Meet the team

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

Meet the board members:

Amanda Sorrenson

National Coordinator 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

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’.

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

Isla Reeves

Māori Content Creator

Isla Reeves

Isla went vegetarian at age nine and transitioned to veganism in her early twenties. She lives and works in Ōtautahi as a secondary school Dean and Kaiako of Te Reo Māori, but descends from Te Āti Haunui a-Pāpārangi and Uenuku in the Whanganui region.

Outside of being a kaiako, Isla is a writer and has recently published her debut collection of poetry. Coming from a background in education and health, Isla brings her experience of being a Māori vegan to the board, as someone who believes in the benefits of the lifestyle for Māori people, and Papatūanuku, our treasured environment. Within the worldview of Te Ao Māori, mauri connects us to all other beings and everything around us, and Isla believes that veganism is the path which aligns her most fully with this whakaaro.

isladevon.reevesmartin@gmail.com

Bret Sutherland

As a teen trying to understand Life, the Universe and Everything, Bret awoke one day with a strong belief that it was wrong to kill animals. After a couple of decades of vegetarianism (with a dose of cognitive dissonance), he transitioned to veganism and a deeper awareness of the exploitation, cruelty and death associated with animal “by products”.

In the late 80s, Bret was apparently New Zealand’s fourth most popular pakora chef. That path took him to India and onwards to the United States, from where he fortuitously returned just before the pandemic.

He lives in Auckland, has a background in ecommerce, and loves to cook—but is allergic to following recipes!

Through his participation with the Vegan Society of Aotearoa, he hopes to advocate for a more compassionate world.

Dan Liu

Dan has followed a vegan diet for over 15 years. Dan has experiences at a range of community organisations. Dan is passionate about food and transition to sustainable future.

dan.liutan@gmail.com

Meet the team:

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

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

Jana Kastner

Magazine Layout and Food Editor

Jana Kustner

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

Claire Insley

Media spokesperson and Content

Claire Insley

Claire has been contributing to the Vegan Society since 2011, writing articles for the magazine, becoming a board member from 2015 – 2024, writing the official submissions and continuing to help and support the Society wherever needed.

They live in the remote village of Karamea, at the top of the South Island, where they enjoy an off-grid low carbon lifestyle. They run Light Academy and West Coast Energy Healing, as well as writing a book The Way of the Rainbow Warrior. They are currently working on a second book.

claire@vegansociety.org.nz

Rebecca Dent

Challenge Project Manager

Rebecca Dent

Rebecca (she/her) runs our 21 Day Try Vegan Challenge. Rebecca became vegan for animal rights and environmental reasons, but she didn’t have much knowledge or support about how to transition to a healthy, sustainable vegan diet. Since then, she has gained a degree in Human Nutrition and is now an associate registered nutritionist with the Nutrition Society of New Zealand. Combining her own personal experience with evidence based information from her studies, Rebecca enjoys supporting people in their transition to a vegan diet, and also helping more experienced vegans to improve their nutrition. Apart from coordinating the challenge, Rebecca is a support worker at an eating disorder recovery center and a nutritionist at @notes.from.a.nutritionist.

challenge@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 and IT background is now being put to use through creating and managing the NZ Vegan Society websites and systems.

meg@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 and Vegan Speaker

Sarsha Sivanantham

Apollo Taito

Pasifika Coordinator

Mark Fitzpatrick

Vegan Living Talks Coordinator

Isla Reeves

Māori Content Creator

Bret Sutherland

Dan Liu

Meet the team:

Adrian Hatwell

Vegan Magazine Editor

Tina Rush

Social Media Manager

Jana Kastner

Magazine Layout and Food Editor

Claire Insley

Media spokesperson and Content

Rebecca Dent

Challenge Project Manager

Meg McKenzie

Website Layout and Updates

Helen Fletcher

Finance

Our volunteers and area representatives:

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