Positive outcomes the reward for independent trustee

Being an immigrant and tauiwi, Claire Cilliers didn’t think she would be a likely candidate when Te Āti Hau Trust advertised for an independent trustee.

“I had some Māori friends who encouraged me to apply – in fact, they were tenacious and insisted. But I still didn’t think I would get it, so I was surprised when they offered me the job,” says South African-born Claire, who has now been in the role for more than a year.

Despite her reservations, Claire has embraced the role and, similarly, been embraced by the Trust members – chair Rāwiri Tinirau, Te Tiwha Puketapu, Che Wilson, independent trustee Jonelle Hiroti-Kinane and associate trustee Tukariri Dryden.

“It has been a great experience. They have been very patient with me and I feel incredibly comfortable with them – I feel they have taken me under their wing.

“They are such a great group of people and very supportive, with a strong value system.”

Claire’s fulltime job is as senior business manager (acting) for Te Whatu Ora Whanganui, based at Whanganui Hospital with responsibility for primary and community care. She sees advantages in coming to te ao Māori from the outside.

“The South African worldview is very different to the Kiwi worldview, but the things that are important to Māori are also important to South Africans and there are similarities in the cultures,” she says.

“So I ask a lot of questions. I can ask questions around Māori tikanga that perhaps would be challenging for Kiwis to ask. I can offer new ideas and different ways of thinking, and my fellow trustees have been very open to this.

“And this experience has helped me grow as an individual and as someone in a governance role. I am taking a lot of lessons from it.”

Te Āti Hau Trust is the philanthropic arm of Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation and its mission is to help shareholders and their whānau, kaumātua, tamariki and mokopuna pursue their aspirations and goals.

This is done through distributing grants and scholarships. Claire who has worked across business transformation, strategy, financial procurement and service design provides a commercial perspective on the Trust’s operations.

“The ethos of the Trust is social, but it has to be run commercially to be stable and we have a 10-year strategy to ensure it remains sustainable.

“The work is very rewarding. We assess and approve grants and scholarships in areas such as education, sport and trades, and the calibre of people coming through is phenomenal.

“It is great to see people bettering themselves, and that is why I enjoy it so – everything done by the Trust has a positive outcome.”