About Us
Board
The following Board Members for 2009-2010 were elected in November 2009 in accordance with our constitution:
Michael Till (Chair) |
|
 |
Michael Till has served on the Interpreting Service Committee for the last eight years and has been Chair for the last five. He is a Chartered Accountant and is currently Financial Accounting Manager for Housing New Zealand. He studied Prehistoric Anthropology (Archaeology), gaining a Masters Degree from Otago University before completing a postgraduate degree in Accounting at Victoria University. Michael has four daughters and spends his very little free time gardening and renovating the old Newtown villa he shares with his partner. |
Brian Derwin (Treasurer) |
|
 |
Brian Derwin has been the Treasurer of the Interpreting Service since 1996. He is a Fellow of the NZ Society of Accountants and has had an extensive career in accountancy and as a company secretary, culminating in the role of Chief Accountant of Federated Farmers from 1978 to 1991. Brian is a long-term supporter of charitable trusts and voluntary organisations. Now a keen golfer, he was a cross-country champion in his youth and served the NZ Amateur Athletic Association as a committee member and selector. |
Alan Wendt (Secretary) |
|
 |
Alan Wendt is a New Zealand-born Samoan and has been a professional NZSL/English interpreter since 2003. He is a past President of the SLIANZ (Sign Language Interpreters Association of New Zealand, 2006-08) and represented SLIANZ on the New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters Council (2007-08); he also served on the NZSTI Wellington Branch Committee from 2006 to 2009. Alan has a BA (Linguistics) from Victoria University of Wellington and a Diploma in Sign Language Interpreting from the Auckland University of Technology, and is currently taking postgraduate degrees in both linguistics and interpreting part time. In his spare time, Alan moonlights as an accompanist and is a faithful supporter of the Hurricanes and the Lions. |
|
|
Leo Saumure, (Staff Representative) |
|
 |
(See information below) |
Maan Al-Asad |
|
 |
Maan is an Arabic speaker who came to New Zealand in 1994 and has been with the Interpreting Service since 1995. Maan joined the Management Committee in 2003 and has added some valuable input to the service. Maan is a Civil and Structural Engineer and currently works full time doing what he likes best, designing transmission lines across New Zealand. Maan still carries out some interpreting work, but it is limited due to his full time day job, but occasionally will oblige if it was a very urgent job and no other interpreters are available. |
Josephine Chiou |
|
 |
Josephine is a Mandarin interpreter from Taiwan. She also speaks Taiwanese/Hokkienese. She has a Master of Arts (first place with Merit) in Applied Linguistics as well as a postgraduate diploma in Teaching English as a Second Language from Victoria University of Wellington. She is a qualified English teacher in Taiwan and holds a Bachelor of Education in English Language Teaching from National Changhua University of Education. Her work experience has been in marketing, research, coordination and management predominantly for the diplomatic field. Whilst she was in Taiwan, she worked for the New Zealand Commerce & Industry Office (equivalent to New Zealand Embassy in Taiwan) establishing and managing their New Zealand Education Centre. Before that role she worked in their Trade Development Unit. Josephine came to New Zealand in 1993. After her postgraduate study, she worked for the Taiwanese Ambassador in the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office (equivalent to Taiwanese Embassy in NZ) as well as for their Economic Division. During the course of her employment, she interpreted for government officials, education professionals and businessmen. She also translated a wide range of materials including promotional pamphlets and booklets, some of which were published. Josephine lives with her kiwi Patent Attorney husband and their two children. |
Rosemary Jones |
|
 |
Rosemary was born and educated in Hong Kong. She married her Kiwi husband while he was teaching in HK in the 60’s. They came back to NZ and have settled in NZ ever since. In the late 60’s and early 70’s Rosemary was recruited by the then Taiwan Ambassador Kohsin Shah to teach Chinese to the Chinese community. As a teacher, Rosemary had taught over a wide range of subjects in NZ schools for a number of years. In 1988 she was selected as a Teacher-Leader to take 15 NZ and Australian teachers on a cultural exchange programme teaching in Beijing. When she returned from Beijing she decided to venture into a new career and worked for Fonterra (the former NZ Dairy Board) for almost 15 years. In 2003 when Fonterra moved to Auckland, Rosemary decided to stay in Wellington and started her own business in Marketing and Public Relations. Rosemary is also heavily involved with Community work. She has been the President of the Wellington Ethnic Council; Chairperson of the Wellington Chinese Language School; Vice President of the NZ Chinese Association; Founder and President of the Wellington Chinese Operatic Society where she has been actively involved in promoting and maintaining Chinese language and culture. She is currently holding Officer position in the Wellington Xiamen Assn, Wellington Sakai Assn, and is serving on the committee in the NZ China Friendship Society. Rosemary was awarded the QSM medal in 2006 for the 20+ years’ community services she has contributed to NZ Society. |
