Women on Boards Executive Committee

Julie Hardaker FCG FGNZ

Executive committee chair

Julie has first class LLB (Hons) and MMS (Hons) from Waikato University. She is a lawyer, governance professional and the former Mayor of Hamilton from 2010 - 2016. She has practiced law for 25 years and operates her own law firm in Hamilton. Julie is Chair of Orchestras Central Trust, deputy chair of Bay Venues Ltd, board member of Common Good Foundation, Chair of Women on Boards, and former chair of the Environmental Protection Authority. Julie holds other government and private sector board roles and is also a member of Global Women.

Julie has a strong interest in women and leadership and is an advocate for gender equality at all levels. She is passionate about supporting women achieve their governance goals and regularly presents at conferences on governance topics, women in leadership and local government.

AJ Millward

executive committee member

AJ has recently set up her own management consulting business after spending most of her career working in the New Zealand public sector. AJ is a people leader who enjoys working at a system level to develop, set and implement strategy. AJ is an advocate for the application of good governance in any business setting and is especially passionate about women reaching their leadership and governance potential.

Claire Bourne BA

executive committee member

Claire (she|her) is passionate about empowering people and communities. She is co-founder of two community initiatives: one focused on the transition into retirement (Hono Mai) and the other on connecting rural communities (Whenua Whānau).

She is a board member of Graeme Dingle Foundation Canterbury, is Chair of The Period Place, Deputy Chair of St Mark's School and since 2015 Claire has been a mentor through the Big Brothers Big Sisters Foundation.

Claire's achievements include being awarded the HRNZ Volunteer of the Year Award, selected as a Committee for Canterbury future leader, is a Global Women breakthrough leader alumni and was a 2022 Women in Governance Rising Star finalist.

Claire has focused her governance career on boards that make a difference for women and for young people. She brings her culture and capability experience and Te Ao Māori expertise to her board roles and is passionate for enabling tamariki to succeed.

Claire Evans

executive committee member

Claire is an internationally-experienced and recognised corporate lawyer with 20 years experience, having worked in law firms in Christchurch, Sydney and London. Claire is a Partner at PwC Legal and she has built a practice recognised by the Legal500. She specialises in financial services, mergers and acquisitions and corporate contracts.

In addition to her legal work, Claire has a strong interest in governance. She is an independent director for Christchurch City Holdings and previously for Canterbury Linen Services. She is a trustee for Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. Previously, she was an Associate Director on Lyttelton Port Company.

Claire was a recipient of the Emerging Leader, Women on Boards Award in 2018. Claire is passionate about creating opportunities for more women to join Boards.

Jayne Atherton ACG

executive committee member

Jayne Atherton works in board recruitment, assessment and research following a 20-year career as a national news, business and finance journalist and Senior Editor in the UK and New Zealand, working across newspapers and digital. She was also a regular contributor to Sky News, BBC Radio and TV.

Originally from Manchester in the UK, Jayne is passionate about the role of good governance in business success and is excited by the potential for New Zealand to be a world leader in driving high governance standards.

Prabha Ravi QSM, JP

executive committee member

Prabha Ravi is an independent director, management consultant, facilitator, assessor, coach, and a mentor. She sits on various local, national, and international Not- for- Profit boards. She is currently the Co-Chair of Community Governance Aotearoa. She was the establishment chair of the HVDHB Consumer Council for 2.5 years. She is regularly invited as a guest/panel speaker for various conference, events and festivals across NZ and overseas.

In her professional career, she has held many senior management roles in both public and private organisations.

She is the founder, producer, director and choreographer of Natraj School of Dance, a well-established and reputed Indian classical dance school based in Lower Hutt since 1999.

She has been recognised with several national, regional and community awards including the Queen Services Medal by the NZ government in 2017, Hutt City Mayoral Civic Honour Awards for Cultural Affairs and Community Group in 2011 for her contribution to dance and ethnic communities and more recently a special commemoration Award by Indian Newslink at their business awards for leadership qualities and management experience. She was a Finalist for Wellingtonian of the Year Award in 2016 for Education and is a Justice of Peace.

She also has a strong background and experience in community development with a special interest in raising the profile and supporting very talented ethnic women and youth from diverse backgrounds sitting around the board table.

Sophia Sattar

executive committee member

Sophia is a qualified CA with more than 12 years of experience in Finance and Management specializing in the construction industry. Sophia has completed her BBUS and is currently doing her MBA at Massey University. She is also a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Managers NZ and a part of the super-diversity top 100 board-ready members through the Ministry of Ethnic communities.

She believes in consciously crafting our future by deciding what we want to become. She believes we can do this through creativity and by surrounding ourselves with people that can attribute to the skills that we want to acquire. Having a growth mindset encourages women to build grit. She gets motivated by adding value to her workplace, network group, and the wider community. Supporting & Empowering women is her long-term passion. she believes that the ability to learn is not fixed and it can change with your effort.

She is really looking forward to helping people from diverse ethnic backgrounds to bridge the gap of gender inequality in leadership and governance roles.

Tania Te Whenua ACG

executive committee member

Tania Te Whenua BA/LLB ACG (Tūhoe, Whakatōhea) is an Associate Member of Governance New Zealand and a Chartered Governance Professional.

Tania is principal of Te Whenua Law and Consulting, a local government development contributions commissioner, a member of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council Rivers Advisory Body, and a board member of Recreation Aotearoa and Kai Rotorua.

Tania is an advocate for sustainable and inclusive business practice and is co-counsel for the New Zealand Māori Council (Mataatua District) Treaty of Waitangi claim on climate change; and leads the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and New Zealand Public Service Association’s Treaty of Waitangi claims on inequities facing Māori women in employment with a strong focus on leadership and governance inequity.

Tania is also the current lead Māori advisor to the Asia New Zealand Foundation, and the Federation of New Zealand Multicultural Councils, and an associate with Victoria University’s Centre for Continuing Education, leading the Centre’s Māori cultural competency professional development programme for public, private and community sector workers.