The Regions’ legal and immigration experience paired with hands on agricultural knowledge allows for a full picture perspective.
We are the recruitment, immigration and pastoral care specialists for regional New Zealand offering a comprehensive wrap around service for your regional New Zealand employment journey.
Our services transform lives, farms and communities for the better. For people coming to New Zealand it’s an opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families. For dairy farm owners, it’s an opportunity to create stability for their business. For communities, it’s an opportunity to grow local economies.
E: alex_lenke@theregions.co.nz
RECRUITMENT RESOURCER
Alexandra comes from Germany, she grew up in a rural area in Rhineland-Palatinate. She is an educated office communication clerk trained in secretary, marketing and HR. Experienced working for the Office Administration and accounts in the logistic industry for 12 years in Germany.
Due to her recent Experienced in working on dairy farms in Australia and New Zealand she is now enjoying working as a Recruitment Resourcer to support our clients with proficient farmworkers. In her free time she loves travelling, spending time with friends and her partner.
M: 027 7383732 E: sana@theregions.co.nz
RECRUITMENT RESOURCER
Sana was born and raised in Hamilton. She graduated with a degree in Law and Social Sciences majoring in Environmental Planning and Political Science from University of Waikato. She is also a registered lawyer as of August 2018. Her past work experiences include legal advice, real estate and human resource recruitment. In The Regions, she manages the recruiting of foreign farm workers and liasing between immigration and pastoral care team. Aside from work, Sana is an avid traveller and loves spending time with family and friends.
Richard is a fourth generation dairy farmer from Hauraki Plains where he has several dairy farming investments. He has interests in dairy farming operations in Canterbury, Missouri USA and the south of Chile. Richard owns and runs a dairy farming supervisory business which oversees the daily operations of around 35 dairy units in the greater Waikato region, and also provides dairy consultancy services. Richard is also a director on another large scale privately owned NZ based dairy farming business comprising 13,000 cows. Richard brings critical thinking and creativity to assisting the rapid growth business in his role at The Regions.
Richard formerly held a role as an External Monetary Policy Advisor to the Reserve Bank.
Roger is a Partner at KPMG Hamilton and a market leading accountant and adviser In the Agribusiness field. He brings a wealth of experience with him and his focus in his role at the regions on governance and future vision, adding to the existing strong capability in The Regions Management team. Roger knows the region well having lived in the Waikato all his life. Roger has worked with our Managing Director Ben on several different ventures in the past 10 years.
M: 027 5392405 E: alexandra@theregions.co.nz
GRAPHIC DESIGNER & MARKETING SUPPORT
Alexandra is a Multimedia Arts graduate from the Philippines. She is currently taking her Honours in Media Arts at Waikato Institute of Technology. Recently, she joined The Regions as a part-time graphic designer and marketing support. She is also behind The Regions’ social media marketing materials and website.
Aside from being a graphic designer, she enjoys photography and film.
M: 021 2247872 E: backpackers@theregions.co.nz
GERMAN RECRUITMENT RESOURCER
M: 021 1119516 E: sonja@theregions.co.nz
ACCOUNTS OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR
Sonja comes from a family of farmers, growing up in the Waikato on the family dairy farm. As a teenager her family moved to a sheep and cattle farm at Tauwhare, where she lives today.
Sonja started her career in an engineering company responsible for the office administration, accounts and payroll. She then moved overseas and has travelled Australia, Europe and US acquiring a strong understanding of multicultural perspectives in communities and work environments.
Sonja returned to NZ and the family farm to provide her children with the opportunity to experience rural life.
M: 027 5893908 E: jess@theregions.co.nz
PASTORAL CARE FOR NORTHLAND, CANTERBURY AND NORTH OTAGO
Jessanli stayed most of his life in Philippines and moved to New Zealand last November 2014 to study International Business. Though he worked in the banking business back home as a Marketing Assistant/ Appraisal and Background Investigator for almost 5 years, he believed that further education and experience will help him gain professional competence.
Currently he is a Client Services Coordinator who looks after filipino farmers in processing their visas and following up how they’re settled in New Zealand.
M: 022 4166018 E: victor@theregions.co.nz
CLIENT SERVICE MANAGER
Originally from Philippines, Victor moved to New Zealand in 2014 to study. He has been working with Ben since 2014 to maintain and implement effective pastoral care policies and procedures. He is managing the Pastoral Care Team that provides pastoral support to enable an efficient and effective integration of immigrant candidates into New Zealand. He is also currently completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Immigration Advice.
When not at work, Victor enjoys going to the gym and spending time with his wife Miko.
M: 027 2006079 E: gina@theregions.co.nz
PASTORAL CARE FOR WAIKATO
Gina was a psychologist, a university professor and a Human Resource consultant of various companies in the Philippines. She came to NZ together with her 4 children on August 2014 in order to join her husband, Jason who worked in a dairy farm. In NZ, she shared her psychology skills by supporting people with intellectual disability. She also worked as Candidate Care Manager and Marketing agent of recruitment companies bringing in Filipino workers.