Dr Rachel Locker McKee |
|
 |
Rachel is the Programme Director of Deaf Studies in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. Trained in 1985, Rachel has qualified and worked as a sign language interpreter in New Zealand and USA since then. She established the Diploma in Sign Language Interpreting at AUT in 1992, and was the founding president of the Sign Language Interpreters Association of NZ. Rachel has worked with the Wellington Community Interpreting Service since 1997, as an interpreter, management committee member, and interpreter trainer. In 2006 she published Sign Language Interpreting: Theory and Practice in Australia and New Zealand, with co-authors J. Napier and D. Goswell. Rachel and her husband David have three young sons. |
Thornton Peck |
|
 |
Thornton is a Sign Language Interpreter currently working in the community interpreting field. Since completing his Diploma in Sign Language Interpreting at AUT in 1999, Thornton has worked at Kelston Deaf Education Centre, University of Otago & the Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind (as Deafblind Services Coordinator) prior to becoming self-employed in 2007. He has fulfilled voluntary roles as the Treasurer (2002-2003) and President (2004-2005) of the Sign Language Interpreters Association of NZ Inc and also has an interest in interpreting theatre productions. Outside of interpreting he enjoys riding his various Vespa scooters. |
Natalia Taylor |
|
 |
Natalia is a NAATI 3 (National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters) accredited Professional Russian Interpreter, a Board Member of Interpreting New Zealand as well as a panel Translator working for the Translation Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and NZTC. Natalia is a full member of NZSTI and is an NZQA approved translator. Natalia is a qualified Russian lawyer and holds a Master of Law degree. |
Sarjon Warde |
|
 |
Sarjon is an Assyrian Iraqi who was born in Nineveh, Iraq and studied in the computer science department in the University of Mosul. In 1995, he left Iraq for Jordan and lived there till the end of 2000, when he migrated to New Zealand to begin a new life. He did some further studies to gain a Certificate in Youth Leadership and a National Certificate in Computer Operations. In 2004 Sarjon qualified as an interpreter and started his job with WCIS, becoming one of the youngest Assyrian interpreters. Sarjon speaks Assyrian, Arabic and English and is a very active member in the Assyrian community in Wellington. |
StaffThe staff of Interpreting New Zealand are: |
|
Robyn Pask, Chief Executive |
|
 |
Robyn joined Interpreting New Zealand in June 2010. She comes to this role from the Settlement Division of the Department of Labour, where she worked closely with representatives from migrant and refugee communities and other government and non-government agencies involved in migrant and refugee settlement in New Zealand. She has extensive leadership experience, both in government and the private sector. She has a Bachelor of Education (Adult Education) and has been very actively involved in workplace training for a number of years, including two years managing a team of trainers across the Asia-Pacific region within a multi-national company. Robyn is passionate about language—she spent three years teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in New Zealand, was an ESOL home tutor for several years, studied French at teachers’ college & university, and more recently has spent time doing courses in conversational Italian and introductory Māori . |
Daniel Cheng, Training Manager |
|
 |
Daniel is a NAATI (National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters) accredited Professional Interpreter, (formerly NAATI 3) and a full Member of NZSTI. He has been interpreting between Cantonese, Mandarin and English for over 16 years in a wide range of settings. Besides training aspiring and practising interpreters, he also conducts sessions for user agencies and professional bodies on the use of interpreters. Daniel has been on the Professional Development Sub-committee of NZSTI for a number of years and has been contracted to run courses for NZSTI members. Daniel lived and worked in Hong Kong before migrating to New Zealand in 1988. He has a background in science and education with thirty years' experience in teaching and school administration. When he was in Hong Kong, he served on numerous committees in the Department of Education and the Hong Kong Examinations Authority in the areas of curriculum development and the setting and moderation of public examinations. He acted as a consultant for a number of international publishers and has published in genetics, ecology, education and interpreting. |
Inna Palmer, Training Officer |
|
 |
Inna is a graduate of St.Petersburg University (Russia), majoring in English language and literature. She started her interpreting career during Moscow Olympic Games and worked as a translator and interpreter for various private businesses in Russia. She has been teaching English and school administration since 1994. Inna settled in New Zealand in 1999 with her Kiwi husband Ross and their daughter Olga. For nearly ten years she has been working with families who have children adopted from Russia. She also worked as an ESOL teacher for nearly four years. Inna joined Interpreting New Zealand in 2007, received NAATI accreditation in 2008, is a current Board member of Interpreting New Zealand and since September 2009 a part-time Training Officer.. |
