experience with over 26 years with New Zealand Police in various operational capacities, including frontline response; youth and community services; criminal investigation branch; road policing; Area Commander; and Principal Strategic Advisor to Assistant Commissioner Districts.

In 2018, Jules started a three-year secondment with the Ministry of Justice as Director Tāmaki Makaurau Justice Sector Strategy. She joined the Ministry of Social Development in August 2021, as the Regional Commissioner for Auckland South. In November 2021, she was also appointed to the role of Regional Public Services Commissioner for Tāmaki Makaurau, where she has been working with iwi/Māori, community and partners as part of the Caring for Communities welfare response and the Extreme Weather response for Tāmaki.

Ehara tāku toa i te toa takitahi, engāri he toa takitini

Alison is the Oranga Tamariki Regional Manager for South Auckland, a position she has held since November 2020. Prior to that Alison was the Executive Manager for Oranga Tamariki, she is a qualified social worker who has been with the Ministry for 20 years. She has been in various roles– social worker; Supervisor; Practice Manager; Site Manager through to Regional Manager.

Alison has a strong connection with South Auckland having been born and raised in Pukekohe and has a commitment to tamariki; rangatahi and whānau in our rohe. Alison has a drive and passion for agencies; community and mana whenua to be alongside each other to achieve great outcomes for whānau

Neil joined ACC in 2018 after a long career with Police, both in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He has spent the last fifteen years spent working amongst the South Auckland community in a number of different roles. Since joining ACC Neil has worked as a Branch Manager and more recently as a Client Service Leader for the Supported Recovery teams in Counties Manukau. He is motivated by ACC’s purpose of creating unique partnerships with New Zealanders to improve their quality of life through minimising the incidence and impacts of injury and through which a meaningful contribution to the vision and the success of the South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board can be made.

Angela Pearce has worked for Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities and it’s predecessor organisation, Housing New Zealand for a number of years across various operational, corporate and project based roles. Her current role as Regional Director, Counties Manukau is responsible for leading “place based” operational (tenancy and property management) and community engagement teams across South Auckland. The focus for Kāinga Ora is to partner with Maori and other key stakeholders to provide quality public and supported housing to enable our customers and communities to live well.

Te Miha holds tribal links to Te Arawa, Tuhoe, Ngati Kahungunu and Ngai Tahu.

Te Miha is currently the Regional Manager – Partnering for Outcomes for Tāmaki Makaurau at Oranga Tamariki. He is responsible for commissioning, procurement and contracting in the region, focused on the strategic intent to better enable Iwi/Māori and community stakeholders to build capacity and capability.

With an academic background in Public Administration, Te Miha holds 25 years’ experience in management roles across Health, Education, Defence, Academia, Tourism, and Iwi development; also serving on several Governance boards in these spaces. He was most recently a recipient of the Commonwealth Grant for PhD studies through the Australian Government and was previously a recipient of the State Services Australia New Zealand School of Government Executive Master’s Programme.

He hōnore he korōria ki te Atua, he maungarongo ki te whenua, he whakaaro pai ki ngā tangata katoa, ngā mihi ki a tatou katoa.

Martin currently leads a team responsible for the regional outreach of the Ministry’s vision ‘Thriving Whānau’ and has a role as Government’s principal policy advisor on Māori wellbeing and development. Martin and his team do this through a mixture of data led evidence-based approaches, small innovative regional investments to ‘test’ ways of doing things and supporting and influencing agencies in their delivery to Māori. They work across communities, Iwi, hapū, whānau and Māori, Government and Local Body organisations. Kai ōku nei iti, kai ōku rahi tēnā tātou kātoa.