Board
The FSC Board Folder can be found here. Profiles of the current FSC Board Members can be found below:
Geoff Stoddart - Chairman
Mr Stoddart is a Chartered Accountant. He graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Otago and in1990 was admitted to membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand. He is also a member of the Executor & Trustee Institute of Australia & New Zealand.
He has resided in the Cook Islands for twenty four years and is a permanent resident. He worked in the Cook Islands offshore finance industry as a client relationship executive from 1993 to 1996 and subsequently became Collector of Inland Revenue for the Cook Islands for a period of twelve years through to 2008. He joined the Board in July 2010.
Martha Henry
Martha Henry was born in New Zealand and was raised in Titikaveka, Rarotonga. She is the eldest of five children with family ties stemming from the islands of Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Manihiki, Atiu and Mangaia.
Ms Henry completed her Bachelor of Laws and Professional Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of the South Pacific in Vanuatu and Fiji. She went on to complete her Masters in International Law from the University of Sydney in Australia.
Ms Henry worked for the Crown Law Office from 2005 to 2015, primarily handling prosecutions on behalf of the Crown. She now operates her own legal practice known as Henry Law PC and provides advice and representation on matters such as land, family law, employment, and conveyancing.
Ms Henry joined the FSC Board in June 2019.
Tangata Fletcher Melvin
Mr Melvin was born in the Cook Islands and left to attend secondary school in New Zealand. He graduated with a Hospitality and Tourism Diploma from ATI (AUT).
After returning home to the Cook Islands in 1994 from living in French Polynesia, he worked in the family business Island Craft Limited and is now the Managing Director.
Mr Melvin is the current President of the Chamber of Commerce and the President of the Price Tribunal.
Christina Newport
Ms Newport is an international development practioner from Ngati Tamakeu and Ngati Te Tika in Rarotonga and has family ties to Mangaia and Aitutaki. In 2010, she established Akairo Consulting, a small consultancy company that provides a range of policy advice and services in programme and project design management, procurement, impact assessment and evaluation to government, donor and community based organisations.
Ms Newport has a keen interest in supporting the sustainable development aspirations of small island states. In 2018 she completed a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Ms Newport previously served as a member of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management Budget Support Group and is currently a board member of the Cook Islands Red Cross.
Dianne Gaye Whitta
Ms Whitta was born in New Zealand and educated in the Cook Islands and New Zealand. After obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (BCA) from Victoria University, Wellington, NZ she returned to the Cook Islands and commenced employment with the international Accounting firm KPMG. She then became Financial Controller of the Cook Islands Airport Authority (1993) and moved from there to Cook Islands Trading Corporation Limited (CITC) in 1997.
CITC is the largest privately owned Company in the Cook Islands with extensive trading in supermarkets, building supplies, liquor, pharmacy and duty free shops etc.
Ms Whitta commenced as Financial Controller of CITC in 1997 and became General Manager in 2004, the position she currently holds.
Ms Whitta was a Board member of the Public Expenditure Review Committee (PERC) in 2003.