Atena Hensch, Coordinator, Interpreting Canterbury |
|
 |
Atena Hensch is an Iranian who came to New Zealand in 2003. Her native language is Persian (Farsi). She is a full member of NZSTI and has a Diploma in Persian Literature and a Bachelor degree in Translation and Interpreting from her home country. She has worked as an interpreter and translator for a number of NGOs, government and international agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross in Iran for a number of years. Also, she was trained as a journalist in Iran and she worked in voluntary and paid capacity as a freelance journalist for Persian and English language newspapers and newsletters. She holds Professional level (NAATI 3) in translation from NAATI as well. She is a freelance translator working with about twenty five companies from New Zealand, Australia, USA and UK. Before joining Interpreting Canterbury, she used to work as a freelance interpreter in the Christchurch region and in other roles such as bi-lingual health worker, bi-lingual ESOL tutor and bi-lingual community worker. Now she is the Canterbury branch president of NZSTI. She is married to her Swiss husband and they have two girls. |
Gean Burke, Finance Administrator |
|
 |
Gean left Aklan in the Philippines to come to New Zealand in 1987. She has a Bachelor of Science in Commerce (Major in Accounting). Gean can speak two different dialects apart from Tagalog, which is the main language in the Philippines. Gean is married to a New Zealander and has three teenage children. Before joining us, she worked as Office Manager of a Wellington entertainment centre for eight years. |
Léo Saumure, Database Administrator |
|
|
Léo is a self taught Microsoft Access Database Developer who moved to New Zealand from Alberta, Canada in November 2007, and started working with Interpreting New Zealand straight away. Léo possesses extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office Productivity Suite as well as various other software products. In his twelve years with Canadian Blood Services, he had developed several innovative database management solutions. Through his various experiences, he has enhanced his writing skills in the creation of various operating procedures, technical documents, training manuals, and miscellaneous documents. He also published a newsletter directed at non-technical users of Microsoft Office products. Léo takes an avid interest in virtually all aspects of computing technology and Gadgetry, as well as a hobbyist's interest in quantum physics. |
Tu'i Purdie, Senior Request Coordinator |
|
 |
Originally from Samoa, Tu'i migrated to New Zealand in late 1966 and began working with Inland Revenue, where she stayed for a number of years. She then took time off to become a fulltime mother to her three children and it was within this period she began working in a volunteer capacity for UNICEF. Tu'i returned to fulltime employment as a Receptionist with a Law Firm, before moving into the health sector and then joining WCIS. Tu'i has also been interpreting for over twelve years now between Samoan and English. |
Lak Wongpram, Request Coordinator |
|
 |
Lak is originally from Thailand. Her language is Thai. She received a Bachelor of Arts (Thai and English) from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and a post graduate diploma in e-commerce (web development) from Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology. After finishing her degree she worked for a rubber manufacturer as an interpreter, translator, and admin support for a year. In 2002 she decided to leave Thailand for a big overseas experience in New Zealand. She spent her first year studying English and travelling around, then fell in love with the country. While studying in New Zealand she took up a number of roles in customer service and administrative support in various fields. In 2007 Lak qualified as an interpreter for Interpreting New Zealand. She is now doing a bachelor degree in Aviation Management at Massey University to pursue her dream of working in aviation industry. Parallel to her study and on-call interpreter. She is an office-hours & after-hours Request Coordinator or Interpreting New Zealand. |
Shaimaa Yassin, Office Administrator |
|
 |
Shaimaa, Egyptian, studied Spanish and French in Ainshams University in Cairo and has done post graduate studies in the same language. She worked as a Tour Operator for 2 years in Cairo before moving to Saudi Arabia where she worked as an Executive Assistant in the Embassy of Venezuela for one year. In 2007, Shaimaa migrated to NZ with her family. In 2009, she qualified as a trained Interpreter with Interpreting New Zealand. Parallel to her work in Interpreting New Zealand, she is an Arabic freelance translator for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. |
Nga Miller, After Hours Request Coordinator |
|
 |
Nga is an experienced Vietnamese interpreter with a long history of service to Interpreting New Zealand. She qualified as a pharmacist in Vietnam and has worked for Wellington Hospital. She currently shares the role of after hours coordinator, handling urgent bookings in the evenings and weekends. |
Thu Dzung Nguyen, After Hours Request Coordinator |
|
 |
Biography to follow. |
