Our Board brings together diverse skills and experience to guide the strategic direction of Wesley Community Action. As a part of the Methodist Church of NZ, the Board is accountable to the annual conference that operates on a bicultural power-sharing model.
Peter Glensor (Chair)
Peter is a former Methodist minister who has worked in the NGO sector for more than 40 years. He’s been involved in groups working in aid and development, youth work, social services, housing, and health services.
Peter has served on both the Capital and Coast and Hutt Valley District Health Boards. He was also a Hutt City councillor and a member of the Wellington Regional Council.
He is currently on the board of the Problem Gambling Foundation and of Palmerston North Methodist Social Services and he chairs the Methodist Alliance's work on housing. His latest passion is a Tiriti-based climate assembly in Porirua, in partnership with Ngati Toa Rangatira.
Dr Roger Blakeley
Dr Roger Blakeley has been chief executive of the Porirua City Council, the Department of Internal Affairs and the Ministry for the Environment. He is a past chair of the Paris-based OECD Environment Committee.
He has served as an independent director in local and central government and he has been an elected member of the Capital and Coast District Health Board and the Wellington Regional Council. He has served on numerous boards in the not-for-profit sector.
Roger has deep roots in the Methodist Church. He is descended from Rev John Hobbs, a Wesleyan missionary based in Hokianga who served as an interpreter for several chiefs who signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi. He was the Vice President of the New Zealand Methodist Youth Movement in the late 1960s.
Leah Haines
Leah is a strategic communications practitioner, with particular expertise in issues related to the wellbeing of children, and in crisis and change communications. She has led media and communications teams in the public, political and NGO. Her professional interest is in the area of children's rights and social justice.
Leah has worked as a journalist in New Zealand and overseas. Leah is descended from Methodist minister and missionary John Hobbs and his wife Jane, of Mangungu Mission in the Hokianga.
David Hanna
David is the Director of Wesley Community Action. He is also a member of the national leadership team of Inspiring Communities.
David has worked across a wide range of charitable and community-led development projects at both government and grass-roots levels. Through this he has developed skills in the areas of positive youth development, public policy process, management, systems thinking, leadership, and community-led development.
His energy and interest is sparked by the way in which groups, organisations and communities can organise themselves to contribute positive change in people’s lives. He is committed to inclusive perspectives and incorporating knowledge of biculturalism and the Treaty of Waitangi as well as grounding his work in an authentic spirituality.
Hiueni Nuku
Hiueni is manager of the Porirua Union and Community Health Service in Cannons Creek. He is the Methodist Minister for the Tongan Congregation at the Tawa Union Church and for the Lower Hutt Tongan Parish.
He is also chair of the Wellington Tongan Leaders Council and a board member of the Pacific Business Trust, Living Wage Aotearoa and Siaola Vahefonua Tonga Methodist Mission. He is a member of the Komiti Pasifika, Victoria University Wellington.
In June 2022 Hiueni was awarded with the Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) for services to Tongan and Pacific communities.
Dr Kate Prickett
Dr Kate Prickett is the Director of the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families and Children, Awhi Rito, at Victoria University of Wellington. She is a family sociologist and demographer, researching how family wellbeing and child development are affected and supported by the contexts that families interact with—such as parents’ work and early childcare—and how families’ wellbeing is impacted by broader social factors, such as poverty and public policies.
Eugene Ryder
Patria Tamaka
Ko Taranaki rātou ko Karioi, ko Pirongia, ko Maungarake ōku maunga
Ko Patea rātou ko Waikato, ko Ruamahanga ōku awa
Ko Aotea rātou ko Tainui, ko Tamatea te Arikinui no Takitimu ōku waka
Ko Ngāti Ruanui rātou ko Waikato, ko Ngāti Kahungunu ōku iwi
Ko Ngāti Tūpito rātou ko Ngāti Mahanga, ko Ngāti Tāhinga, ko Taneroroa ōku hapū
Ko Pariroa rātou ko Poihākena, ko Pukerewa, ko Weraroa, ko Hurunuiorangi ōku marae
Ko Tamaka rātou ko Pairama, ko Riki, ko Anaru Tuhōkairangi (Andrews) ōku whānau
Ko Patria Tamaka tōku ingoa
No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa
Patria was born in Patea and moved a couple of years later to Pōneke. She eventually settled in Te Awakairangi (Lower Hutt) where she has lived for more than 30 years.
Patria has worked for Hutt Union & Community Health Service, Te Runanga o Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika (now known as: Te Runanga o Te Atiawa), and E Tū Whānau (Ministry of Social Development). In these roles she has learnt the difference between a job versus responsibility, a programme versus kaupapa and she is deeply connected to them because they all contributed in shaping the person she is today. She has been board member of Pomare Taita Community Trust since it began in 2001.
Nicola Teague Grundy
Nicola is currently one of the ministry team at Wesley Wellington Methodist Parish. She is also the Synod Superintendent for the Lower North Island Methodist region.
Nicola has worked for the Methodist Church for many years and has previous experience in a leadership role with Methodist Mission Southern and more recently as Academic Registrar at Trinity Theological College. She has twice been the Vice President of the Methodist Church of New Zealand.
Murray Wu
Murray is strategy professional with expertise in strategy development and strategy execution. He has been employed in strategy roles across a variety of public and private sectors, including manufacturing, social services, financial services, and defence.
