Speakers

Melody started out as a journalist graduating in 1996 from the Wellington journalism school. She has worked for nearly every media company in New Zealand, most regularly SKY Television where she covered and hosted three rugby world cups, 14 years of Super Rugby and Mitre 10 Cup, women's rugby world cup in Ireland, two netball world cups and the ANZ championship, Rio Olympics and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. She has also been a freelancer for World Rugby as a commentator. In 2018 she completed her MBA and consulted for two New Zealand companies. She has recently formed The Wonderful Group to encourage more diverse, more empowered women in sport media.

Christine is the Executive Director of Osteoporosis New Zealand.

After graduating from Massey University with a BSC (Biochem), Christine started her career as a member of the Connective Tissue Research Group, Department of Surgery, at Auckland University’s School of Medicine.

Following some years gathering experience in the infant nutritional and pharmaceutical sectors, Christine held the position of General Manager of Horleys where she and her team developed a number of nutritional products targeting specific demographics within the market.

For the past decade Christine has co-founded Flavorjen – a company providing innovation through the incorporation of specialised ingredients into the food and beverage manufacturing sector.

Iris Schmidbauer has hurled herself off high places all over the world while competing on the Red Bull Cliff Diving circuit — and is one of just three women who can do a back triple somersault with double twist from 20m.

But it’s not just the height factor that Iris has to get over when she competes, with divers like herself also hitting the water at about 80km/h.

Iris came to New Zealand on a well-earned holiday at the end of last year's competition but thanks to Covid-19 has been training here ever since.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, though, with the self-taught cliff diver using the chance to brush up on the basics, even if it is in two parts from the 10-metre platform.

The 2020 season's events were cancelled, which means the 25-year-old spent the whole year in New Zealand. But she’s hoping to stay longer after applying for a talent visa.

 

Janine Stewart is a specialist construction, property and projects lawyer. She acts on the full spectrum of construction projects and property disputes. She is the division lead of the MinterEllisonRuddWatts Construction Division.

She was the winner of Auckland Resene Women in Property award in 2017, ranked as Tier 2 in Construction in 2019 Chambers directory and as a ‘leading individual’ in Legal 500, she is actively engaged in thought leadership on issues impacting the property and construction industries and is also a regular contributer to a number of publications and presents widely on complex construction and property issues.

She is also the Chair of Mercy Ships New Zealand (MSNZ)  a registered charity in New Zealand which exists to support the work of Mercy Ships International. Linked through an Association Agreement, Mercy Ships New Zealand is involved in fundraising for various projects carried out by Mercy Ships International including recruiting crew for the Mercy Ships vessel and promoting the work of Mercy Ships.

LAST YEAR MERCY SHIPS NEW ZEALAND RAISED OVER $1.226 MILLION AND 39 KIWI CREW VOLUNTEERED

Mercy Ships New Zealand Auckland-based and governed by a voluntary Board of Trustees,  which meet four times a year. The principal roles of the board with regard to the overall Mercy Ships mission are to provide policy leadership and to oversee the operations of MSNZ