Currently, she is our Client Services Coordinator and Pastoral Care person for Waikato region. She supports the workers in their visa processing and makes sure that they are able to settle well in their jobs and with NZ life in general.
M: 027 2492418 E: roselyn@theregions.co.nz
PASTORAL CARE FOR MANAWATU AND TARANAKI
Rose had variety of roles in her 18 working years from Philippine banking sector to NZ mortgage industry. Her strong interest in documents preparation & review plus her passion in helping candidates are among her key points of being one of the pastoral care team players.
She welcomes new learnings in immigration & recruitment industry. Handling new and existing candidates with care and keeping them are very important in her daily task.
During free time, she loves cooking & baking for her daughter, Angel, enjoy playing badminton on Friday nights with her husband, Adel.
M: 021 0535951 E: gilbert@theregions.co.nz
PASTORAL CARE MANAGER
Gilbert is from the Philippines and he arrived in New Zealand in spring of 2015. He is a graduate of BS Psychology with relevant work experience in HR, Recruitment and Employee Relations.
Since early 2016, Gilbert has been working alongside Ben in delivering services to meet clients’ requirements and supporting farm workers in their immigration and HR needs. He is currently the Executive Assistant to the Managing Director.
Gilbert is living in Hamilton with his wife Katrina and their 6-year old daughter, Sasha.
M: 021 0555971 E: raveena@theregions.co.nz
IMMIGRATION ADMINISTRATOR
LLB
ENROLLED BARRISTER AND SOLICITOR OF THE HIGH COURT, NEW ZEALAND
Raveena is from the Cream of the Country, Morrinsville and has grown up in a community surrounded by dairy farms. She completed her LLB at the University of Waikato and is admitted as a Solicitor and Barrister of the High Court New Zealand. She has previously worked as a Law Clerk in a private practice law firm in Hamilton which dealt with a range of different areas of law. From this experience, along with learning lots of administration work, she also gained a detailed understanding behind how the law processes in work in practice.
Outside of work she enjoys cooking and spending time with her family and friends. Alongside this she has a big interest in the fashion and beauty industry.
M: 021 1927314 E: louise@theregions.co.nz
IMMIGRATION ADMINISTRATOR
Louise is a full-time student studying Bachelor of Laws in Waikato University and is now currently on her second year. She just recently joined the Immigration team of the Regions as a part – time Admin. She was from Dunedin but she moved to Hamilton to be with family and to continue her studies after taking a gap year. On her spare time, she enjoys cooking and love babysitting her niece and nephew.
M: 027 2492419 E: kristine@theregions.co.nz
RECRUITMENT RESOURCER
Kristine and her family lived in dairy farms across Southland and Otago region. She graduated from University of Otago with a Bachelors Degree in Management and a Post Graduate Diploma in Commerce. After graduating from the university, she started working as an administrator for dairy farms.
One of her responsibilities is managing the end to end recruitment of foreign dairy farm workers. She has been recruiting Filipino dairy farmers for the last 4 years. She also previously worked for Immigration New Zealand. She is married to a dairy farmer and have 2 children.
M: 020 40776888 E: denise@theregions.co.nz
IMMIGRATION ADMINISTRATOR
LICENSED IMMIGRATION ADVISER 201800642
Denise is a dairy farmer’s daughter from Patetonga on the Hauraki Plains. She is currently juggling the roles of Immigration Administration, completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Immigration Advice, wife, mother to four children and lifestyle/hobby farmer.
Denise has a Master’s Degree in Social Science, speaks Spanish and Japanese having lived in Argentina and Japan and an employment history that includes the Embassy of Chile, Immigration New Zealand and Inland Revenue.
She has travelled extensively in her pre-children days and in the bit of free time that she does have she enjoys gardening and horse riding.
M: 027 9310005 E: sam@theregions.co.nz
LICENSED IMMIGRATION ADVISER 201500520
Sam is a graduate of Otago University holding a Bachelors Degree in Applied Science. He has many years of experience in the telecommunications industry, primarily in customer facing roles in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
He completed his immigration training in his home region of Hawkes Bay before acquiring full NZ Adviser Licencing in 2015. After practicing in a small firm in Hastings he now joins The Regions team bringing his service expertise and a ‘can-do’ attitude.
Sam loves to travel. He has traveled extensively throughout South-East Asia, Latin America and Europe, including living and working in London for two years.
M: 022 3117541 E: bevan@theregions.co.nz
IMMIGRATION MANAGER
LICENSED IMMIGRATION ADVISER 201800659
Having worked for Immigration New Zealand as well as in private practice law firms specialising in Immigration Law for a number of years gives Bevan a wealth of experience critical to the work of The Regions.
