Ngaire Te Ahu, MBA

Teenaa koutou. He uri ahau no Waikato Tainui Ngaati Hauaa me Ngaa Puhi nui tonu, Te Mahurehure me Ngaati Hine. Kei Morrinsville ahau e noho ana, kei Morrinsville ahau e mahi ana. I'm blessed to live and work in my community working alongside my iwi and the wider community.

My whaanau, whakapapa and community are what drives me as a wife, mum to seven tamariki and nanny to ten mokopuna, nieces and nephews. They are my why I am passionate about the things that I do and are committed to. I want their future to be full of potential, possibilities and their world a better space and place to live in.

My early years and career were spent working for Corrections as an administrator and a Periodic Detention work party supervisor in Hamilton and Auckland. In 2005 I was employed by Te Ahurei a Rangatahi (TAaR), a Hamilton based Maaori NGO with a focus on youth health. I work under the Ministry of Health ‘Community Action for Youth and Drugs’ (CAYAD) contract. CAYAD’s role is to support community in creating positive environments for youth, as a strategic approach to reducing youth alcohol or other drugs (AoD) related harm.

I am passionate about governance and have nineteen years’ experience being a trustee on Maaori land/farm trusts, marae, the not-for-profit sector, kura kaupapa, mainstream College, and Te Whatu Ora Waikato. My aspiration for the future is to see communities, government agencies, and service providers collaborating to support local community-led solutions to address the underlying determinants of health through building local capacity to address the community needs. Mauri ora!

Email: N.TeAhu@massey.ac.nz