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Nigel Costley

President

Nigel is a retired nurse, journalist, and beekeeping tutor. He says Nelson has always had a reverence for science and learning baked into the character of its citizens and history. After all, it’s the birthplace of Sir Ernest Rutherford. Nigel sees a continuing role for the Nelson Institute as a community-based enterprise fostering the cultural life of our city.

Lesley Kuykendall

Treasurer

Lesley started her working life as a geologist in the outback of Western Australia. After that she lived in California for about 40 years with a short stint back in NZ in the late 70’s where her two children were born. In California she reinvented herself as a Special Education teacher and taught for about 20 years. After retirement she returned to NZ to live in Nelson.

Ann Martin

Committee Member

Ann’s administrative and business qualifications have helped her to run a variety of owner/operator businesses in partnership with her husband throughout her working life. These have included a vegetable processing plant, a farm in a remote river valley on the West Coast of the South Island and an accommodation lodge on the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds. She has also spent time volunteering with United Nations on Niue Island and with VSA in Tanzania. These experiences have given Ann an interest and respect for both the natural world and the different human cultures which inhabit it.
She has now retired to Nelson enjoying the proximity of the great outdoors and the variety and comforts of city life without too much of the “busyness” of bigger cities.

Paul Bieleski

Author of the Nelson Institute Review

Paul obtained a degree in Chemical Engineering. His overseas experience led him to change to computing, working for IBM for 15 years and then teaching computer science. As a student again, he did some university units in economics. Then in 1996 he formed the Anti Economist League writing newsletters and letters to the editor of newspapers. He has been producing the Nelson Institute Review since 2002.

Alec Woods

Committee Member

Alec grew up in Nelson, then shifted to Auckland to study Asian and Pacific history at the University of Auckland. He began his working life as a secondary school teacher before moving over to the fishing industry in a risk management and technical quality role. In recent years he has focused on training, advice and consultancy, with a particular interest in the fisheries of Asian and Pacific nations. Along the way he has also found time to become involved with gold mining, oil exploration and the preservation of old wooden buildings.