Jen Baird
General Manager, City Growth at Hamilton City Council
Why are you a member of the WWF?
I like that the fund will be there forever and that my gift, and yours, will keep providing resources for the women of the Waikato long after I am gone.
What are you most looking forward to about being on the committee?
Raising some money by doing cool stuff that people want to be a part of.
Local Waikato cafe you'll be found at?: Volare Garden Place, enjoying a long macchiato.
Who is an inspirational woman you look up too? I met a woman called Pat when I was in Berlin in 2004. Pat was born in New Zealand, jumped a ship to Australia in her early twenties and ended up in Canada. She had decided to travel for the whole of her 70th year. I was 28 when we met. She was a month off 71 and had just been hiking in Poland for two weeks alone; right before that she’d had a holiday romance in Turkey. She had colourful and dangerous stories. She said she was going out that evening to have an adventure and did I want to come along. I ended up following her around for three days and I saw an entirely different world. She was free and excited and entirely herself. She changed my life.
Recommended book/movie/Ted Talk about women: You are a Badass by Jen Sincero. I felt like I had been launched off a cliff when I finished it. Clementine Ford on Facebook - she’s a total badass!
Favourite place to visit in the Waikato: Ko Pirongia te maunga. I love it in a way that makes me teary. It's not a nice walk - muddy and wet and uphill - but watching from a distance is connecting to god.
Hidden talent?: Folding t-shirts. I was taught by a fanatic.