Phil Malpas

Phil has been self employed since 1986, working in IT consulting. He has also lectured in Management Accounting and Computer Studies for Polytechnics and Massey University.  Phil holds a BA in Psychology and a Diploma of Management (NZIM).

He was General Manager of the Computer Support Company, part of ANDAS group and worked in several consulting and audit contracts as Executive leasing.  Phil is now the Director of 5th Generation Systems Ltd, AMWIN (NZ) Ltd.

Phil has a strong enthusiasm for community activity especially where there is an opportunity to own and manage infrastructure projects.  Situations where the corporate objective can be inconsistent with community needs should have greater community involvement, a principle he strongly believes in.

Ngā mihi

Dr Antoine Bittar

Tony is an internationally recognised renewable energy researcher, consultant and company director with more than 30 years experience in the field. He has acted as advisor to Government agencies, international development organisations and private companies.

His set of expertise includes research and development, commercialization and deployment of renewable technologies globally; particularly in New Zealand, Australia, USA, France, Germany, India, the MENA region and the South Pacific.

Based in Wellington since 2019, Tony is founder and managing director of Front-end Solar Technologies Ltd, a New Zealand company offering solar and storage at residential, commercial, industrial and utility scales.

Dennis Crone

Dennis is a new resident of Otaki having built a new home in 2017. He holds a B.Agr. Sc degree from Lincoln University, having specialised in Farm management and Agricultural Engineering.

He was recently managing a team of professionals at Gisborne District Council as part of the Science and Environmental Services section of Council. This section completed State of the Environment reports and processed Regional Council consents associated with Land, Water and Coastal environments.

Prior to Regional Council work he was a farm consultant and Ministry for Primary Industry Policy Analyst, based in Nelson. Part of his role in working for central Government was as a Government appointed director of the NZ Hop Marketing Board. He held this position for 13 years. NZ Hop Marketing Board was a grower owned single desk marketing organising that operated under the Cooperative Companies regulations.

Dennis was an early investor in the co-operative and sees his role as being a useful community-based member of the board with an understanding of Resource Management and the working of a successful co-operative.

Richard Shepard

Richard has had a continuous interest in Electrical technology from early school days. He is installing Solar PV and Super capacitor storage on his house which he is building. He also has experience with target marketing using Analytics and social media.

Married to Debbie with teenager children, he will celebrate a 20th wedding anniversary this year, the teenagers are progressing well through college and are looking to where they will go after college. Richard is very enthusiastic and has a passion for electricity, and further promotion of investment into renewable energy.

They are halfway through a house extension incorporating solar power into the design and will be fully off the grid once finished with plans to sell back to the grid when completed. He strongly believes there is a great future for solar and storage within the Cooperative, community model.