Meet the MEA Team

As the Kaiarataki for MEA, Holly says her main skills are connecting and being able to have conversations with people, with communications, details, budgeting and project management contributing to her role.  She hopes that her position will help make life easier for people and connect them to what they need and would love to see MEA build an ecosystem business which would help indigenous people worldwide live full, healthy and meaningful lives.

Growing up on the North Shore of Auckland from the age of seven, she says most of her time was spent along the coast lines playing in the rock pools, preferring sports and adventures over the school work. Further down the track, she says she was getting ‘itchy feet’ while studying for an event management degree, so found an internship which evolved into a five year long career as a senior event producer for high end luxury brands and private events. From there she moved to another company and produced events for Heineken, Tiffany & Co., Moet and other high end businesses, then headed to Melbourne where she worked for OOH media. Missing her family, she moved back to New Zealand just before the COVID-19 pandemic, and says events ‘went out the window,’ however with the skills developed from nine years in the event industry, she stepped easily into management and communications.

Born in Opotiki, Te Rima affiliates to the Mataatua waka, Mākeo maunga, Waiaua Marae, Whakatōhea iwi and Ngāti Patumoana hapū.  She says her upbringing is something she really values in her life as she was brought up very closely with both sets of her tīpuna in Opotiki and Maraenui, just 30 minutes away.  Moving to Rotorua aged five her family would spend every holiday with the grandparents for about two weeks. She was fortunate enough to still be around Te Ao Māori, attending Rotorua Primary, which was immersion.  Avid fishers and beach lovers, her family would attend fishing competitions every year and the first competition after her koro passed she won, which is a memory she holds very close. 

Moving to Hamilton after her high school years to pursue tertiary education, she graduated with a Bachelor of Business degree.  Having no prior work experience she says it was hard to get employment so enrolled in a digital doers course with Manaaki which led on to internships, and was referred to Kaye Maree via a friend and joined the MEA waka.

“Ko Tāinui te waka, ko Wāipa te awa, ko Pīrongia te māunga.  Ko Ngāti Maniapoto rāua ko Ngāti Mahuta ngā iwi, ko Ngāti Apikura te hapū.”

Rachel currently resides in Christchurch and has lived there most of her adult life, after being raised in Feilding.

She has always loved to read and write and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Media Studies and Communication at Massey University in Palmerston North then moved to Christchurch studying introductory journalism at Aōraki Polytech and then a Graduate Diploma in Journalism at the University of Canterbury where she also worked part time for Newstalk ZB.  Following intense years of study and a short stint fruit-picking in Hastings she worked as the general, health and Māori reporter for Hawkes Bay Today then returned to Feilding when pregnant with her firstborn son and worked as an advertising features writer for the Manawatu Standard and the Guardian.  She has also worked as an assistance editor for a parenting publication and as a feature writer.

Grace describes her role as ‘always in development,’ but she says the best words to describe it would be Operations Assistant or Executive Administrator. “I believe my strong language skills, strong experience in the customer service industry and my ongoing interest and understanding of English and grammar helps me to succeed.”

The youngest of five, Grace was born in East Anglia, England and moved to Auckland aged seven.  She was raised in Devonport on the North Shore and had a strong passion in the arts, design and English, completing a Bachelor of Design majoring in Photography at the Auckland University of Technology.  After graduating University she embarked on a solo 'one way trip' on a whim when she saw an ad for cheap flights to the USA. What initially was supposed to be a maximum three month trip in the States ended up being an almost three year adventure covering the USA, Canada, a number of European locations and Australia, plus nine months back in the UK.

Administration specialist Kris was born in the Middle East to her Filipino parents and raised with her younger brother on a farm near the mountains in the Philippines by their mother when they were school-age. Their father continued working abroad until 2018, while her mother worked as a nurse in a local hospital.

Kris, an independent thinker, was passionate about the arts and the environment at a very young age. "I knew back then that I wanted a career that would create a positive impact but would still provide the freedom to express myself and the opportunity to explore the world. My biggest dream was to work for Discovery Channel. So I pursued a degree in Development Communication at the University of the Philippines, which I fondly think of as my second home," she says.

Before joining MEA, Kris worked as an administrator in a corporate setting for six years, travelling abroad for business trips and making some of her best friends on the way. The path wasn't what she envisioned when she was younger, although she found purpose in being assigned to help lessen the company's environmental impact. She also worked in the government sector that promotes science and technology a year later.