Our presenters

Monique is Dutch and moved to NZ eight years ago with her family of teenagers and doggy.  She has a background in psychology, working with adults with ADHS and ASD, and has a passion for creative mindfulness, colouring, zentangle®, crochet and running her own Easy Now mindfulness business.

Making it easy for people to increase their wellbeing in a practical and down-to-earth way is hugely rewarding for her.

In her teaching, Monique aims to make a happy space for all students to thrive and reach their goals. She has a NZ Adult Teaching diploma and has been teaching her own mindfulness, crochet, creative mindfulness course for over 6 years.

She facilitates a monthly colouring session for adults at her local community centre and also volunteers where she can, as "giving back to the community creates happiness!".

Monique loves to spend time with her family and walk her dog and winds down in the evening with her crochet.

Find her zentangle and crochet on the website, https://www.instagram.com/easynowmindfulness/?hl=en and Facebook page.

Paul and Mary-Ellen Gadd have a long history in Financial Advisory Services. 

Mary-Ellen has a Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning and Business Studies.  She has run training sessions throughout New Zealand, and currently teaches other financial mentors through FinCap.  She was also a lecturer at Victoria University while working towards her PHD.

Paul was a Global Partner at one of the top global Accounting and Consulting Firms, and has taught and lectured both locally and overseas. Paul has also taught at Victoria University.

 They both now give their time and experience to others through volunteering and teaching.  Mary-Ellen is a volunteer Financial Mentor – helping individuals and families through their financial difficulties.  Paul is a volunteer Business Mentor – helping small to medium sized businesses. 

They continue to run their own businesses and manage their own investment portfolio.

They both managed to retire before they were 45, and enjoy helping others increase their financial literacy, enabling them to also plan for, and enjoy their retirement.

 Disclaimer:  The tutors are not financial advisors.  No investments, products nor specific recommendations will be provided.  A step by step planning process will be taught by working through a case study.   Any product names or websites used in examples and explanations to help participants understand financial concepts and the planning process are used for clarity only. They are not given as any type of recommendation.

Full-time ceramic artist for 9 years, Peter has been teaching pottery courses for the past four years.  His practice tends towards architectural and geometric forms, and his work is represented by Mitchell Studios, Khandallah and Artspace in Petone.

Poppy has a background in recruitment, marketing, and teaching. Being a contractor herself, she is actively involved in the recruiting market and always has her finger on the pulse of the candidate market.

 In her career mentoring, Poppy uses an approach of empowering candidates, and effectively demonstrates how to ‘put yourself in the recruiters’ shoes.’ This technique saw her set up over 300 graduating students for career success.

 Her qualifications include a Masters degree in Political Science, and a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Political Science and International Relations. She currently works in the public sector in a project coordination and management role, and identifies her top three skills as relationship management, networking, and match-making candidates to their suitable roles.

Although the son of a beekeeper, Richard only took up beekeeping when he inherited some beehives, started tidying them up and and got hooked. A hobbyist beekeeper now for nearly 20 years, Richard still has beehives in his backyard and still finds bees fascinating.

An adult educator by profession, Richard is Past President of the Wellington Bee Club.  His other interests include maintaining a suburban garden and enjoying walks in the bush.

Richard (Ricki) Pointon was adopted by his grandparents and became Deaf at the age of 2 years old through an allergy reaction to penicillin.  In spite of him being Deaf, his parents nurtured him into a well-loved child who grew up to be well-known in the Deaf Community.  Ricki is a natural, articulate and fluent New Zealand Sign Language user. 

In theory, Ricki still has to complete his Deaf Studies Teaching NZSL course at Victoria University and is currently doing his practical teaching in parallel to what he is studying.  His wife Karen who is a qualified NZSL Teacher and employed at WHS CEC is mentoring him.

Ricki understands American Sign Language (ASL) which has excellent video resources and signers to support his understanding of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.  Ricki's knowledge and understanding of the scriptures in the Bible helps to re-translate ASL context into NZSL with an aim of sharing the Good News and support Deaf people to have an opportunity to access signed Bible video literature in their own language.

Ricki is currently a NZSL Tutor supporting the delivery of sign language classes NZSL 1A and 1B at the CEC. His masterful demeanor and empathetic approach make students feel at ease and enjoy learning in a safe, Deaf-friendly atmosphere within the classroom.

Ricki's aim is to support students from all walks of life and learn the true language of the Deaf community.  Teaching NZSL makes him feel satisfied to see student's faces light up in the classroom and just have fun! 

I have a background in art, biodiversity conservation, and science.

Papermaking meshes these interests with my passion for communication and hands-on making. I have been providing papermaking workshops around the greater Wellington Region since 2015 while also developing a papermaking business (Paperscape) which helps support biodiversity conservation through the sympathetic management and harvesting of plant material.

Paperscape is a small batch paper mill located on the Kāpiti Coast. We make our pulp from New Zealand native plants such as harakeke (flax), tī kōuka (cabbage tree) and raupō (bulrush). We carefully select our raw materials to create positive environmental outcomes, and the key principles that guide our production process are efficient resource use and responsible waste management

Rod Gibson is an A Grade Technician with many years’ experience in the Automotive industry.  He started as an apprentice in Wanganui at a BMC dealership before moving to Wellington to work for a Ford/Mazda dealership and stayed there many years gaining valuable experience.  

Following this, he went to a private garage for a year then to Toyota and Stevens Motors Ford/Mazda in Lower Hutt, where he was a senior Technician and helps control the workshops.  Over the years he has specialised in Automatic Transmissions overhaul and repair.

"The reason I’ve developed this course is for people to get to know their vehicles and become familiar with them and to carry out certain repairs and maintenance.  If you know nothing about cars at all, that’s great, you soon will".

Sara Dore is an experienced post graduate trained physiotherapist with over 25 years of clinical experience. She is the director of Empower Physio and Pilates which has been operating on the Kapiti Coast since 2003. She has been involved in the teaching and training of physiotherapists in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore since 2006 as a Senior Presenter for DMA Clinical Pilates.  

Sara completed her Diploma in Manipulative Therapy in 1994 and Post Graduate Diploma (Rehabilitation) in 2012. She is a certified DMA Clinical Pilates clinician who began her Clinical Pilates training in 2002 through Dance Medicine Australia (Melbourne) and is one of the most experienced DMA Clinical Pilates physiotherapists in New Zealand. Sara is credentialed in the McKenzie method of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT) which she gained in 2016. She has been a certified BradCliff physiotherapist since 2009 and helps clients on the Kapiti Coast to manage breathing pattern disorders. She is also a pelvic health physiotherapist, having completed the training and certification with Dr Melissa Davidson. She has completed numerous pelvic health courses over the years. Sara continues her education attending conferences and other physiotherapy courses in NZ and overseas.

Sara is passionate about physiotherapy, clinical pilates, pelvic health physiotherapy and breathing retraining exploring the benefits that it can provide to everyone.