He enjoys the problem solving aspects of the role and improving the internal systems of The Regions so that the process runs as smoothly as possible for clients and candidates. Bevan, along with Ben, is also an Otago Law school graduate having studied Law together in Dunedin.
Outside of work, Bevan enjoys travelling throughout New Zealand and abroad, and spending as much time as possible with his dog, Max.
M: 021 2259787 E: fleur@theregions.co.nz
KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER FOR SOUTHLAND AND SOUTH & WEST OTAGO
Fleur is our Key Account Manager for the Southland and South & West Otago regions. She is based in Mossburn where she and her husband James Lower Order Sharemilk 1100 cows. They have a team of migrant Nepalese working alongside them, so Fleur has a good background in working with migrants and supporting their visa and life requirements.
After graduating from the University of Otago, Fleur spent 4 years working in the corporate world in the cities and chose to come back to dairy farming 8 years ago. Fleur and James have three small children and are both very active in their growing farming business.
M: 027 9310003 E: michelle@theregions.co.nz
KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER FOR NOTHLAND, CENTRAL & EASTERN WAIKATO, BOP, CENTRAL PLATEAU
Michelle and her husband Pete have been dairy farming for 27 years, their dairy farming career has taken them to the Waikato, Hauraki Plains, Southland and Waihi where they are currently farming.
Whilst in Southland Michelle and Pete employed Filipino staff on their 220 HA dairy farm. Michelle comes from a governance back ground having been Chair and Trustee for several Not for Profit Boards.
Michelle has three adult children who are have careers associated with the primary sector, she enjoys spending time with family and friends and travelling.
M: 027 9310004 E: julie@theregions.co.nz
KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER FOR CENTRAL AND WESTERN WAIKATO
Julie has a background in dairy farming and administration. Julie and her husband started off self-employed on a dairy farm near Morrinsville. After a few years Julie, her husband and other family members joined a partnership and moved to a bigger farm near Te Awamutu milking 1000 dairy cows, she and her team employ 3 full time Filipinos.
Julie has two children who love to explore farming life and being in the big wide open spaces of the country. In her down time, Julie loves spending quality time with her family and friends relaxing, and having a good laugh.
M: 027 2689886 E: leanne@theregions.co.nz
KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER FOR CANTERBURY AND NORTH OTAGO
Leanne grow up just outside of Geraldine on a parents dairy/beef farm. She always love been outside on the farm, after finishing school she went dairy farming, where she met her husband. 10 years ago they moved up to island Ashburton here my husband and her milk 1300 cows hiring five Filipino. Outside from the farming and recruitment life I have two boys which one is sport mad that keeps us busy.
M: 027 4693305 E: steph@theregions.co.nz
KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER FOR MANAWATU
Steph is our Key Account Manager for Manawatu, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa. She studied Sport and Exercise at Massey University and went dairy farming as a summer job in 2007 and has never looked back.
Steph has been involved in dairy farming and working with Filipino farm staff for 10 years, and has been active in farm staff recruitment for almost 3 years. She now lives in Opiki with her husband Kristian and their three children on the family dairy farm where they milk 1900 cows.
M: 027 9310002 E: shannon@theregions.co.nz
KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER FOR HAURAKI PLAINS AND SURROUNDS
Previously a client, Shannon is our Key Accounts Manager for the Hauraki Plains and Surrounds. She studied Hospitality Management and landed in the Hotel industry where she was involved in a large portion of recruitment spanning over her seven years service.
Shannon and her husband James along with their two children, Karstyn and Bryah are Contract Milking on a 900 cow farm in Ngatea. They’re also shareholders in two other companies with farms spanning across the Waikato, Canterbury and Southland regions in New Zealand and Missouri, USA.
M: 022 2787285 E: ben@theregions.co.nz
MANAGING DIRECTOR
LLB, BA
LICENSED IMMIGRATION ADVISER 201401414
Ben is a graduate of Otago University Law School, and now finds himself putting his education to use servicing the NZ dairy farming sector. Ben is a market expert writing columns and article’s on regional NZ labour shortage and Immigration policy needs and realities.
When not at work, Ben enjoys time with his wife Patricia, playing Basketball, Rugby and the fun humour and intensity of Christopher (5) and Sebastian (2).
M: 027 9316817 E: patricia@theregions.co.nz
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
Patricia is a company Director passionate about her family and the philosophy of continual improvement. She is an Industrial & System Engineer graduated from the “Universidad Privada de Santa Cruz de la Sierra” one of the leading universities in Bolivia.
She has 4 years experience as process and HR support in the “immigration and recruitment” industry. She works at The Regions improving the company operations and processes.
She speaks Spanish, English, basic French and Portuguese. Patricia is married with Ben and they have 2 boys Christopher and Sebastián.
