Meet the team

The passionate team behind The Vegan Society of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Meet the board members:

Amanda Sorrenson

National Coordinator, Instagram Manager and Vegan Speaker

Amanda Sorrenson

National Coordinator and Vegan Speaker

Amanda has been vegetarian since childhood and vegan since 2003.
She is from Auckland has been a board member and the National Coordinator since 2011. As a board member she’d like to ensure that the Vegan Society continues to increase its resourcing and building of the vegan community so that we can help people become and remain vegan in New Zealand.

amanda@vegansociety.org.nz

Claire Insley

Media Spokesperson and Content Writer

Claire Insley

Media Spokesperson and Content Writer

Claire became vegan in 2000, having been vegetarian since she was 15. She has been a board member since February 2015. She volunteered for Greenpeace for over 20 years, including a year of sea time. Improving the visibility of veganism in mainstream media is part of her mission. She currently lives a low carbon lifestyle on the West Coast in Buller, teaching qi gong and offering therapeutic massage and Reiki. She has authored a book “The Way of the Rainbow Warrior”.

claire@vegansociety.org.nz

Apollo Taito

Pasifika Coordinator

Apollo Taito

Apollo is a NZ born Samoan, whose family hail from the villages of Vaie’e (Mum) and Sale’imoa (Dad). The eldest of four siblings. Apollo is married to a beautiful vegan Queen from Copenhagen, Demark, and blessed with a beautiful Vegan Wildling daughter.

Apollo’s area of work is in Mental health and Addictions, with a particular interest in Pasifika governance within Aotearoa NZ, and building resilience in our young people. Apollo also serves as a Warrant Officer in the NZ Army Reserves, in addition he serves on two other governance Boards. He holds a Master’s in Health Management and a Doctorate in Health Science.

Apollo has been vegan since 2010 and acknowledges that he has been very lucky and blessed with the opportunities in his life, opportunities that many people do not have. Therefore, Apollo wants to ‘pay back and pay forward’ those blessings into our communities, especially as a member of a Vegan Board.

apollo.taito@gmail.com

Mark Fitzpatrick

Vegan Living Talks Coordinator

Mark Fitzpatrick

Mark has been involved in animal rights since a teenager, initially in Ireland’s embryonic movement and later in the much more developed UK movement. A hunt saboteur for many years, Mark has been vegan since 1989 and got involved with the NZ Vegan Society via his vegan outreach Inititive called “Vegan Living Auckland”. He is currently helping raise two beautiful plant-based children and has a background in mental health nursing.

mark@vegansociety.org.nz

Pere Huriwai-Seger

Māori Content Creator

Pere Huriwai-Seger

Pere went vegetarian at age 13 and transitioned to vegan after watching the Earthlings documentary in 2016. Pere is of Ngāpuhi, Ngati Porou and Te Atiawa descent. Coming from a background of extreme sports and working in the Maori health and social sector, Pere brings his experience of being a Maori vegan and community worker to his animal rights activism, working to encourage Maori to embrace the lifestyle for its benefits while also striving to create activist communities/resources throughout the country. Pere is currently based in Te Whanganui-A-Tara.

pere.huriwaiseger@gmail.com

Sarsha Sivanantham

Sarsha Sivanantham is a community-oriented Wellingtonian who is passionate about a range of environmental and social impact-focused areas. This includes advocating for veganism for the environment and health, as well as animal rights. Her goal is to ‘plant trees under whose shade she does not expect to sit’.

Philip McKibbin

Māori Engagement and Education

Phillip McKibbin

Philip is a writer of Pakeha and Māori (Ngāi Tahu) descent. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Multispecies Justice through the University of Sydney. He holds a Master of Arts in Philosophy from The University of Auckland, and diplomas in te reo Māori from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. His book, Love Notes: for a Politics of Love, is published in New York by Lantern Books. He is passionate about ideas, te reo Māori, and animal liberation.
http://www.philip-mckibbin.com/

p.r.mckibbin@gmail.com

Meet the team:

Augustine Kopa

Vegan Pasifika Co-ordinator and Vegan Pasifika cookalong host

Augustine Kopa

Pasifika Vegan Cookalong Coordinator and Cookalong Host.
Cook Island mother of 4 gorgeous children- lived in Rarotonga for 12 years making the move over in 2019.

