Change of chairperson announcement

In January 2022, Emma Dent announced her decision to step down as chairperson for Sustainable Coastlines. This April, Emma passes her position to the extremely capable Samantha Walmsley-Bartlett. See below for CEO Josh Borthwick’s full announcement.

Emma Dent

Change of chairperson announcement

28 Jan 2022

Today I would like to relay the news that Emma Dent is stepping down as chairperson of the Sustainable Coastlines Charitable Trust. After four years as our chair through an unprecedented period of growth, it’s timely for Emma to take stock and review what’s next. Emma will be focusing her time on her role as director of development with The Nature Conservancy, Aotearoa New Zealand.

I’d personally like to thank Emma for inducting me into the organisation as CEO and supporting me and my team through Covid-19. Emma is incredibly smart, composed and compassionate. I’m going to miss her terribly and the SC crew can’t thank her enough for her dedication, commitment and support of our charity. Emma will always have a special place in the SC whānau and we know she won’t be a stranger.

Every change creates opportunity and I’m excited to announce Samantha Walmsley-Bartlett as our new Chair, effective April 2022. Sam’s been a board member for three years and is also one of our original Litter Intelligence volunteer leaders. As a trained botanist Samantha has dedicated her career to helping businesses and organisations care for our environment. As environmental and sustainability manager, Samantha actively led, implemented and expanded produce company T&G’s sustainability framework. Now at Circularity, she gets to consult to a wide variety of organisations to design, develop and measure best practice environmental strategies to design out waste, keep materials in flow and regenerate living systems.

Samantha Walmsley-Bartlett

Sam will be supported by a formal vice-chair position, filled by Grant Biggar, who having spent several decades building investment and fin-tech businesses around the world, is now based in New Zealand and is focused on improving New Zealand for future generations while also remaining active in early stage private company investing. Grant has a passion for watersports and the coastline and currently serves as chair of the finance, audit and remuneration committee for Sustainable Coastlines.

Other trustees, Craig Fisher and Abbie Reynolds remain in their positions and provide an incredible wealth of experience across governance, finance, conservation, climate change and sustainability. We are also actively recruiting for three new board trustees with backgrounds in charitable revenue development, product technology development and / or a deep understanding of te ao Māori, mātauranga Māori and deep connections with iwi / hapū and Pasifika communities.

Ngā mihi,

Josh Borthwick
CEO
Sustainable Coastlines