Research job
Florian Spoerl
Tauranga-based Florian Spoerl will next month join Waikato University as its new director Commercial and Business Partnerships. In his new role Spoerl will leverage the university’s opportunities in innovation and commercialisation, grow business partnerships and funding streams for research, and provide guidance and mentorship in the commercial research space.
Rhodes’ scholar
Florian Spoerl
Rotorua-raised Waikato University honours student Naianga Tapiata is set to walk the hallways of Oxford University armed with a Rhodes Scholarship to complete a fully funded two-year Master of Philosophy in Social Anthropology. Tapiata lived near Whakarewarewa and attended Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ruamata, New Zealand’s second Māori immersion school.
Strategy role
Sue Griffiths
Sue Griffiths has been appointed First Mortgage Trust’s national Strategic Partnerships manager. The company’s head office is in Tauranga with branch offices in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. She succeeds Bruce Smith who was with FMT for a decade. The company was founded in 1996 and now has more than $1.6 billion invested for its clients.
