Welcome new trustees - Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi

Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi are thrilled to announce the appointment of Carol Hirschfeld, Agnes Naera and Anne Blackburn as incoming trustees for their governance board.

Bringing a wealth of experience in the creative arts sector, strong stakeholder and political networks, and vision for a Tāmaki Makaurau that is alive with creativity, the new board members will help the trust develop whakaaro around what creative governance looks like for the organisation as it continues to work through its strategic delivery.

Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi Chief Executive Alison Taylor says “Myself, our board and staff are extremely excited to welcome Carol, Anne and Agnes to our trust whānau. Their passion for the potential of the creative sector, deep Māori cultural knowledge and relationships, and shared belief that a strong arts and culture ecosystem is a necessity for a well-functioning diverse society, deeply reinforces our values”.

Carol and Anne will join the board in March 2022, with Agnes joining later in the second half of 2022. This comes as previous chair Heta Hudson and trustee of over 20 years Sandi Morrison step down from formal governance roles .

“Tāmaki Makaurau has the potential to be a world-leading creative centre. I’m joining Te Taumata Toi-a-iwi as a trustee because I believe this board can help effect change to make this possible. I hope my experience in growing audiences and working with performers will provide useful context to the board as it develops policy recommendations for the arts sector”, says Hirschfeld, who comes from an extensive and public facing career in journalism, broadcasting and programming.

Anne Blackburn agrees “the establishment and direction of Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi exemplify the belief that a stable and strong arts and culture ecosystem is a necessity for a successful society. I share that belief and intend to bring abundant energy, enthusiasm and governance disciplines in support of a strengthened sector with deep foundations in the city.”

Agnes Naera, Chief Executive of Global Woman, believes “there is a real opportunity to leverage the creative sector to build up the mana a wāhine, Māori and Pacific communities. I hope to be able to influence my relationships to collaboratively lean into the creative sector.”

The Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi board, employees and creative connections network look forward to welcoming these valuable new trustees to the whānau.

With a career spanning more than 30 years, Carol Hirschfeld has worked as a journalist, director, presenter and producer. She is best known for co-presenting TV3’s nightly news bulletin with John Campbell from 1998 to 2005, later producing Campbell Live for five years. In 2009, Carol joined Māori TV as head of programming and then became head of content at RNZ five years later, re-launching Checkpoint as the organisation’s first foray into multimedia programming. Recently she has been at stuff.co.nz as head of video/audio where she helped commission a broad range of online documentary projects. In March 2022, Carol will take up a new role as executive producer of Mediaworks latest morning current affairs radio show.

Anne Blackburn has a background in journalism, public service, banking, governance and strategic advice. In the mid 1990’s she returned to New Zealand after fifteen years working in international investment banks in New York and London. Concurrently with senior positions in a major New Zealand bank she took up board roles, becoming a full time director fifteen years ago. Her current work is concentrated in the financial and capital markets. Anne is also an experienced Director/Trustee in the not for profit sector across health, education and the arts. Her academic background is in Chinese – testament to the reinvention of life and career.

Agnes Naera, Global Women Chief Executive, leans strongly into amplifying the importance of diversity and inclusion and advancing the aspirations of Māori and Pacific people. She is purposeful in her mentorship of emerging female leaders particularly early career academics and professionals.
Agnes is a trustee for a number of charities with a special interest in unleashing the potential of young people to enable them to ‘be the change they want to see’ in Aotearoa NZ. She brings a wealth of experience from her professional, community roles while drawing from her lived reality of her hapu and iwi Ngāpuhi experience. In the words of Sir James Henare ‘maha rawa wa tatou mahinga te kore mai tonu, tawhiti rawa to tatou haerenga te kore haere tonu’ (we have done too much not to do more, we have come too far to not go further).

Learn more about our board, staff and creative connections network here.