Board of trustees
BRYAN GOULD
Bryan Gould was born in Hawera in 1939 and completed his NZ education at Auckland University with a first class honours Law Degree. In 1962 was selected as New Zealand Rhodes Scholar who joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1964 as the top entrant of his year after doing a postgraduate law degree at Balliol College, Oxford.
He returned to Oxford as a law don at Worcester College before election as a Labour MP for Southampton Test in 1974. After a stint as a television journalist between 1979 and 1983, he was elected as MP for Dagenham in 1983.
He joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1986, directed Labour’s election campaign in 1987, and contested the Labour Party leadership in 1992.
In 1994, he returned to New Zealand as Vice-Chancellor of Waikato University. He stepped down from the University at the end of 2004.
He is currently a director of Television New Zealand, and chairs the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. He is also Chair of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO. In 2005, he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in 2006 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Waikato.
He and his wife Gillian now live at Ohiwa.
RAY SHARP
Ray Sharp was born in Opotiki in 1950, was educated here, has a Degree in both Economics and Accountancy, and resides in the district with his wife Liz on one of their kiwifruit blocks.
Ray is a very well known and successful Opotiki Businessman who developed skills to form joint-ventures / partnerships in NZ and Australia with many of his accounting clients and he has continued this in recent times with Maori Land kiwifruit joint-ventures. For twenty years he has been involved with another local Charitable Trust, the Opotiki Old Folks Home.
Now retired from his Chartered Accounting Practice, he is able devote more time to his extensive farming, horticultural and community interests.
He was a previous Chairman and Trustee of the Bay of Plenty Community Trust.
Currently, he is the Chairman of Eastpac Ltd, as well as being a Director of other smaller companies.
PETER ANSTIS
Peter Anstis was born in 1949 and belongs to a well established Opotiki farming family. He has spent his entire life in the Opotiki district.
His farming career has seen a shift from dairying to growing kiwifruit. His involvement in the kiwifruit industry went beyond the Farm Gate; the most noteworthy being as a Director of OPAC during a rapid growth phase – most of this time as its Chairman. He has also for 15 years, and still is a Trustee of grower funds and part of its payment and distribution committee.
He and his wife Marnie still run a sizable kiwifruit operation.
Peter has taken the role of Chairman of this Trust.
IAN CRAIG
Ian arrived in Opotiki as a young man after his earlier years in Tamaranui, where he was born in 1948.
He started his career as a sheep farmer but the appeal of the developing kiwifruit industry bought him to the Bay of Plenty and Opotiki in particular. He developed his property and became very interested in the Fruit Packing Industry, eventually setting up OPAC from part of the then recently closed Dairy Factory.
Under his guidance this company grew rapidly, and this saw Ian and his business partner selected as BOP Businessmen of the Year. The travel prize for this resulted in significant investments for OPAC growing fruit off-shore.
Before retiring as Managing Director of OPAC, Ian developed an innovative partnership with Maori Landholders in the Te Kaha region to establish some of the best producing Kiwifruit Orchards in New Zealand.
His off-shore contacts remain strong and he periodically undertakes contract work out of New Zealand.
Barbara Collis
Barbara Collis was born in Winton Southland, raised in Hawkes Bay, and received her Law Degree at Canterbury University. She and her late husband Neil moved to the Wairarapa to farm and market garden, before moving finally with their two children to farm at Kutarere near Opotiki in 1982. In 1983 she commenced the practice of law in Opotiki and 1987 joined Potts and Hodgson Barristers and Solicitors as a partner, and family law, criminal and youth law became her specialty. In 1999 she retired from the partnership to practice on her own account as a barrister in the area of family law, care and protection of children, relationship property and family protection work.
In 2003 she was elected to the Family Law Section of the New Zealand District Law Society, a national body, becoming deputy Chair until standing down in 2007.
Her life time of work with young people and families has now taken her back to a position on the Board of Trustees for Te Kura O Kutarere, the primary school in her local area.
Barbara and Neil’s love of plants and gardens led to their concern for the environment and the restoration of a wetland on their farm on the edge of the Ohiwa Harbour, a model for others living in the area.