Meet the Team
Dr. Kathryn McCully
Manager Art+Design & New Zealand Broadcasting School
Previous roles include Programme Manager for Screen Arts at the Southern Institute of Technology in Invercargill, and Manager/Curator of the Ashburton Public Art Gallery. Kathryn has a Master of Fine Arts from the Dunedin School of Art and completed her PhD at the Auckland University of Technology in 2020. Kathryn’s research focused on the democratization of the public museum experience by advocating for public museums to be embedded within communities.
Karen Neill
Programme Leader
Before re-joining the New Zealand Broadcasting School in 2016, Karen was Head of Partnerships at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, managing key stakeholder relationships with radio and television and overseeing access to the film, sound, and television collections. Prior to this Karen was part of the senior management team at Radio New Zealand. Karen’s media career also spans journalism, student radio, commercial radio, and the music industry. She has edited and written books on radio in New Zealand.
Brendan Reilly
Radio
You may have heard him on The Breeze, where Brendan's dulcet tones grace the airwaves most weekends. His day job though, is to lead the second-year radio course. His background includes industry experience in production, promotions, news and voice.
Mark Aldridge
Radio
Over a 25-year career in the industry, Mark has hosted shows, read news, worked as a voice-over artist and most recently as creative director for The Radio Network’s southern region. Still actively involved in the industry, Mark voices commercials, corporate training videos and documentaries. Mark leads the first-year radio programme and teaches across the streams in areas such as performance, production, media ecology, law and history.
Jeff Hampton
Journalism
A seasoned television news and current affairs specialist with a diverse background in broadcast media. Jeff has experience working across various platforms, including TV3, 60 Minutes, Prime TV, Channel 7, Fiji TV, radio and newspapers.
Beyond news reporting, Jeff is a documentary and programme maker, notably for the Demolition NZ series.
Simon Morton
Journalism
A graduate of NZBS, Simon founded RNZ’s Digital Life and established the award-winning science and tech consumer show This Way Up in 2006. He’s produced several documentaries including (another award winner) ‘Broken River’ – a portrait of Christchurch after the devastating 2011 earthquake.
He’s contributed to BBC World Service, presented and co-produced several TV shows, runs a media training company and has a sourdough bakery.
Masen Ma
Screen production
After working on various short films, digital features, animated series and pilots, Masen joined in 2002 to teach editing, visual effects and motion design. In 2014 he took on the advanced screen production course. Masen is a certified instructor for Avid Media Composer.
Andy Johnson
Media ecology
Andy has a broad background in international video production including editor, camera operator, visual effects technician and animator. Projects included Batman and Harry Potter films, commercial content for Adidas, Porsche, and Fonterra, and video content for BBC World News. Andy has worked as a secondary school Media Studies, Animation and Technology teacher, a University Makerspace facilitator, a videographer for marketing agencies and completed post-production for Frank Film.
Kris Vavasour
Media ecology
A graduate of the school, Kris worked in local radio before going to the "dark side" to voice in-store communication for nationwide retail clients. She completed her Master of Arts in Cultural Studies in 2016 with thesis that investigated the benefits of music use by Christchurch residents after the earthquakes. Kris has also made two documentaries for Radio New Zealand about local music.
Alice Rae-Flick
Media ecology
Alice graduated from NZBS and enjoyed a career in radio promotions and marketing before finding digital marketing. Alice teaches across all streams focusing on target audiences, digital strategy, analytics, client/project management and industry practice.
Instagram: @newzealandbroadcastingschool
Facebook: facebook.com/nzbroadcastingschool
Simon Tuck
Professional Placement Lead
Simon is the Professional Placement Lead for NZBS students. He comes from a lengthy background in radio creative. He liaises with media industry professionals, and looks after our Year 3 students completing their Professional Placements (formerly called Internships).
Ross Paterson
Radio technician
Ross has spent more than 20 years working in radio for NZME and Radio New Zealand maintaining and installing radio studios throughout the country. He has also had experience with broadcast FM transmitters and linking equipment as well as live sound mixing and studio recording.
Nick Calvert
Technical supervisor
Nick is the technician for screen, helping students achieve their creative vision. He was the main Video Conferencing and AV technician at the University of Canterbury for seven years. Nick spent a few years as a fusion splicer, and spliced fibre for Infratec in Nauru where they set up a large solar farm – with the goal of supplying 33% of the islands power.