Board
TechCommNZ Executive
Katie Haggath
President
Katie is our most recently elected President (and she’ll be the first to say she has some big shoes to fill!)
Katie is passionate about bringing tech comms to students; and helping tech writers to grow their network and create their own opportunities.
She’s been on the TechCommNZ Board for 5 years in various roles, and if you haven’t met her yet, just listen out for the most British voice in the room and you’ll find her. She also loves talking to people, so next time you’re at a branch meeting, come introduce yourself!
Steph Prince
Vice-president, Communications Co-ordinator, Student Outreach Co-ordinator
Steph graduated from Massey University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics. She then completed a Diploma in Editing, Proofreading and Book Publishing with the New Zealand Institute of Business Studies.
For the last ten years Steph has worked in content writing and publishing roles, championing the importance of plain language, writing style, accessibility and branding across her organisation’s communications.
In 2017, Steph won the Plain English Champion – Best Individual award at the New Zealand Plain Language Awards. Since then she has seriously enjoyed getting to cheerlead and celebrate our clearest communicators through her work as an awards judge in 2021 and 2022.
She currently puts together the TechCommWire newsletter and is keen to hear from you if you have any ideas or suggestions.
Outside of work hours, Steph enjoys playing badminton, reading (magic and dragons required), learning New Zealand Sign Language, trying to improve her gluten-free baking skills and spending time with her niblings. She’s a big fan of a chat about space.
Contact TechCommNZ Vice-president
Noel Anderton
Vice-president, Webinar/Workshop Co-ordinator
Noel’s “technical” career began in 1977 as a radio and communications technician with Civil Aviation, at Christchurch airport. When CAD became corporatized in 1987, he took a role as a maintenance manager at Auckland Airport, with the new Airways Corporation. After working in the fields of Navigation and Landing systems, then Surveillance Radar, he moved to the emerging field of risk and quality management, which led naturally to Information Design and Delivery.
Moving back to Christchurch Radar Centre in 1999, Noel specialised in writing for an engineering and technical audience, transforming their processes from paper-based, to online. Recently, his role has switched to information design for Airways Air Traffic Controllers, taking them on the journey from slow-to-update manuals, to smart delivery at the workface.
A regular at conferences, branch meetings and courses, Noel joined the TechCommNZ Board in October 2019, and is the TechCommNZ Webinar Coordinator
In his spare time, Noel is immersed in Dragon Boat racing, as an (aging) athlete, event organiser, and an International Race Official. Until this virus is under control and our borders open, Noel will have to point his energies toward local activities – which isn’t such a bad thing.
Contact TechCommNZ Workshop/Webinar Co-ordinator
Emma Reynolds
Secretary
Emma’s love of language has led her from studies in French and translation to teaching and research roles in Aotearoa, France, and New Caledonia, and into the world of technical communication and information design.
Like a number of fellow graduates of the Ara GDID programme, she joined the growing ranks of technical communication professionals at Streamliners, where she helped to create and maintain complex documentation for the health sector.
Last year she joined the Information Design team at Airways NZ, where she helps develop and maintain documentation for the different business units at Airways. The Information Design team’s customers are located across the country. They include air traffic controllers who help ensure that planes take off and land safely, and engineers, technicians, electricians, and software engineers who look after the infrastructure that supports air traffic services.
Roy McKone
Business Manager
Roy has been a self employed technical communicator since the beginning of 1998. Prior to this he has had substantial experience in the IT industry in management, sales, solution design, software development and technical roles. During his career Roy also had to develop a wide range of documentation from technical through to sales proposals.
Combining these various skills and experiences with formal training in Information Mapping, Roy has since been involved in a number of major documentation projects with IBM, Vodafone, NZ Communications (2 Degrees), Placemakers, to name but a few. Roy is now retired and based in Tauranga.
Contact phone number: +64 7 543-3533
Contact TechCommNZ Business Manager
Terry Hall
Board Member
Terry Hall graduated from Canterbury University with a Commerce degree before working at the Patent Office in Lower Hutt for almost ten years as a Trade Mark Examiner. He was extensively involved in the Office''s first computerisation and was a pioneer of using the then-emergent Internet in Trade Mark research. Later he returned to Christchurch and obtained an NZ Diploma of Business & Information Systems. Today he works at CORE Education in testing and documentation for IT systems.
He has a background in debating and public speaking that goes back to his days at Canterbury, where he was a member of the Debating Society for several years. While up in Wellington he was part of the Wellington 22 Club team that won the 1993 Premier Reserve Grade Trophy, the second-highest debating grade award in the Wellington area. In his spare time he has for some years run a web site and e-zine supporting controversial figure skating badass Tonya Harding - long before she was trendy, too. And that''s definitely a good way to get into plenty of arguments.
Sarah Bichan
Board Member, Social Media Co-ordinator
Sarah’s background is in languages, translation, linguistics, and writing. She currently works as a Senior Technical Writer for Streamliners, where she manages the Stronger Schools product – a website which provides guidance to help primary school teachers and other school staff recognise and respond to the wellbeing needs of children in Canterbury (NZ) and South Tyneside (UK).
Sarah also has experience in the communications field, so she’s currently looking after social media for the Board.
Sarah enjoys learning other languages, baking, trying to get her fitness back up to speed, and various creative pursuits.
Freya Morris-Cole
Board member
Freya has always possessed a great thirst for learning, and has a long-list of study in health, languages, politics and digital design (among other subjects!). Most recently, Freya graduated with a Masters in Management (Communications) from Massey University in 2020. Unfortunately, this was just as the COVID-19 lockdowns began.
More fortunately, Freya was immediately brought into roles within the Ministry of Health to assist with governance, deliver information and advice to both the public and senior leaders, as well as create and maintain complex documentation. During their career, Freya was recognised as a cultural and communications champion. This led to their involvement as a moderation panel member for a public service inclusive language glossary, which was subsequently approved for publication by Cabinet as
Te Puka Ārahi i te Reo Tuwhera mō te Ranga Aniwaniwa | the Rainbow inclusive language guide in early 2022.
As the world eased itself back into a semblance of ''normal'',
they have since branched out from public service and have started contracting
within the technical communications field.
Freya enjoys meeting people, trying new food, dying their hair crazy colours,
as well as writing (of course), reading (undoubtedly), gaming (no surprise
there surely), but also swimming, traveling and just experiencing the best the
world has to offer. Of particular note is their interest in workforce
development and community outreach that they will bring to TechCommNZ -
something which began when they worked as a Teacher''s Assistant in Japan, then
with Student Job Search, and continued into their role as Advisor at the
Ministry of Health when seeking to develop future leaders for New Zealand’s
Health boards.
While new to the profession, their knowledge and experience meant they had
skills which transferred easily into their current work. Even technical
concepts were familiar to them, due to their involvement with media content
creation and a range of analytical tools. The most difficult subject to learn
was income tax!
Auckland Branch
Auckland Branch Coordinator
Contact TechCommNZ Auckland Branch Coordination Team
Christchurch Branch
Christchurch Branch Coordination Team
Contact TechCommNZ Christchurch Branch Coordination Team
Wellington Branch
Wellington Branch Coordination Team
Contact TechCommNZ Wellington Branch Coordination Team
Hamilton Branch
Hamilton Branch Coordination Team
Contact TechCommNZ Hamilton Branch Coordination Team
Bay of Plenty Branch
Bay of Plenty Branch Coordination Team
Contact TechCommNZ Bay of Plenty Branch Coordination Team