Pacific Housing Symposium Speakers

Please check back regularly as more information will be added as it is received from each speaker.

Peter Fa'afiu
Partner, Navigator Limited

Tiumalu Lauvale Peter Fa'afiu is a co-founder of management consultancy, Navigator Limited.  In 2013, he was a founding executive of Tamaki Regeneration Company, the largest urban regeneration programme in Auckland across three suburbs.  Prior to that, he was an executive with NZ Post Group and former diplomat.  Over the last 10 years, Peter has been involved with several sectors through Navigator and as a professional director.  Current consulting clients include Winton Land Company, Ramwall Group (developer in Sth Auckland) and iwi entities in Auckland.  

Peter's infrastructure governance has been as former Chairman of Monte Cecilia Housing Trust (with over 600 houses in South Auckland), an Independent Director of Urban Plus Limited (residential developer in Wellington), and foundation director of St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College (new secondary school in Drury).  Based in Pukekohe, Peter has worked with various stakeholders in Franklin, now the fastest growing region within Auckland and will be for the next 30 years.

Peter has been an Independent Commissioner for Fast-track consenting on four large scale projects - three residential housing projects and one solar farm that will bring energy to 40,000 homes in North Auckland.  He has law and history degrees from the University of Auckland and studied executive management at Melbourne University (Mt Eliza Business School).  Father of six, Peter was born in Samoa and is from the villages of Faleapuna and Satuimalufilufi. 


Dr Charmaine ‘Ilaiū Talei 
Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland

Dr Charmaine ‘Ilaiū Talei (Tatakamōtonga, Houma—Kingdom of Tonga) is a registered architect (NZRAB and BOAQ), researcher and educator at Te Pare School of Architecture, Planning, and Design at Waipapa Taumata Rau, The University of Auckland. Charmaine is a leading researcher of Pacific architecture and has published widely on culturally responsive design methodologies, Pacific housing wellbeing, multigenerational housing, and Pacific building practices and technologies. Charmaine is founder of NOFO‘ANGA, a research-led housing agency working with the diaspora to build homes in the Pacific. She also works as an architectural consultant on government, community and aid projects in the Pacific region, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Australia. Enabling a symbiotic relationship between architectural research and architectural practice is a motivation of Charmaine's work.


Tupuola Roine Lealaiauloto
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Penina Trust

Tupuola Roine Lealaiauloto is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Penina Trust (formerly Penina Pacific Health / Penina Health Trust). Established in 2001, Penina Trust is an Auckland-based, Pacific-led NGO that provides holistic wellness, mental health and addiction support, and social and transitional housing for vulnerable families.  

Roine worked in Aotearoa and Samoa after completing her Bachelor of Social Work at Massey University with early roles including working with Child, Youth and Family services, in resettlement programmes and in health sector project management including time at the Mental Health Foundation and the Ministry of Health in New Zealand.

Currently completing her Masters in Business Administration, she also offers her vast skillset to other organisations within our community including as Chairperson for Family Success Matters, Soalaupule South and the New Zealand Pacific Housing Network. Roine is also an Executive member of PIMPHPA, Co-Chair of the Tangata o le Moana provider collective, member of Counties Manukau Communicable Diseases Group and for the Penina Trust.


James Palmer 
Chief Executive of Community Finance and Community Housing Funding Agency (CHFA)

James Palmer is the Chief Executive of Community Finance and the Community Housing Funding Agency (CHFA).

James founded Community Finance in 2019, to help New Zealand tackle its affordable housing crisis.

Community Finance and CHFA have together raised over a half a billion dollars to provide efficient finance throughout the country.

CHFA secured Government support in 2025 and is working with debt capital markets to deliver billions of dollars of efficient finance to support affordable housing.

CHFA is proud to support Penina Trust as its lender.


Arjun Samie
Founder / Group Managing Director, Ramwall Group of Companies

Arjun is originally from Fiji where the Sami family were inter-generational farmers.  Following schooling at Otahuhu College, in 1993 he established and managed two supermarkets in Otara and Mangere where he got to know those communities very well.  That retail business foundation through supermarket ownership enabled his transition into the construction and development sector.  Ramwall Group of Companies was born in 2006 with the establishment of its first construction company.  

Over two decades the Ramwall Group has built 650 residential dwellings and 320 residential lots.   In addition to residential, Ramwall has constructed commercial projects.   They have in-housing expertise in land development, re-zoning, scheme planning, master planning, securing resource and building consents, stakeholder and community engagement.  Large project construction clients have included public service entities like Department of Corrections and Kainga Ora.  

Ramwall Group currently leases 120 homes to four community housing providers (CHPs) in Auckland and Hamilton so they have a good understanding of tenancy management, maintenance, and wrap around support services.  Three years ago, the company decided to undertake further community housing builds particularly in the accessible independent living sector.  The result has been two universal designed accessible living projects - 21x homes under the Toitoi Living brand (Papakura, Papatoetoe); 23x homes under the Notre Dame Living brand (Pukekohe).  In addition, with investment and funding partners, Ramwall is seeking to move into the health / wellbeing / hauora spaces.

Arjun oversees the strategic direction and operations of the Ramwall Group of Companies.  He uses his wide network and partnerships to support delivery of his projects, driving sustainable growth, and creating community value from every project.  


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