Been vegan since 2020 and a passionate gardener. Love cooking and connecting with other pasifika and Maori people. Cook by budget, time and whatever’s going on in the garden.

rarotongan.goddess@gmail.com

Adrian Hatwell

Vegan Magazine Editor

Adrian Hatwell

Adrian has been a member of the Board since 2017, helping out with the Awards since their inception, He has stepped down from his Board role to concentrate on his other tasks recently. Giving himself a better work life balance, as he also edits a top photography magazine and has a teenage son.

adrian@vegansociety.org.nz

Holly Robinson ACIM

Digital Marketing

Holly Robinson

Holly moved to New Zealand with her daughter in 2018 having travelled the country many times and fallen in love with the lifestyle. Having turned Vegan in 2017, she loves creating new recipes and making them for her non-vegan friends and family. Holly is an Associate member of The Chartered Institute of Marketing and offers the society digital marketing guidance and assistance.

holly@vegansociety.org.nz

Jo Sim

Challenge Project Manager

Jo Sim

Jo runs our 21 Day Easy Vegan Challenge. A veggie since 11years old, and vegan since 2005, she is committed to animal protection and has worked and volunteered for animal charities across the globe in various capacities. Jo also has a passion for sustainable travel, social justice and works with non-profit, Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Canterbury in the South Island. Originally from Scotland, she now calls Aotearoa home.

jo@vegansociety.org.nz

Meg McKenzie

Website Layout and Updates

Meg McKenzie

Originally from the UK, Meg moved to South Island, NZ in 1990. She has been vegan since 2019 and deeply regrets it not being sooner. She immediately channelled her energies into volunteering and street activism through the Queenstown Vegan Society and later mentoring on the 21 Day Easy Vegan Challenge. Her design background is now being put to use through creating and managing the QVS and the NZ Vegan Society websites.

meg@vegansociety.org.nz

Tina Rush

Social Media Manager

Tina Rush

After being vegetarian since her early 20’s, Tina’s daughters convinced her to become vegan in 2017. She came back to the Manawatū 9 years ago after living in Greece for 26 years, and is a recruitment professional. With an interest in design and communications, Tina loves being involved with the Vegan Society’s Facebook page and hopes to bring you fun, engaging and thought provoking content, in the hope that being vegan will become more accessible and commonplace to the mainstream audience.

tina@vegansociety.org.nz

Hannah Lessells

IT

Hannah Lessells

Originally from the UK, moved to Wellington in 2005 and now living on the West Coast, Hannah joined the board in 2011. She has been vegetarian from birth and vegan since 2008. She originally got involved with the Vegan Society through creating a vegan community on facebook for Wellington and finding other vegans in the area for support and friendships. After 10 years of serving on the board, she remains a vital part of our IT.

hannah@vegansociety.org.nz

Jana Kaster

Magazine Layout and Food Editor

Jana Kaster

Originally from Germany, Jana moved to Aotearoa in 2010. She has been plant-based and vegan for more than 20 years. Trained as a graphic designer she supports the Society in various design projects since 2011. She also does layout and food editing of our NZ Vegan Magazine.

jana@vegansociety.org.nz

Helen Fletcher

Finance

Helen Fletcher

Helen has been involved with the Vegan Society since 2015, the same year she took off her blinkers to discover what went on behind closed doors in animal agriculture and dairying. Between being a busy mum to two young vegan kids and working for a vegan cheese company, Helen helps the Society on the financial side to ensure that we are financially sound and compliant.

helen@vegansociety.org.nz

Our volunteers and area representatives:

Volunteer

We also give thanks to our amazing team of other volunteers who help out so much with the Vegan Society’s important work. They might help keep our website up to date, run stalls, help out at Vegan 101s, do some admin work, film vegan VIPs and so much more! Together they contribute some 500 hours of work every month. GO TEAM!

Meet the team

The passionate team behind The Vegan Society of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Meet the board members:

Amanda Sorrenson

National Coordinator, Instagram Manager and Vegan Speaker

Claire Insley

Media Spokesperson and Content Writer

Apollo Taito

Pasifika Coordinator

Mark Fitzpatrick

Vegan Living Talks Coordinator

Pere Huriwai-Seger

Māori Content Creator

Sarsha Sivanantham

Philip McKibbin

Māori Engagement and Education

Meet the team:

Augustine Kopa

Vegan Pasifika Co-ordinator and Vegan Pasifika cookalong host

Adrian Hatwell

Vegan Magazine Editor

Holly Robinson ACIM

Digital Marketing

Jo Sim

Challenge Project Manager

Meg McKenzie

Website Layout and Updates

Tina Rush

Social Media Manager

Hannah Lessells

IT

Jana Kaster

Magazine Layout and Food Editor

Helen Fletcher

Finance

Our volunteers and area representatives:

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