Joe Duncan
Duncan Foundation Chair
Investor, Director and Shareholder
Joe is an active investor across a range of industries and sectors, including Property Development, Finance, Technology (Fintech and Blockchain) and Agriculture. He has been involved in a number of privately held companies in New Zealand and Australia which include companies such as Ihug, e-Solutions, The Better Drinks Company, Focus Capital, Alleasing, RentPlus and Equipment Leasing and Finance. All of these have been successfully sold to listed entities or Private Equity organisations.
Joe is a Trustee for the Sir Thomas and Lady Duncan Trust, a significant donor to neuromuscular disorders. He, along with his fellow Trustee’s and Gordon, founded the Duncan Foundation, a national support service for people living with neuromuscular conditions and the health professionals who treat and support them. Duncan Foundation provides access to expert assessment and clinical practitioners who understand the management of selected neuro muscular conditions, as well as ongoing support for the person and their families.
Previously, Joe was CEO, Director and Shareholder of Leasing and Finance Limited. This business trades under the Speirs Finance & Yoogo Leasing brands. He spent eight years working in the financial markets for J.P Morgan where his roles and responsibilities included heading up the Interest Rate Derivatives Risk Management Desk in Tokyo as a Vice President. Joe holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Management, Majoring in Economics.
Tim Edmonds
Trustee
Tim worked for 10 years in Universities in NZ and the UK. His responsibilities included developing and securing funding for large-scale European partnership projects.
In recent years, Tim has worked for New Zealand’s leading child health research charity, Cure Kids, as their Research and innovation Director. He is responsible for overseeing a research funding portfolio spanning more than 50 active projects, worth close to $10m. Tim works with many of the country’s leading researchers and clinicians to identify collaborative opportunities for addressing priority child health challenges.
Tim is also the General Manager of Cure Kids in Fiji, which has a focus on delivering new research-based child health programmes across the Fiji Islands in partnership with the Fiji Ministry of Health and a variety of government and corporate funding partners.
Sally Paterson
Trustee
Sally is a for-purpose sector leader and is the founding Chief Executive of Live Ocean Foundation, a marine conservation charity established by champion sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. Her passion and interest in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector has been honed over the past decade after spending her early career in corporate communications, specialising in crisis communications and media management. Her knowledge of the charity sector was further enhanced at the Australian School of Non-profit and Philanthropic Studies (ACPNS) where in 2017 she earned distinction in a Graduate Certificate in Business (Philanthropy and Non-profit studies). She is an Alumni of the University of Canterbury and a New Zealand Broadcasting School graduate.
Letticia Mincham
Chief Executive
With over 15 years of management experience in the health and disability sector, Letticia is actively involved in grassroots initiatives addressing disability and women’s health issues; she has collaborated with various health organisations on projects spanning primary care, disability, and mental health sectors. Letticia has held a variety of roles across the sector, including as the General Manager for the Epilepsy Foundation, Finance and Development Manager for Mobility Dogs, and Regional Manager for Panacea Healthcare. Her roles in disability-focused organisations reflect her commitment to positively impacting the community through meaningful contributions.
Letticia is passionate about delivering person-centred services and ensuring all New Zealanders have access to the information and relevant services they need.
Julie Rope
Clinical Director Duncan Foundation
NZRP, BPHTY Otago, Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Department of Medicine, University of Auckland
Julie has a passion for working with the neurological patient population, ensuring they have access to assessment and support wherever they live in New Zealand, and sharing knowledge with other professionals about neurological condition management.
For Julie this has included passing competencies to become a LSVT BIG therapist and New Zealand’s first PWR!Moves® Certified Therapist https://www.pwr4life.org/moves/ providing evidence based treatment to Parkinson’s patients. She has also become certified Poi instructor under the guidance of Dr. Kate Riegle van West.
Julie has also completed competency examinations to provide Advanced Vestibular Rehabilitation assessment and treatment and is currently completing her Master of Philosophy at AUT, as a clinically focused Masters. Her study aims to find out if passing weak electric currents to the cerebellum, a part of the brain at the back of the head, while doing an exercise programme improves the outcomes of the exercise programme for people with Spinocerebellar Ataxia type 1 (SCA1).
On behalf of the Duncan Foundation, Julie has embarked on developing the expert skills to assess and manage people affected by Polio and the management of the late effects of living with Polio disability and facilitating access to neurological rehabilitation options to those with Recently Diagnosed Parkinson’s, Dystonia, Friedreich’s Ataxia and Spinocerebellar Ataxia. Julie is also a part of the Neurogenetics Research Clinic research team, working alongside New Zealand’s leading neuromuscular clinical team at the University of Auckland and Auckland City Hospital.
Julie has extensive experience within acute neurosurgical and neuro-medical units, stroke rehabilitation units and community teams with both young and elderly patient groups, neuro-intensive care units, a brain injury assessment unit for the minimally conscious, neuro-oncology and infectious diseases, vestibular rehabilitation clinic, neuro hydrotherapy, spinal cord injury rehabilitation, Parkinson’s and dystonia management.
Julie leads the expert team of Duncan Foundation-accredited, neuromuscular condition-specific clinicians across New Zealand.
