Introducing the Manawatu Access Radio Charitable Trust

To contact any member of MARCT, please first contact the station.

Executive

Norelle Ward  Chair	Norelle was born in Woodville, studied Tourism at Waikato Polytechnic and returned to Palmerston North where she began work for the Palmerston North City Council. Norelle has been involved in many community organisations and events in the region, including Relay for Life, Women’s Day, The George Street Carnival, Bike Wise week, to name but a few. Norelle has also worked with the Manawatu Promotional Trust but now works with the Department of Labour. In 2004 Norelle was asked to join the Board of Trustees of Access Radio. This has been a challenging and interesting experience. Norelle took on the Vice-Chair role in early 2007. The chance to be involved in a dynamic organisation that is growing all the time has been fantastic.
Aten Kumar  Vice-Chair	Aten has over 20 years experience in the Roading Industry. Originally from Fiji, Aten migrated to New Zealand in 1986 to study Civil Engineering. Prior to moving to Palmy in 2003, he worked at Lower Hutt City Council as Projects Engineer and Area Engineer at Wellington City Council. Currently he works at Palmerston North City Council as Senior Civil Engineer. He joined Manawatu Access Radio in 2004 as the host and the programme maker for the Manawatu’s Indian Voice programme.
Don Esslemont Treasurer	Don was born in Scotland and after six years as a Naval officer he lived in London, studying at the LSE, teaching economics and constitutional law, and working as a statistician and Amnesty International researcher. He was Head of economic and industrial research at a major UK agency before being recruited by Massey in 1974. There he taught papers in market research, marketing management, services marketing, marketing theory, and advanced multivariate statistics. He developed an international reputation for innovative research, supervised over 50 graduate research projects, and wrote more than 60 articles and papers. He is a founding director of Decision Research Ltd, and has extensive experience in governance of both commercial and voluntary organisations.
Margie Comrie Secretary	Margie worked as a journalist on the now vanished Evening Post and then for National Radio as a current affairs producer and interviewer. Setting off on her OE in Britain, she helped produced BBC Radio 4’s Today Tonight before heading back to New Zealand and reporting for 2ZA in Palmerston North. Margie joined the Massey University staff in 1990 where she teaches public relations and journalism studies for the Department of Communication, Journalism and Marketing. She continues to love radio in its many guises and new developments.

Trustees

Jenny Loveday	Jenny's first experience behind a radio microphone was at Massey University. She attempted to do a music show on the student radio station but was too shy! A few years later she became the Promotion Coordinator for Palmerston North City Library and did a fortnightly show on Access Radio.  This time going on air wasn't that daunting, and soon she was doing live shows!  She was invited on to the Board of Trustees for Access Radio, and soon took another dimension recording songs and stories at the studios for Peter Wheeler's "Tales from Wheeler's Corner" CD.  These days she works part-time with international students at Massey and studies part-time towards a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration.
Murray MacRae	Murray's background is in engineering, intellectual property licensing & marketing and he has over 25 years of experience in management in high technology organisations.  He runs his own coaching & consulting business, and works at Creative HQ, coaching start up companies. He also teaches at Massey University. Murray is a member of the NZ Institute of Directors and is a Trustee of the National Museum of Audio & Video.
Peter Wheeler	Peter started out in the military. After leaving the Army he attended Massey and became the Human Resources Manager at Allflex. After a few years he worked for the department of Foreign affairs. He writes short stories and has published two CD's of stories and songs. He is also a PN City Councillor representing Awapuni. He is a strong supporter of the concept of access radio and its place in our communities. Peter was chosen by the Community Service Council to represent them on the Board of Trustees.
Ian Johnston	Details to follow