Our people
The Saint Nicholas Children's Trust is governed by a voluntary Board of Trustees who meet throughout the year. Our Board provides strategic leadership and ensures that our activities remain effective and consistent with our mission.
Our Trustees
Angela Francis
Founder and Chair
Angela Francis is a health management consultant and Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Services Management.
Angela is also the founder of The Trust. Preventing child sexual exploitation through raising awareness has been a passion of hers for many years. She has travelled extensively to conduct informal research and shares her findings through presenting case studies conducted whilst she was overseas.
In her spare time Angela enjoys, bike riding and walking along the beach with friends including frequenting local cafes for good food and coffee.
Adrienne Hill
Adrienne has a background in communications, hospitality, and human resources. She currently lives in Christchurch with her husband and is a mother and grandmother to two adult children, two adult grandchildren and a 10-year-old grandchild.
Adrienne has lived and travelled extensively throughout Asia and Fiji, giving the work of the St Nicholas Children’s Trust a special significance for her. In 2014, Adrienne walked the Camino from Jean Pied du Port in France across Northern Spain to Santiago De Compostela. This was a time of reflection on the past and a look to the future to contemplate how she might contribute in her community.
She likes to unwind through time with family, travel, reading, socialising over coffee and wine.
Hemon Dey
Hemon is an experienced electronics design engineer who specialises in both software and hardware development for client projects. He lives in the picturesque Motueka Valley with his wife, Katie, whom he met over 25 years ago through Latin ballroom dancing. Together, they have two remarkable teenagers who are homeschooled. His eldest is aspiring to become an engineer and the other is pursuing a career in architecture.
Hemon and his family are actively involved in their local church, contributing musically as a family group for over a decade. They reside in a custom-designed passive solar house and are passionate about contemporary global issues, including climate change and unsustainable resource extraction.
Ross Abernethy
Ross is a Tauranga-based lawyer, a father of four children with his wife Kay and is passionate about raising awareness of child sexual exploitation.
Ross has a long history of working with not-for-profit organisations and church-based charities. As a lawyer he has a particular desire to provide a voice for those who are not otherwise heard. His charitable endeavours have taken him to Mongolia where he helped to establish a community banking system, and in earlier years to Mount Everest where he assisted in a clean-up of Base Camp.
Ross is the Chair of New Zealand’s most significant art and pottery centre Driving Creek Railway and Pottery in Coromandel which is fully self-supported by its own tourism business. He recently retired from the board of CBM (which raises funds to enable the poorest of the poor to have medical treatment).
In his spare time Ross rides motorbikes with friends, sails a large catamaran, and is active in the Bay of Plenty community.
Our Team
Laura Grevatt
Secretary/Executive Assistant
Laura is a highly experienced Auckland-based administration professional. She has a wealth of experience in executive/governance administration support roles within the local government and not-for-profit sectors.
She lives in Auckland, with her husband Matt and beautiful little toddler. In her spare time, Laura enjoys reading, home making, gardening, interior design and catching up with friends at local cafes.
Acknowledgements
We would also like to take this chance to thank those who have contributed to the success of The Trust, including:
- Simon Owen for designing our website
- Hannah Kronast for supporting with our communications
- Matt Jenke for filming our launch and providing coverage and photos of the event.