Services

Elevator Group Board

Altus Enterprises is a subsidiary of the Elevator Group. The Elevator group is an incorporated society and registered charity. The board of the Elevator group are responsible for the governance and performance of Altus Enterprises

Tricia Fitzgerald – Chair

Tricia has been the Director of Fitzgerald & Associates for the past fifteen years, providing management support to a wide range of community and government services, largely in the area of disability. Her core activities include organisational reviews, strategic and business planning, governance development, facilitation and project management. Prior to this, she worked in service design and management for people with intellectual disability. Completing an MBA in 1989, she then worked for Government developing and implementing funding policies within the sector, and then undertook the role of Chief Executive for the Deaf Association of New Zealand for six years. Tricia is currently undertaking a PhD in Business at the University of Auckland around the development of social enterprises, like the Elevator Group. She is also an Associate Fellow of the NZ Institute of Management.

She has been a member of the Elevator board since 2001, and has supported both the growth in supported employment we provide as well as continuing the option of direct employment of disabled people. She says “disabled people need to be seen as a market where they choose their service, rather being told what is good for them. Getting real choice in the system is still my aim”.

Her interests include keeping up with friends and family, great books, gardening and yoga.

Charles Tapper – Deputy Chair

Charles has spent most of his career providing financial advisory services to corporate clients, including 12 years as a partner in a “Big 5” accounting firm in Canada, where his strong strategic, financial, valuation, negotiation and problem solving skills assisted clients enhance shareholder value.

Charles provides strategic financial management services including business valuations, performance improvement, cash flow management, exit strategies, acquisitions and divestitures and capital raisings. Charles has a diverse range of financial and project management skills and experience in handling complex situations, which require timely solutions.

In his spare time Charles is a keen fisherman and loves nothing more than to get out in his boat.

Mary Schnackenberg

Mary Schnackenberg trained as a librarian and spent most of her career at the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. She ran the braille and talking book production and library service providing thousands of blind and low vision New Zealanders with books and magazines. In 2008 she left the Foundation to set up her own disability consulting company. Mary has travelled overseas for her work at the Foundation and since then for the International Council on English Braille of which she is the president. She serves on the Project Management Committee of the Convention coalition which is monitoring New Zealand's implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

She is also on the Board of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Mary enjoys reading, music, live theatre and films (especially when they are audio described) and talking with people who have challenging ideas.

Geoff Walker

Geoff has been a chartered accountant in public practice for over 25 years. He deals with financing, structuring, business development, financial reporting, management accounting, ownership transition, and private wealth affairs. Geoff’s past work also includes a significant amount of audit and insolvency work.
Geoff feels that his board position is an opportunity to contribute to the direction of a service which is vital to the lives many disabled Aucklanders. He was always impressed by the dedicated professionalism of the etam staff and the care taken of our employees and clients, and the great response they have to that service. These are great people to work with.

Geoff I enjoy time with family, friends, reading, running, and wine. Alphabetic order is a coincidence.

Heather Tait –Collins

Heather Heather Tait is currently the NZ Sales & Marketing Manager for Living Earth, New Zealand’s largest re-cycler of organic waste materials into compost and other growing mixes. Heather has recently overseen the re-branding and re-packaging of Living Earth to a more contemporary look and last year Living Earth’s packaging won Gold and was named ‘Best of the Best’ at the 2012 NZ Design Awards.

Heather has had a life-long interest in gardening and has owned a garden centre for over 12 years, following 12 years in the banking sector. She is a regular contributor to NZ Gardener Magazine and an occasional gardening presenter with TVNZ.

She believes that becoming a Director of Elevator Group enables her to contribute to an organization dedicated to offering disabled Aucklanders opportunities for employment. She is keen to see Elevator’s profile enhanced in the corporate sector, leading to more companies using services provided by the Group.

Heta Hudson

Heta Heta works for WHK Group Limited ('WHK'). He is a Principal of the Business Performance team, and works with a breadth of businesses ranging from iwi organisations to SME's (small-to-medium-sized businesses).

AT WHK part of his role is to provide sound business advice to ensure clients make informed business decisions and remove the 'guess work'. With an emphasis on helping businesses and organisations make the right decisions at the right time, his approach is focused on ensuring he delivers value for business owners and decision makers.

Heta brings expertise in the areas of Maori business development, business planning, feasibility planning and strategic plans.

Rachael LeMesuier

Rachael is a versatile, effective and respected professional with over 25 years of experience in governance, management and leadership roles in community and public sector environments.
Her particular skills are derived from both governance and operational involvement in delivering organisational innovation, leading challenging change processes, and achieving significant progress against strategic goals.

Rachael’s many years of work in not-for-profit and non government organisations, both as the CEO/ED and as a Board/Committee member, have built significant skills in governance tasks and a broad knowledge of the attributes of effective governance and operational relationships.

She also has the ability to assess, implement and progress commitment to different models of organisational relationships with Mâori, and Te Tiriti O Waitangi has been acknowledged by Rangatira and Mana Whenua stakeholders as effective, respectful and undertaken with integrity.

Phone 09 275 2074