The Royal New Zealand Ballet will welcome three new members to its Board in the New Year.

Auckland-based Candis Craven CNZM, who joined the Board in January 2012 and served as Chair from 2012 – 16, and Christchurch-based Ros Burdon CNZM, who joined the Board in August 2012, will both conclude their terms as Trustees at the end of 2018.

‘I would like to thank Candis and Ros for their service, their dedication and the knowledge and enthusiasm that they have brought to their roles’, says RNZB Chair Steven Fyfe. ‘I am also pleased to welcome our new Trustees, and look forward to working alongside them in the future.’

John Avery (Auckland), Mary Slater (Wellington / Waikato) and Katrina Todd ONZM (Auckland) will join the RNZB Board in January.

John Avery returns to the RNZB Board having served as a Trustee in the 1990s. He was previously Managing Partner then Chair of Hesketh Henry and has been a director of a number of companies and organisations including The Warehouse Group and Regional Facilities Auckland. He is currently an independent director of Strategic Pay Limited and the New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency, and is (until May 2019) a Trustee of the New Zealand School of Dance.

Mary Slater has a 15 year background in government work and prior to that worked in public sector unions. She is passionate about supporting the RNZB’s contribution to New Zealand’s cultural life. Mary is a member of the Institute of Directors and holds several not-for-profit and government agency board roles including the Institute of Public Administration of New Zealand, and the Project Board for the Parliamentary Counsel’s Access Project. She is the Executive Chair of Oranga Tamariki’s Chief Executive’s Complaints Advisory Panel.

Katrina Todd ONZM lives in Auckland and is an active donor and contributor to the RNZB and the wider dance sector. She trained at the New Zealand School of Dance and The Royal Ballet School in London and had a ten year international dance career before returning to New Zealand in 1990. She was part of the faculty for the BA Performing Arts Degree at Unitec for 16 years and is now Director of Wellesley Studios Dance House, which provides space and opportunities for the professional dance sector and wider community in Auckland. She was a Board member for The New Zealand Dance Company (NZDAT) from 2012 – 2017 and is currently a Trustee of the New Zealand School of Dance. Brief biographies of all current Trustees may be found here. Future vacancies will be advertised via rnzb.org.nz.