Trust Chairman, Grahame Hall, enjoys a high profile in the local community having recently retired as Mayor of Rotorua, a position he held for 12 years.

With 27 years local government service to his credit, Grahame’s community involvement has been wide ranging. He has had a lifetime commitment and involvement in education, farming and local government, as well as holding a number of executive positions on youth, recreation, educational, vocational, church and sporting bodies.

A former director of Rotorua’s world-renowned tourist attraction, the Agrodome, Grahame is also a past president and district chairperson of Rotary International, becoming a prestigious Paul Harris Fellow in 1989. The Lions Foundation has also recognised his work in the community with a Melvin Jones Fellowship.

Born and educated in Taranaki, he farmed there before coming to Rotorua in 1967. The recipient of a New Zealand Nuffield Farming Scholarship in 1976, he spent six months studying in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Grahame has travelled extensively overseas and has a keen interest and involvement in the arts. Together with his wife, Sandy, he still plays tennis, cycles and enjoys walking in the Redwoods. Grahame has four adult children and nine grandchildren.

Having worked tirelessly in our community for the past 23 years, Deputy Chairperson and local businesswoman, Jo-Anne La Grouw knows it well.

Well known for her contribution to the arts, she is currently Patron of the Friends of the Rotorua Museum of Art and History– Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa, a founding Trustee of RAVE (Rotorua Arts Village Experience) and a trustee of the Rotorua Community Charity Trust, Rotorua Festival of Arts and the Rotorua Lakeside Concert Trust. Jo-Anne is also vice chair of the Rotorua Performing Arts Society and has recently completed a three-year term as a director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

She is also renowned for her work with the Life Education Trust, where over the past 10 years she has promoted fun and novel ways of raising funds for local children. Chairperson of Save the Children Rotorua, Jo-Anne is also the shop’s retail manager and is the city’s representative on the Bay of Plenty / Gisborne Lotteries Community Trust Grants Board.

Jo-Anne enjoys tending to her two-acre garden, where together with husband, Joe, she hosts many fund-raising functions each year. She also enjoys spending time with her chocolate Labrador dog, Bruno.

Born in Blenheim, and raised and educated in New Plymouth, Jo-Anne has three children and two grandchildren.

The local community, music, entertainment, arts and culture have all played a large part in Trevor Maxwell’s life.

Currently in his second term as the city’s deputy mayor, Trevor is the district’s longest serving district councillor with more than 28 years to his credit.

Born and raised in Rotorua, Trevor became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for his long-standing services to Maori culture, the arts and local government affairs in 2002.

He is chairman of the ‘Opera in the Pa’ organising committee, leader of award-winning cultural group, Ngati Rangiwewehi and Te Arawa representative on the Aotearoa Performing Arts Committee. Trevor is also on the Rotorua Civic Arts Trust and the Lakeside Concert Charitable Trust, and is a member of the Rotorua Tourism Advisory Board.

Having had the good fortune to have travelled extensively, both in New Zealand and overseas, Trevor still believes Rotorua is the best place on earth to raise children and to care for our older people.

Trevor and Atareta Maxwell have two children.

Janet is an active and enthusiastic contributor to the development of her community through involvement in a number of organisations. She retains a special interest in Rotorua’s growing arts spectrum and in promoting public accessibility to arts.

Janet was first elected to the Rotorua District Council in a bi-election for the city’s West Ward in 2002, and was successfully re-elected in the 2004 local government elections.

Her colleagues on Council elected her Deputy Chair of the Parks & Recreation Committee, and a member of both the Finance & Strategic Development Committee and the Planning & Bylaws Committee. She also sits on the Hearings Panel and has completed specialist training as a Resource Management Commissioner.

Other areas of council work include chairing both the Support for the Elderly sub-committee and the Community Safety Projects Fund. Janet has recently been elected to serve as a trustee on RAVE - the Rotorua Arts Village Experience.

She is also a committee member of Creative Communities, a trustee of the Civic Arts Trust and a member of the ICT Strategy Steering Group.

Janet has previously served as convenor of the Rotorua Concerto over a seven year period and was a member of the Rotorua Competitions Society.

She is married to Matthew and they have five adult daughters, “along with three sons-in-law and six lovely grandchildren … so far!”