Business manager Rawinia Lewis embarks on new opportunities

Rawinia Lewis and Aayden Clarke are pleased to launch the K3 website. Photo / File

These are exciting times for Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi as Rawinia Lewis takes the helm as the new Kahungunu Asset Holding Company (KAHC) business manager.

She's hit the ground running as new ventures have taken off.

Rawinia was welcomed to Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated (NKII) on June 4 last year as a secondee from the Ministry of Social Development to assist the iwi with training, employment, housing and working with other government agencies to improve services to whānau.

NKII chief executive Chrissie Hape had Rawinia progressing the strategic outcomes of Te Ara Toiora /The Pathway to wellbeing for Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi.

Over the past 12 months there has been significant changes in the Kahungunu Asset Holding Company with the resignation of general manager Jonathan Dick, the appointment of a new chair, Trevor Moeke, and four new directors, Heather Skipworth, Barry Wilson, Ian Taylor and iwi board member JB Heperi-Smith.

During these changes Rawinia assisted by taking on an interim role in change management and last month after Covid lockdown was lifted, she moved into this new role as business manager.

Rawinia will be working with the directors to ensure the best opportunities to empower Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated through sustainable economic and commercial success.

One of the business opportunities Rawinia has her teeth stuck into at present is K3 - Kahungunu Property, a new venture based on growing people, building homes and growing Māori ownership.

Rawinia is working closely alongside Aayden Clarke who is contracted through our relationship with EIT Hawke's Bay by providing support through the Māori Pacific Trades Training course that is supporting potential Kahungunu builders.

Rawinia grew up in Waipukurau, where she attended Central Hawke's Bay College, and left to study in Palmerston North and later worked in Wellington. She now resides in Napier with husband Jamie Mitchell and their two tamariki aged 9 and 11.