Speakers

Caroline Bilkey took up the role of Director Auckland Office in June 2018.
She was New Zealand’s Ambassador to Brazil and Suriname from 2015 until May 2018
and High Commissioner to Samoa from 2007-2010.
Caroline has also had postings in Bangkok and Geneva and has worked for the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Rwanda and Tanzania. She also worked at
the New Zealand Embassy in Washington as Director of Congressional Relations.
Early in her career, Caroline spent a year seconded to the Australian Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra. She has been Chief of Protocol and has worked on
a range of international legal issues in the course of her career as well as on political and
economic relations with a number of New Zealand’s bilateral partners. 
Caroline has bachelor degrees in law and political science from the University of
Auckland and a Master of Management degree from the Sasin Graduate Institute at
Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

Founded in 2014 by fashion designer and entrepreneur Annah Stretton, RAW was set up to help break New Zealand’s ever-growing cycle of intergenerational offending, educational underachievement, persistent poverty and violence for a group of disadvantaged women.  Through inclusion, community and opportunity, RAW is building hope, purpose and prosperity one woman at a time.  We are creating mana wahine.

Jo is a barrister of Ngati Tuwharetoa and Te Arawa descent and has practised criminal law for more than 20 years. She works and resides in the central city. She interacts with the homeless every day and has represented homeless people in court over the years. Jo brings her determination, persistence and compassion to the Night Emergency Shelter Trust project.