Staff and Leadership

Mark Mackay
Executive Director

A founding board member of KiwiSpace, Mark has been an entrepreneur from childhood. He co-founded and spent 14 years working at the senior levels of the New Zealand telecommunications company, Orcon.

Having built the company from a startup to a multi-million dollar enterprise, he brings a wealth of experience at all levels and areas to KiwiSpace. In the role of Executive Director, he provides the glue between the leadership team and the Board of Directors -- and brings strong drive and commitment to the role.

In addition to his technical skills, he has passion for effective leadership - and is always pushing himself and others to improve and take on new challenges.

• Board of Directors, World Space Week Association
  
• Member, Space Education & Awareness Working Group, APRSAF (Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum)
  

Haritina Mogosanu
Education

Haritina is a science communicator, passionate about astronomy, biology and space sciences.

She has a B.Sc. in Horticultural Engineering introducing a new species of vegetable in Romania and an M.Sc. in Environmental Management for which she earned a TEMPUS scholarship at the Biological Sciences Department of Wye College Imperial College of London; to prepare her practical thesis she studied plant microbe interactions and advanced plant genetics and she was the valedictorian in her year. She took papers in Communication and Public Relations at the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) Bucharest Romania. In New Zealand she managed the Visitor Experience Department of the Carter Observatory Wellington New Zealand where she also delivered hundred of hours of planetarium presentations and public telescope sessions.

In January 2011 she fulfilled the position of Executive Officer, Astronomer, Engineer and Biosecurity Officer of Crew 98 Romars stationed at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah USA. She will be back there in 2012 as Commander of the first New Zealand Crew, KiwiMars, a mission she is really looking forward to. After MDRS she founded Mars Society New Zealand.

Also National Coordinator for New Zealand in the Ancient Skies project and Publicity Officer of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, she produced "Milky Way Kiwi", New Zealand's first astrophotography magazine in 2009, the International Year of Astronomy. For this, for creating a concept of an annual Polynesian Celestial Navigation Festival for which she had UNESCO support and for other accomplishments in the field of astronomy outreach she was awarded the "International Year of Astronomy 2009 Certificate of appreciation" in recognition of the commitment and outstanding contribution to the success of the international Year of Astronomy 2009 in Aotearoa New Zealand

• Manager of Educational Relations, World Space Week Association
  
• Publicity Officer, Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand

Julie Rowe
Chief Financial Officer

In addition to being a founding board member of KiwiSpace, Julie is currently engaged within the executive office of the Space Generation Advisory Council in Support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications as the organisation's Treasurer and New Zealand representative. Previously, she has taken part in SGAC's delegation at the Legal Subcommittee meetings of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space at the United Nations in Vienna, Austria.

With specific interests in space policy, education and advocacy, Julie brings to KiwiSpace optimism and dedication with the desire to help intensify the general New Zealand community's awareness of the vast socioeconomic benefits of space science and its related applications.

In conjunction with her space interests, Julie has previously been engaged in various operations management and financial management capacities in the NZ/US Film & TV Industry and more recently within the Software Development Industry.

• Regional Coordinator, Space Generation Advisory Council

Iain Finer
Industry Subcommittee

A dreamer and a doer, is the way Iain describes himself. Having grown up dreaming of space but not seeing anything happening in NZ he had a burning desire to do something about it. A keen follower of the Ansari X-Prize and subsequent Lunar Lander Challenge reinforced this desire even more.

In 2008 while working in the USA he attended the Space Access Society Conference, meeting a few of the former X-Prize competitors and at the time current LLC entrants. Being at the heart of this new space industry in the country where it was all happening was the last straw for him.

So in late 2008 he entered a team into the N-Prize competition, under the banner Kiwi 2 Space , where upon returning home from overseas in mid 2009 has been working away feverishly to achieve this ultimate goal of putting a satellite into orbit. But under the bigger picture of getting New Zealand more established as a space faring nation and creating opportunities that he didn't have as a kid growing up, dreaming.

Billy Kapoor
Industry Relations
In early 2004, Billy formed Advanced New Zealand Technologies to compete in the Ansari X-Prize. However, the prize was soon won by Tier One and Billy returned to developing television systems. 

In January 2010, he entered the N-Prize competition with his start-up Te Anahera Tere. This project is aimed at eventually providing New Zealand and the world with responsive, inexpensive access to space for small payloads. 

Billy joined the KiwiSpace Foundation as an expression of his vision to see New Zealand build an economically strong space sector that competes globally.

William Leizerowicz
Government and Policy

A founding board member of KiwiSpace, Will has been passionate throughout his life about the long term needs for space access. Following an interest in nuclear based propulsion, he grew his experience in the nuclear power industry working with CANDU reactors and improving the safety and reliability through the design of a new generation of solid state control systems.

He went on to work on research in agile manufacturing and rapid redesign with EIL towards SPAR Aerospace (currently MacDonald Dettwiler) for the Canadarm robotic manupulator used on the shuttle (SRMS). He has also contributed towards large propulsion systems for the X-Prize as well as a combination of tracking and aerodynamic simulation for landing site prediction for recovery.

He has participated internationally in various space meetings and conferences including LPSC, NASA Centenial Challenge, JAXA/JSF Satellite Competition, X-Prize in cities around the world including Flagstaff, Houston, London, Las Cruses, Maryland, Palo Alto, Ramnicu Valcea, Tokyo, Toronto, Tsukuba, Tucson and Yokohama and is currently heading the NZ Orion Project which will be New Zealand's first three stage rocket, and is looking to expand the role of flight computers for improved safetly as well as other scientific research applications.

• Executive Committee, NZ Rocketry Association

Peter Felhofer
Project Manager

André Pointon
Law & Policy Subcommittee

Janice Mackay
Education Subcommittee

Janice was most recently the principal of Glenbrook School; but has since taken a job as Education Manager at Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World.