Living Economies is a voluntary network of educators that work to promote community well-being by promoting sustainable, interest-free means of exchange to strengthen regional economies.
Our volunteers include our Board of Trustees and Associates, all of whom may be in a position to offer educational support in their own areas. You can contact any of them through our web form.
Board of Trustees
Helen Dew
Helen’s awareness of the potential of complementary currencies for environmental, social and economic wellbeing began in 1991 when she joined the Wairarapa Green Dollar Exchange. In 2002 she became a founding member of the Living Economies board and the New Zealand distributor of Margrit Kennedy’s Interest and Inflation Free Money, the first of a growing list of titles now available through the Living Economies online bookstore.
Helen
is a keen networker, and
her
attendance at international conferences on currencies in Germany
(2003) and New York (2004) have
led to
ever-widening contacts with others committed to researching and
promoting local and global currency projects. She was project manager
for the New Zealand edition of Fleeing Vesuvius,
published by Living Economies in August 2011.
Listen to Helen talk about the beginning of the Trust (MP3 download, 8MB)
Dean Harliwich
Dean is a collaborator in the sharing economy with a strong background in technology and natural sciences. As an ecology masters graduate working with Timebank sharing exchanges across local, regional and national scales, he works with an awareness of how connection & relation drive the support and movement of energy - between one another, our community, and our environment.
As a former trustee for the White Elephant Trust & core facilitator for the Rites of Passage Foundation, Dean has interests in not only how we bring youth along with us in the journey to wellbeing-centered societies, but how we re-instill the sense of wonder, belief, capacity and possibility in others. With a keen interest in technologies, he watches the emergence of blockchain & distributed ledgers with intrigue, and draws inspiration from the immense dedication of the not-for-profit & startup sector to renew his enthusiasm & trust in our ability to collectively innovate the next round of solutions in better service of the world.
Bryan Innes
Bryan has been a permaculture design certificate teacher since 1996. He and his partner Jo Pearsall mounted the four Ecoshowsinitiating the launch of Transition Towns NZ and the 2012 Australasian Permaculture Convergence.
Bryan
is a trustee of Awhi Turangi Trust, a centre of sustainable practice
working on experimental building systems, livelihood creation, and
food production. The Trust also provides tertiary education as a hub
of Otago Polytechnic. To study interest-free banking, in 2006 Bryan
attended a community currencies conference in Weimar, Germany after
visiting the JAK Bank in Sweden. He then created an interest-free
community economy system based on reciprocity known as the Genuine
Wealth System (also known as Savings Pools).
Antony White (Treasurer)
Antony is a chartered accountant and has a deep interest in finance, which led him to savings pools as a solution for simple lending for individuals and families.
Murray Stentiford (Secretary)
Murray's education and professional work experience are in science, engineering and IT. He is deeply interested in helping others learn about how local economies and alternative currencies contributed to empowered, thriving communities, helping them weather the highs and lows of the economic climate.
Murray has been involved extensively in holistic education programmes, holding several positions of responsibility in voluntary organisations. He is a keen student of processes that enhance communication and wellbeing, such as NonViolent Communication and Coaching. He has also been a professional musician in several genres.
Phil Stevens
Phil
is a carbon storage entrepreneur, regenenerative agriculture adviser, and energy/carbon
management consultant. He also provides operational
support for the Community Forge Network, an open source mutual credit
system used by over 100 LETS and TimeBank organisations worldwide. In local circles he leads educational workshops for RECAP, a community
resilience initiative centred in Ashhurst and the Pohangina Valley,
and volunteers in RECAP's community
garden and orchard.
Phil
grew up in the desert
Southwest US, a region
that
instilled a profound respect for the constraints imposed by the
natural world. He
emigrated
to New Zealand with his family in 2005 to pursue a more
self-sufficient lifestyle and develop community networks. He
is also a versatile
musician and a sound engineer.
Patron
Deirdre Kent
Deirdre has been championing strong local economies since the 1970s when she was a Values Party candidate and a Tauranga City Councillor. Originally a maths teacher, she chose community work, helping form many women's organisations before moving to Auckland to be a professional lobbyist for health organisation ASH, working for smoke-free legislation.
After some time as an Alliance activist, she left to edit national newsletter The Indicator. During this time she met economist author Richard Douthwaite and started writing Healthy Money Healthy Planet: Developing Sustainability through New Money Systems. She co-founded Transition Town Otaki. In 2011 she co-founded The New Economics Party from which came her book The Big Shift. She lives in Waikanae.
Associates
Elizabeth Mather
Elizabeth has spent a good part of her work life in a Rudolf Steiner community for people with special needs and also teaching English as a second language to foreign students. She has had a long involvement in movements for social and environmental justice and is passionate about animal rights. Elizabeth was a founding member of a savings pool and an organic food co-op before moving to Coromandel where she is involved in native bush regeneration on a bush block where she lives with her husband.
Joanna Pearsall
Jo has long been one of the leading volunteers in Living Economies. She is co-founder of the Eco-Show, and, with Trustee Bryan Innes, she has traveled the length and breadth of New Zealand promoting innovative approaches to sustainability, community-building, and healthy economies for people and place.