Pinehurst Governance

Pinehurst School is registered as an Incorporated Society. It is governed by the Board of Governors. Governors are elected by the society's members and offer a range of skills in support of the School. Elections take place in conjunction with an Annual General Meeting each March. Parents of children enrolled, and staff of the School, are strongly encouraged to join the society.

The Governors meet monthly and are responsible for protecting the purpose and policies of the School and for financial planning, the provision of resources and ensuring that the School meets all statutory and regulatory requirements.

The Board fully delegates the management and day to day operation of the school to the Executive Principal.

Board of Governors

Chairperson - Peter Davies

Peter is a consulting actuary and principal of his own consulting practice based in Auckland. He is the Appointed Actuary to a number of New Zealand insurance companies, is a Past President of the New Zealand Society of Actuaries, and is a member of its Education, General Insurance, and Health Insurance committees. He is also on the Board of the Independent Schools of New Zealand Charitable Trust. Peter was a founding member of the Board when the school opened in 1991, serving from 1991 until 1997, and then again from 2009 through to the present.

Deputy Chairman - Mike Atkinson

Mike is a qualified Chartered Accountant with 18 years’ experience in Business Advisory. Throughout his career he primarily worked in areas of Strategic and Business Advisory Services, including restructuring, valuations, feasibility studies, bank presentations, governance, succession planning and strategic review of business performance.

He is actively involved in contributing to the betterment of both the accounting profession and the business community. He sits on several client advisory boards, such as the Institute of Directors, the North Harbour Club, and the myDroplet Charitable Trust, to name a few. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Pinehurst for 3 years, and is currently the Treasurer.

Outside of work, Mike enjoys spending time with wife Andree and two young daughters Madisyn and Makenzie, both of whom attend Pinehurst School.

Treasurer - Bruce Bernacchi

Bruce is a chartered accountant and a lawyer with over 20 years of professional experience as a taxation adviser in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. He is currently a partner with the accounting firm KPMG. Bruce and his wife Sally have two daughters at Pinehurst, both in the college.

Secretary - Samantha Alexander

Samantha was born in the UK but raised and educated in South Africa. Having met and married a kiwi in Johannesburg, the family immigrated to NZ in 2008. Sam practised law for her own account in South Africa for 12 years. Having been admitted to the New Zealand Bar in 2016, she currently heads up the Operations and Finance team of the New Zealand Maritime Museum in Auckland. Sam and her husband Anthony currently have one son (Devon) who recently graduated from Pinehurst and a daughter (Paige). Sam has served on the Pinehurst Board since March 2016.

Rob Moon

Rob attended Primary and Secondary school in Canada, Tertiary school in the United States and completed Post graduate work in New Zealand. He has over 20 years of experience in the construction and property industries. Currently Rob works for AMP Capital as a Development Project Manager to deliver successful retail and office projects for various stakeholders.

Alastair Nisbet

Alastair Nisbet is a University lecturer and currently leads the Master of Information Security & Digital Forensics Programme at the Auckland University of Technology. Alastair was involved in law enforcement for 14 years before attending university full time and gaining 6 university degrees in the areas of business, education, law and computer science. This include Masters degrees in law and educational leadership and a PhD in Computer Science.

Alastair & Ruthy have 2 children at Pinehurst who started as new entrants and are now in the college. Alastair has a passion for education and computing and is committed to the Cambridge System and Pinehurst School. He brings with him many years of educational and computing experience and wishes to contribute to the Board particularly in these areas.

Sheina Dong

Sheina came to NZ when she was 17 years old, and completed her tertiary education at The University of Auckland, finishing with a BCom in Accounting and a Masters Degree in commercial Law. After studying she worked as a Corporate Accountant for 8 years, in which time, she continued to study and in 2014 qualified as a Chartered Accountant. In 2015 Sheina began a new adventure – starting up her own business, designing and installing modern kitchens in high spec homes.

Sheina has two sons at Pinehurst School – one in Year 4 and another in Year 2. In the past few years, she has contributed much of her time and efforts to help and support the Pinehurst community. This has been through parent help required at school; helping parents with language barriers to communicate with Pinehurst staff; on-site support with parent community activities; positive recommendations and feedback in regards to school facilities; and ongoing parent support of Primary sports activities.

Ex Officio:

Alex Reed

To contact the Board of Govenors you can email them here: [email protected]

Download the School Constitution

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Pinehurst Trust

Pinehurst Trust was formed in 1996 by Pinehurst School Incorporated. The Trust consists of up to a maximum of six trustees, led by Maureen Ross, one of the founders of the school.

The purposes of the Trust are to:

Administer the proceeds of the school’s life insurance plan on the lives of parents/legal guardians.
To be the guardian of all parent capital and loans to the School.
Where it is efficient to do so, to be channels for some fund-raising activities.
To provide a group familiar with the background and principles of the School who can assist future boards with ensuring continuity of thought and purpose in the growth of the School.

Patrons and Vice Patrons

The Society recognises exceptional contributions by members of its community by appointing them as Patrons or Vice-Patrons of the Society. Contributions could be financial, the provision of goods or services, and / or an exceptional level of personal input over an extended period. Their names are recorded on a plaque in the school entrance lobby. We remain in contact with many of our Patrons and Vice-Patrons, and include them in major school events.