Angela Wilton

CEO

Angela joined Belong Aotearoa as Chief Executive in October 2024. A social justice advocate at heart, she has spent her career moving between research and teaching, government, and NGOs – with stints everywhere from Aotearoa to Kenya, Tanzania, India, Belgium, Tonga, and Canada. She was born in Tāmaki Makaurau, grew up in Toronto, Canada, and is now raising two teenagers while juggling her love of big ideas with making real-world change. 

Email: angela.wilton@belong.org.nz

Malu Malo-Fuiava

Programme Director

Malu leads an awesome team running initiatives in the community, providing support to ensure strategic alignment and impact. Community is at the centre of what she does, with her own family's migration story from Samoa. You’ll find her with family, sometimes with her little one making an appearance at work. 

Email: malu@belong.org.nz

Charlotte Gordon

Safari Programme Manager

Charlotte leads the Safari Programme, offering playgroups and other wraparound support for migrant and refugee women. A former teacher, she has 20 years' experience in education, management and the community sector. Originally from Ōtautahi, she now lives in Avondale in Tamaki Makaurau with her husband and three children.

Email: charlotte@belong.org.nz

Sally Chu

Project Support Coordinator

Sally provides essential support in the administration and logistics of Belong Aotearoa s projects and the operations of the Safari Playgroups.   She loves cooking, especially experimenting with new recipes, and enjoys leisure walks. 

Email: safari@belong.org.nz

China González

Digital Communications Coordinator

China believes stories shape our world—online and offline. Their role centres on sharing the team’s stories, shaping Belong’s digital presence, as well as amplifying the voices of our communities. At the moment, you can find China in Edinburgh completing a Master’s in Participatory Arts. 

Email: china@belong.org.nz

Nadir Shafaq

Community Engagement Lead

Nadir leads community engagement at Belong, fostering partnerships and collaboration to support migrant and former refugee communities. With a deep passion for empowering communities, equity, and inclusion, he champions meaningful participation, co-design, and belonging. Originally from Afghanistan and based in West Auckland, he enjoys walks in the Waitākere Ranges and learning te reo Māori. 

Email: nadir@belong.org.nz

Nazmin Bhikoo

Community Development Coordinator

Nazmin is our community development coordinator for Belong Aotearoa. She is passionate in her role of leading community initiatives and addressing key barriers to settlement and wellbeing. Nazmin has been working in the migrant and refugee sector for over 10 years. Born and raised in Auckland, NZ she is originally from Indian descent and lives in the Puketapapa area with her husband and three daughters. She loves spending time with family, learning about different cultures and going for scenic walks in Tamaki Makaurau.  

Email: nazmin@belong.org.nz

Olga Sorokina

Organisational Administration Coordinator

Born in Ukraine, powered by coffee, and making admin look effortless. At Belong she is the one behind the scenes coordinating and administrating many moving parts that keep organisation running smoothly. When the day’s work is done, she swaps emails for tennis courts.  At home she chairs an even busier board — teenage daughter and pet rat Tesla, who are never short of “agenda items.” 

Email: olga@belong.org.nz

Gary Stewart

Business Services Manager

Email: gary@belong.org.nz

Mel Hornby

Finance Assistant

A descendant of a former refugee, this 3rd generation Chiwi has worked predominantly in the NFP sector over the last few decades – mainly in administrative and finance roles. Melanie is also known to support kaimahi in their various roles, too. Her love language is service. Her creative outlets – dance, singing, comedy and swimming as often as possible. 

Email: accounts@belong.org.nz

Elena Kim

Elena is an experienced corporate lawyer based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She has extensive experience advising on complex corporate transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and governance matters.

She brings a thoughtful and inclusive approach to her work and has been recognised for her leadership and contribution to the legal profession. Her acknowledgements include being named among Aotearoa New Zealand’s Most Influential Lawyers (2023, 2022), receiving the International Bar Association scholarship as its first New Zealand recipient, and being a finalist in the INFINZ Emerging Young Leader awards.

Elena is a public speaker on equity, inclusion and leadership, and speaks internationally as a legal subject-matter expert.

Of tauiwi heritage, Elena brings lived migrant experience to her governance work. She is committed to strengthening inclusion and belonging in Aotearoa and aims to bring a considered, people-centred perspective to the Board’s work and the communities that Belong Aotearoa serves.

Lynette Adams

For 25 years, Lynette has worked with community, leading a community organisation aimed at helping people fulfil their potential. As a Board member, Lynette brings vast experience facilitating capacity and capability building to create transformative change.

Lynette works with organisations to create impactful social change for good, focussing on strategy and organisational development, change management, mentoring, facilitation, co-design and community engagement. Lynette sees herself as a bio-degradable leader always looking to make her work redundant but like the nutrients in the soil, is always there to offer support and nourishment.

Lynette is currently a Director on Pūmanawa Āwhina, a national initiative that works with communities using physical activity and recreation for community and social development. Lynette has held other positions including roles on local, regional and national boards.

Dr Javeed Ali

Javeed is Fijian-Indian and a child of migrant parents. Javeed was born and grew up in West Auckland. He is passionate about equity and inclusion for minority communities, especially in sport. Javeed is currently the Community Insights and Training Lead at New Zealand Cricket.

Javeed previously worked at Sport Waitakere, championing and leading the diversity and inclusion in sport work focusing on increasing Asian and Pasifika participation. He is also a current member of the Auckland Cricket Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group.

Javeed has a Bachelor of Sport (Sport Coaching) from Unitec, Master of Business (Sport Management and Leadership and Master of Philosophy both from Auckland University of Technology. He recently graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy from Auckland University of Technology exploring the experiences of early-career rugby referees.

Ron Lal

Ron, Founder and CEO of Momentum Mind Lab, is a leader in Design Thinking, working with purpose-driven businesses and organisations to build ideas, strategies and systems that create positive impact.

Balancing his time between Aotearoa, Singapore and Jakarta, Ron collaborates with NGO leadership teams to help shape sustainable strategies. His expertise lies in revealing and realising potential, nurturing confidence and building outcome-driven strategies.

Ron holds memberships and mentorship roles with respected organisations like NZ Asian Leaders, Global Founders Institute, Auckland Business Chamber, YES Foundation, Business Mentors New Zealand, Adplist, and Entrepreneurs Organisation Global.

Ron has a Bachelor of Commerce from Auckland University of Technology. He is also an affiliated Human-Centred Design Practitioner from the Design Thinking Academy in the Netherlands and an accredited Design Sprint consultant.

Ron brings a focus on human-centric design to the Board, ensuring we make informed decisions and stay focused on impactful outcomes for our communities.

Cynthia Tieu

Cynthia is Teochew Chinese. Her family are former refugees who arrived in New Zealand from Cambodia and Vietnam over 35 years ago. Cynthia was born in and has spent most of her life living in South Auckland.

As a young person growing up in South Auckland, Cynthia was exposed to a rich and diverse community of different cultures and ethnic groups. Her experiences as young Asian woman navigating the New Zealand education system and workforce has made her passionate about supporting other people from former refugee and migrant families to succeed.

Cynthia has a clinical background as a registered alcohol and drug clinician and supervisor. She has worked for over 10 years in the mental health and addiction sector and has a strong commitment to creating accessible health services for everyone. Cynthia is currently based in Wellington and works in the public service.