Trust Services

Merle Boniface
Chief Operating Officer

Merle is the Chief Operating Officer and Board Secretary for the Trust Board with responsibility for all commercial and support operations across the Saint Kentigern organisation, including Planning, Finance, ICT, Marketing and Communication, Human Resources, Facilities Management, Major Property Projects and Risk Management. She brings significant strategic business and senior leadership experience to the role gained in the Finance, Education and Small Business Development sectors.

Merle has successfully turned around a University Business School, supported large corporates to implement best practise, advised business owners and played a key role in the merger of two banks. She has led large teams through periods of transformation and most recently, worked as Director of Business and Planning at another large independent school, during which time she led the transformation of the Campus with the implementation of a significant Master Plan.

Merle has made a significant contribution to the wider independent education sector holding executive positions as President of ASBA NZ Inc, member of the ISNZ executive and Chairman of ASBA Ltd. Her contribution to the sector was recognised through national awards received in both New Zealand and Australia.

Merle is well qualified for this role with two Business degrees from the University of South Africa, leadership programmes completed at Harvard Business School and Mount Eliza Business School and a Banking qualification. She has also completed the Certificate of Company Direction through the NZ Institute of Directors and the Certificate in Governance and Risk Management through the Governance Institute of Australia / CSA.

Colin Bowring
Major Projects Manager

Colin has had over 30 years’ experience in property development, project and property management in both the UK and in NZ. He has also enjoyed hands-on roles in property development, building design & construction, property asset and maintenance management for a range of organisations with varying property portfolios.

Over the last eleven years he worked for the Selwyn Foundation, a retirement village operator, initially as Development Manager and subsequently as General Manager Property. He led the property development and strategic asset management activities of the organisation across a number of Villages located on the North Island.

Kay Forrester
Strategic Marketing Manager

Before moving to Saint Kentigern Kay held senior advertising, marketing management and general management roles, both overseas and in New Zealand. These were in a range of commercial and public-sector companies, most recently as General Manager of The Brand Group and prior to that as Acting Group Manager of Auckland City Libraries.

Her responsibilities at Saint Kentigern are to develop and implement the organisational marketing strategy and plans at both Trust level and for all four schools, that enhance the Saint Kentigern reputation, engender positive engagement with the community and increase the roll of each of the schools. Kay also provides strategic marketing advice to Saint Kentigern’s senior leaders and managers.

Brígida Orioli Figueira
Information Systems Product Owner

As the Information Systems Product Owner, Brígida is responsible for driving the optimisation and enhancement of Saint Kentigern’s core systems, with a primary focus on Learning & Teaching technologies.  

Brígida has a background in education and learning technologies and has led the implementation of multiple Learning Management Systems. At University of Auckland, she held a key role, leading a team involved with the implementation and utilisation of their Canvas Learning Management System and working across faculties to support Learning & Teaching using technologies.

Brígida began her career as a science teacher, before progressing her academic studies and being awarded a PhD in Geology at the University of Auckland. Brígida is passionate about education and the role that technology can play to support students’ engagement and success.

Walter Chieng
Director ICT

Walter has fulfilled a range of roles during his tenure at Saint Kentigern. With a BSC and Grad Diploma in Operations Research his roles have included teaching, leading the Cisco Networking Academy programme, spearheading the one device per student programme from its inception in the late nineties and being responsible for the organisation’s ICT systems and infrastructure development. He maintains strategic partnerships with ICT vendors and suppliers to support the ICT services for students, staff and parents across all Saint Kentigern schools.

Stephen Ralph
Health and Safety Manager

Arriving from the UK in 1997, Steve initially joined Opunake High School as Head of Faculty for PE, Health and Outdoor Education before moving onto become Deputy Principal and Acting Principal in the establishment of a new Area School.

He subsequently became the Director of the Taranaki Regional Outdoor Centre, where he had responsibility for modernising and developing capabilities in curriculum, programmes, health and safety, finance and operational culture. The Centre recently achieved Private Training Establishment status through NZQA and is a pilot organisation for the 3+2 vocational pathways initiative.

In recent years, Steve has started a consultancy business focussing on Health and Safety, and Quality Assurance. Clients have included regional sports trusts, NZSSC, sports clubs and associations as well as businesses in the agriculture, construction and service sectors. As a lead auditor, Steve has had the opportunity to work with many organisations to identify areas for improvement and work with them to achieve practical, common sense solutions within legislative requirements.

Steve is well qualified for this role with a B.Ed ( Hons ) degree from the university of Exeter in the UK, a diploma in Occupational Health and Safety from the SIT, Nebosh IGC, ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor status, and numerous high level outdoor Instructing, coaching and guiding qualifications in climbing, rafting, tramping amongst many others.

Richard Lindroos
Director of Development

Richard is the Director of Development with responsibility for driving the Fundraising Plan across the Saint Kentigern organisation; this includes commercial sponsorship, fundraising and building of a culture of philanthropy. Specifically, he will develop a strategy and plan for the Pakuranga Campus. He brings significant senior leadership experience and networks to the role gained in commercial business across charity, corporate, media, education and government industry sectors.

He has worked as General Manager for over 20 years in successful private businesses, as well as global sport management organisations including FIFA, IMG and mostly recently as the NZ Manager for Supercars. He has consulted to many organisations including the Heart Foundation, AUT, Nike, University Sport NZ, Auckland Council, Sport NZ, and Challenge Petroleum Independent Dealer Group.

Justin Browne
Property Manager

Justin is the Property Manager at Saint Kentigern. He is responsible for managing the Property Portfolio and Facilities for the Pakuranga Road and Shore Road campuses. He has over 25 years’ experience in commercial/retail, education, and residential property sectors, both locally and internationally. He has previously held roles at Seattle Coffee Company, Starbuck UK Limited, Diocesan School for Girls and Saint Cuthbert’s College.

Renee Roberts
People and Culture Manager

Over the past 20 years Reneé has occupied roles which emphasise organisational design, training and development, change management, operations, employment and industrial relations and more recently, strategic and leadership support in Human Resources. She has worked across a variety of industries in the private and public sector, within large human resource teams in complex multi-faceted environments, as well as ‘sole charge’ smaller start up roles. The experiences in each of these environments have shaped Renee as a dedicated practitioner and have prepared her for her role at Saint Kentigern. She aspires to lift staff engagement and capability through the provision of HR infrastructure and support through organisational design, systems, policy and practice.

Sumeet Bhanot
Finance Director

Sumeet is the Finance Director at Saint Kentigern. He is responsible for managing the Finance division and overseeing the operations of the Uniform Shop and College Café. Prior to this role Sumeet was Head of Finance at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, an organisation he worked for close to 10 years. He had previously held senior finance roles at Innova Products, Healthscope, Air New Zealand and Auckland Airport. Sumeet’s experience spans across many industries including Healthcare, Aviation, Travel & Tourism, Infrastructure, Education and Manufacturing. 

 Sumeet is a Chartered Accountant with an MBA from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He brings with him a wealth of Finance and Commercial experience, and a solid understanding of, and background in, process improvements, system implementation, construction projects and fundraising.