Social Investment in Community Housing: moving beyond traditional grantmaking
 
Scott Figenshow
Scott Figenshow brings over 22 years of experience in community housing across not-for-profit, Government and private sector roles, here and overseas. He is passionate about the provision of affordable and social housing as part of a holistic approach to mixed-income, mixed-tenure community development. As Director of Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA), a position held since 2013, he is a change-maker in the community housing sector. He holds advanced degrees in planning and housing finance. His role requires him to work closely with CHA members to represent their interests, build sector capacity, and share tools and resources for the development of community housing options in response to housing need. Previously employed by Queenstown Lakes District Council, Scott lead a team to utilise linkage zoning for housing, and set-up a local housing trust to deliver a shared ownership programme and work on affordable housing issues in the Queenstown area. A full member of the New Zealand Planning Institute, he also served as a local Branch Chair. He is a member of the Australasian Housing Institute. Prior to 2005, Scott’s overseas career included serving as the Executive Director of a non-profit special needs housing developer in Southern California and he was a housing finance and organisational development consultant involved in the development of affordable housing..
 
Liz Gibbs

Liz Gibbs is Chief Executive of Philanthropy New Zealand. Liz has wide-ranging experience in corporate marketing, fundraising, advocacy and government relations, and a keen interest in social enterprise and social finance. She has worked in the not-for-profit sector in India, Canada, Australia and the UK and she is currently a member of the boards of UNICEF NZ and the Mediaworks Foundation. She is also an advisor to the Perpetual Guardian Foundation. Liz is a ministerial appointment to the NGO Advisory Group which provides advice to the Ministry of Social Development on community investment. She was also a member of the Treasury’s Social Investment Panel which provided advice on social investment initiatives as part of Budget 2016.

 
Linda Meade
Linda Meade leads the public sector service offering within Deloitte’s Financial Advisory team. Linda has over 20 years’ experience advising government and private sector clients in New Zealand and the UK on engagements relating to housing, the education sector, major transactions and infrastructure – in particular transport. She also has a keen interest in developing Deloitte’s Social Impact practice in NZ, and is currently working closely with Deloitte Access Economics on a range of economics projects. Linda is also an accredited Investment Logic Map (ILM) workshop facilitator, and has facilitated workshops for, amongst others, the Ministry of Social Development, the NZ Transport Agency, Civil Aviation, NZ Defence Force, CERA, Department of Corrections, Wellington City Council, Wellington Zoo Trust and the Wellington Housing Trust.
 
Paul Minett
Paul Minett is chair of New Zealand Community Housing Funding Ltd, a CHA subsidiary established in 2015 to help solve the funding puzzle for community housing. Paul’s background is in business strategy and he has recently completed (for CHA) a strategic review of the development capacity of Auckland Community Housing Providers. Paul’s other interest is in transportation, and he is particularly interested in the interplay of housing options and transportation options in the total affordability picture. Paul speaks with a Canadian accent even though he has called Auckland home for the past 29 years.
 
Alastair Rhodes
Alastair joined the fantastic BayTrust family in February 2015 after spending two years as CEO of Rotorua International Airport and previously holding senior commercial and strategy roles in Air NZ. Alastair and his family moved from Auckland down to the Bay of Plenty two years ago and now reside on a lifestyle block between Rotorua and Tauranga with an ever growing motley collection of animals. After only two years Alastair already has developed a huge amount of passion for the Bay of Plenty and truly believes it is one of the best places in the world to raise a family. Not having a background in philanthropic work, he is amazed about the similarities and also the opportunities that commercial and not for profit organisations can have to learn from each other. BayTrust has played a meaningful role in the Bay of Plenty over the last 25 years (with a strong focus on housing) and he looks forward to continuing this tradition and taking the organisation to the next level in the future.
 
Julie Scott
Julie has been involved with the community housing sector since the formation in 2007 of the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust. As Executive Officer of the Trust she is responsible for managing its daily operations, reporting to the Board, overseeing the administration of the Trust’s various programmes and management of its $26m property portfolio. She has a varied set of skills having been with the Trust since its inception and a good knowledge across industry-wide issues such as charitable status ; MSD and MBIE contracting, Housing Bond start-ups and home ownership programmes.