Good Bitches Baking is all about spreading a bit of sweetness in our communities. We aim to give a moment of happiness to people going through a tough time.
Anyone can be a Good Bitch – it’s a very admiring and gender-inclusive term. Good Bitches are people who want to help those in their community who are having a tough time. You don’t have to be a master baker, because it’s the kindness in your intentions that matters more than the final product.
Good Bitches Baking is all about spreading a bit of sweetness in our communities. We aim to give a moment of happiness to people going through a tough time.
Anyone can be a Good Bitch – it’s a very admiring and gender-inclusive term. Good Bitches are people who want to help those in their community who are having a tough time. You don’t have to be a master baker, because it’s the kindness in your intentions that matters more than the final product.
Meet the
TEAM
Our HQ team coordinates our national fundraising, programme development, communications, partnerships, and works with our Chapter leaders to deliver kindness across the country. Behind the scenes, the Good Bitches Trust is governed by another team of Good Bitches, who volunteer their time to make up The Board. And of course, our founders - we can't say enough great things about those two.
HQ
Katy Rowden
General Manager
Originally hailing from England, Katy spent many years in Sydney before relocating to Wānaka with her husband and two children in 2019. Some of her earliest childhood memories were volunteering with her Granny, shaking collection boxes for charity and helping her mum out with the 'village teas' working alongside ladies from the open prison in the village where she grew up.
These early experiences taught her that small acts of kindness make a huge difference. Katy brings several years of small business experience, having owned her own businesses and more recently has worked for a range of social and community-based Not for Profits.
NATASHA MEYNELL
Operations Support
Nat has been a Wellington Good Bitch since 2020 and joined the committee as Newbies Bitch this year. She has always loved baking, but not to enjoy herself… Her joy comes from sharing it with others – GBB was a match made in heaven!
Nat loves being the glue that holds things together and has a background in coordinating volunteers for various street appeals, HR administration, learning and development and organisational development, as well as being an absolutely integral part of our Bitch Management System development team.
Being part of the GBB community combines Nat's loves of sharing her baking, contributing to her community, and working with volunteers to ensure they have an enjoyable, well supported volunteer experience.
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HANNAH MOLLOY
Marketing & Communications Manager
Hannah likes to know the back story and all the inside info so she can share the best bits with everyone else. She works with the marketing and communications team to make sure that all of Aotearoa knows just how far a little bit of kindness goes. Her background is in arts marketing and audience and relationship development, and telling stories about the enormous effect creative communities have on communal social wellbeing is her favourite job – what’s more creative than baking? She spends a lot of time in the kitchen and thrives on feeding large groups of people.
Alex McCracken
Social Media Strategic Lead
Alex joined GBB in 2019 as a volunteer baker while studying at the University of Otago. She is a recent Law and Communications graduate and has been part of GBB’s Social Media Team since 2021. Alex has always loved baking, and some of her favourite memories are of baking Melting Moments and Cowboy Cookies with her Nan.
She leads the Social Media Team to promote our kaupapa and celebrate the amazing mahi that our volunteers do. She thinks the best part of working in the Social Media Team is seeing all the incredible bakes by our GBs and sharing the kind messages we receive about the impact of our baking.
The BOARD
MARGARET WARRINGTON
Co-chair
Margaret is the Group Financial Controller at Eroad. The only Auckland-based Board member, she brings a fiscal perspective to GBB, helping the Board keep the numbers in line.
Margaret was formerly Head of Finance at Summerset Holdings, and Chief Financial Officer at Statistics New Zealand prior to that, and has also worked at Housing New Zealand and Inland Revenue in finance roles.
SIMON THOMAS
Co-chair
By day, Simon is the Building System Assurance National Manager at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. He brings his legal background to his role as GBB Board Trustee, where he advises the charity on legal and regulatory matters.
Simon took on the role with GBB because he knows every little bit makes a difference – and for him, it’s in the family. Simon has been connected to GBB since the very beginning – his wife Loren has been with the Wellington chapter since it first began baking. Simon and Loren live in Wellington with their two adorable daughters.
Sam feder
Trustee
When a workmate introduced Sam to GBB six years ago, it was a perfect match of a passionate baker meeting a good cause – spreading kindness through baking.
Sam was Roster Bitch for the Wellington Chapter, organising a database of 600 bakers and drivers to bake and deliver nearly 100 boxes of baking a week. It’s her dedication to GBB that led her to joining the board.
Sam is a marketing communications contractor in her daily life, primarily working on projects in the public sector. She’s currently Senior Communications Change Advisor at the Ministry of Education. She brings her experience in communications and marketing as well as her knowledge of day to day GBB chapter operations to her role as Trustee.
sarah meikle
Trustee
Sarah is Chief Executive of the Wellington Culinary Events Trust (WCET) which owns and delivers some of New Zealand’s largest food and beverage events including Visa Wellington On a Plate, Beervana, the Road to Beervana and Highball. Sarah is also a Director of Food + Drink New Zealand which was established to provide assistance, advice and guidance to destinations, events, food operators and the wider food sector on how they can better leverage food tourism opportunities.
Sarah was a founding baker for the GBB chapter here in Wellington and is a strong supporter of the mandate and vision for the Trust.
Delaney Mes
Trustee
Delaney brings to the GBB board experience spanning law, marketing, food writing, catering, broadcasting, dispute resolution and more! Starting a food blog while she was a graduate lawyer took her career down some weird and wonderful paths, which included editing a book about NZ restaurants and navigating a malfunctioning food processor while making soup on TV.
She has recently returned to NZ from Melbourne with her partner and their toddler, and navigating new parenthood and a global pandemic in one of the most locked down cities in the world reinforced to her the power of community and connection through cooking and baking. She’s excited to bring this passion and experience to the board table.
Geoff Willmott
Trustee
Geoff is an Associate Professor in Physics and Chemistry at the University of Auckland, and Deputy Director (Commercialisation and Industry Engagement) at the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. His professional experience has included research collaborations with a global range of industry partners, and employment in management consultancy. He has a PhD in Physics from Cambridge University and has participated in the OnBoard Board Observer programme.
Geoff has refereed more than 100 premier club rugby fixtures in Auckland and Wellington, and lives in Auckland with wife Janet and two young children.
OUR founders
MARIE FITZPATRICK
Co-Founder, former Trustee
Marie is a problem-solver who comes up with creative solutions – so who better to dream up a charity to solve some of the world’s problems with cake? She is currently working as a Principal Adviser at the Ministry for Primary Industries, and has previously worked at MSD, MBIE, and ACC.
Marie was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2019. She is partial to a glass of pink bubbles, warning: too may result in starting a charity.
NICole MURRAY
Co-Founder, former Trustee
For the last 10 years, Nic has worked as an independent contractor on things that matter – that’s seen her deliver projects right across the public sector from justice to environment. Nic gets things done – including setting up GBB back in 2014 in her spare time with Marie, after they had the idea over a few glasses of wine. Nic’s real passion in GBB work is recipients and hearing the impact that the kindness of strangers has had on them. She knows what that feels like firsthand – it was receiving a warm scone from a mystery colleague on a rough day that sparked the idea of baking bringing more than just sweetness to someone’s day. Nic was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2019.