Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated chief executive Dr Adele Whyte has resigned from her position to start her own whānau business.
Dr Whyte was appointed to the role at the age of 34, following three years as the Director of Fisheries and Environment for the Iwi.
Prior to working for the Iwi, she lectured in Biology, Biotechnology, Genetics, Biochemistry and Marine Biology at Victoria University in Wellington.
Although she enjoyed her role at the university, the opportunity to move back to her rohe and share her skills and talents for the betterment of her Iwi was too good to miss!
Dr. Adele Whyte's field of expertise and interest includes Freshwater, Genetics, Mātauranga (Education), Iwi Governance, Strategy, Hapū development and Research and as such these will form the basis of her new venture. Dr. Adele Whyte has a number of contacts in all of these fields and it is envisioned that she will be working regionally, nationally and internationally in her new business.
"Following the completion of an extremely successful Te Matatini, the time is right for me to focus on my young family and pursue other opportunities for myself, my whānau, my hapū and my iwi" says Dr. Whyte.
On reflection on Dr. Whyte's achievements while working for the iwi, Ngahiwi Tomoana had the following to say, "Adele came to the iwi as a high school student to ask what subjects she should embark on so that her studies would benefit her iwi.
She chose Science and once gaining her Bachelor of Science, she returned to the iwi to find out how her Master's degree could also help the iwi. She succeeded in her Masters in Genetics, tracing Māori DNA through the Pacific back to Taiwan. Having gained her Masters, she then asked what she should study for Doctorate that again would help the iwi.
We advised her that we were establishing a mussel farm. Adele went on to succeed in her Doctorate focusing on the Environment Toxicology of the green lip mussel which was immediately applicable to our resource consent application.