Authors

Former "Board" staff, authors Ali Spencer and Mick Calder spent a combined 78 years working in and alongside the New Zealand red meat sector witnessing the New Zealand red meat sector's evolution. Spencer went on to become a PR consultant in the UK/Europe and New Zealand and a writer and editor. Co-author of Meat Acts, Calder became secretary of the North-America based New Zealand co-operative the New Zealand Lamb Company.

Constanze Spengler is an author and illustrator living in Hamburg, Germany.Katja Gehrmann writes and illustrates children’s books. She studied illustration in Mexico, Spain and Hamburg, Germany, where she now lives.

No biography

No biography

In a former life, Olivia Spooner worked as a Community and Hospital Pharmacist in Auckland, Wellington and London. As a health professional, she met many people from all walks of life, and discovered that listening to a patient or caregiver's story is one of the most powerful medicines anyone can prescribe. For the past fifteen years, she has pursued her passion for writing alongside raising three children and running her own business. Luckily, as owner-operator of gorgeous independent bookstore, The Booklover, she's able to indulge in her love of books and reading, and still carve out time to write.

Distinguished Professor Paul Spoonley is one of New Zealands leading academics and a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Aparangi. He has led numerous externally funded research programmes, has has written or edited 25 books and is a regular commentator in the news media. In 2010, he was a Fulbright SeniorScholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 2013, a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Goettingen. He was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand Science and Technology medal in 2009 in recognition of his academic scholarship, leadership and public contribution to cultural understanding and in 2011, his contribution to Sociology was acknowledged with the Sociological Association of Aotearoa New Zealands scholarship for exceptional service to New Zealand sociology.

Sylvan Spring is a Pākehā writer and occasional music-maker who has spent most of their life in Te Whanganui-ā-Tara. Their work has appeared in The Spinoff, Turbine Kapohau, Sweet Mammalian, Stasis, Peach Mag and Bad Apple.

Robyn Spurdle married into William Akerman’s branch, and ever since discovering the family tree that had been created for the 1942 reunion has been immersed in researching the family’s history. Building a Future is a far cry from the sixth form accounting guides Robyn is known for, however, it is her third genealogy book — Spurdle Heritage and Milling the Family Tree being the other two. Julie Daymond-King is a great-great-granddaughter of William Akerman, and from birth was brought up with the 1942 family tree. Most of her career was spent in science administration and education governance, but her interest in family history led her to compile the database of New Zealanders mentioned in the NZ Woman’s Weekly, issues 1932 to 1959, for the New Zealand Index, The Knowledge Basket.

Ian St George is a semiretired doctor, rugby enthusiast and amateur historian. His uncle married Cliff Porter’s niece.

Wendy St George has worked as a graphic designer, photographer and scanning electron microscope technician. Now, with her partner Stephen Woollett, she owns and operates a boarding kennel and cattery in the South Island of New Zealand.

Gareth St John Thomas is the founder and CEO of Exisle Publishing where his mission is to bring books into the world from voices that otherwise wouldn’t have been heard, and to give readers something with heart. His other books include Finding True Connections and Grandpa’s Noises.

Gareth St John Thomas is the founder and CEO of Exisle Publishing where his mission is to bring books into the world from voices that otherwise wouldn’t have been heard, and to give readers something with heart. His other books include Finding True Connections and Grandpa’s Noises.