Governance - Executive Team | The Selwyn Foundation

Garry Smith

Chief Executive Officer

Garry has over twenty years’ experience of the health sector, having held senior positions with healthcare organisations throughout New Zealand. Prior to his appointment to the Foundation, he had been CEO of the country's largest health board, Auckland District Health Board, for nine years. A qualified accountant, Garry has expertise in management, planning, accounting and finance, as well as experience of the banking industry. As CEO of the Foundation, Garry is passionate about providing ethical and values-based services for older people and ensuring that services are delivered with integrity, warmth and respect for the individual at all times.

The Reverend Caroline Leys

Director, Spiritual Care

Caroline is an Anglican Priest and has contributed as a non-stipendiary priest in several parishes and at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland. Since ordination as priest in 1990 she has worked in private practice as a therapist, facilitator, trainer and more recently in ministry and business development. Caroline is a certified Sageing Leader for Sage-ing International. As director of Spiritual Care, Caroline is responsible for the development and refinement of Selwyn’s operational expression of Faith and Tikanga, which is written into our Constitution and is the basis for all that we do and exist for as an organisation. Caroline also leads our strategic development of the spiritual wellbeing dimension of The Selwyn Way — which is our approach to the care and wellbeing of all who connect with us — so that spirituality is made accessible across everything we do as a charity, in our villages, through our community services, and through education and knowledge exchange for staff, older people and their families.

Karen Coleman

Director, Marketing and Communications

With 35 years’ experience in advertising, marketing and communications Karen has worked in both Hong Kong and New Zealand across a wide range of industries including, professional services, financial services, public sector, technology, property, publishing, tourism and hospitality to name but a few. Prior to joining The Selwyn Foundation, Karen was the National Director, Marketing for accounting firm, Grant Thornton New Zealand. As Director, Marketing and Communications, she is responsible for positioning the organisation and its brand whilst meeting strategic goals and coordinating stakeholder engagement and effective communications.

Jason More

Chief Financial Officer

Jason began his career in chartered accountancy in New Zealand, before moving to the United Kingdom, where he worked for eleven years across a variety of sectors. He returned to New Zealand in 2011 and began his retirement village career by joining Vision Senior Living as acting Chief Financial Officer with a focus on the recapitalisation of the group. When Metlifecare acquired Vision (along with Private Life Care), Jason worked on the financial integration of the entities. In 2013 he joined The Selwyn Foundation and was appointed Chief Financial Officer. At Selwyn, Jason has responsibility for the finance function along with treasury, legal and non-retirement village commercial operations. He is also heavily involved in setting and delivering on group strategy. At Selwyn, he has led a number of key strategic projects including formation of the Haumaru Housing joint venture with Auckland Council and the acquisition of Sprott Village in Wellington. He has provided advice and undertaken strategic reviews for other retirement village operators in the charitable sector. Jason was co-opted to the RVA Executive in February 2020.

Bob Bull

Director, Assets and Development

Bob holds a breadth of operational and strategic experience in the property sector having worked in the NZ/Australasian and UK/European property markets. His most recent company role was the Director of Property, Projects and Facilities Management at Cushman and Wakefield. Bob spent four years as General Manager Property for Air New Zealand and prior to that sat on the leadership team at CBRE as Director of Global Corporate Services. Bob is a strategic and innovative thinker with a proven track record of implementing projects and leading high performing teams. He sees the role of Property as not only a support function but as a business enabler helping to drive innovation within the organisation.