Adjunct Professor Anil Thapliyal has a passion for improving people’s health and wellbeing through the application of information communication technology seamlessly integrated within people’s health care.  He completed his postgraduate qualifications in Mental Health and Counselling field from the University of Auckland. Based on his longstanding work with the National Depression Initiative (The Lowdown and The Journal), in New Zealand, he decided to focus on the broader eMental Health domain and is professionally focused on the implementation of eMental Health programmes and services.  

Vikas is a divergent thinker who loves solving problems. He has broad skills ranging from technical software architecture to sales and marketing. He specialises in partnerships within the healthcare segment. Over the last 19 years in Australia, he has worked across professional services, product management and provided consulting services to companies and government departments both locally and internationally.

Vikas is focused on solution design, the user experience and quality outcomes.

Penny has 20 years work experience in the public health sector across the continuum, from population health approaches to acute care, including operational and strategic roles. She has undertaken project management and public health research roles relating to mental health, addictions and wellbeing in New Zealand, the UK and Australia, with key focus on change management and stakeholder engagement. She was a physiotherapist before moving into this field.

Simon’s goal is to create solutions that inspire people to improve their lives. Empathy and creativity are combined to design programmes that meet people’s emotional needs and unlock behaviour change. Simon draws on 20 years of engineering, digital and social marketing experience, then applies the latest in human centred design approaches to his projects.

His work includes the National Depression Initiative (NDI) which pioneered the integration of social marketing, online learning and live support to create The Journal self-help programme.  

Tania has 15 years work experience in strategy, solution development and change management roles. Drawing on this experience and her ICT sector background, she thrives collaborating with clients and the community to create digitally-enabled mental health and addictions solutions to help people live their best lives.  A reflective and action-oriented problem solver,Tania’s strength is bringing people together to make sustainable change.

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Duncan is a former clinical psychologist who over two decades has practiced in the New Zealand and United Kingdom health systems, turned academic, researcher then entrepreneur. Duncan’s work encompasses health innovation, the use of technology in healthcare, and neuropsychological rehabilitation. Duncan also brings deep technical knowledge to projects, such as through his work as an active mobile software developer. Duncan brings to projects an ability to see both the big picture and the specific details, and to draw these together to move forward in new directions.

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‍George has worked as a Kaumatua and Cultural Advisor in the various community agencies across New Zealand for the last 12 years. George is highly respected for his work with various with Government and community based agencies.

Gareth is service architect with personal lived experience of mental illness and addiction. He provides research, design and development for government agencies, health and social services, universities and not for profits.

Candace  has  25  years'  experience  in  public  health  and  mental  health  policy,  planning  and  service development.  Her  policy  work  began  in  Melbourne  where  she  worked  for  several  years  in  child protection  and  women's health,  and  back  in  New  Zealand  she  has  worked  at  a  senior  leadership level  in  NGOs,  regional  health  authorities  (public  health  funding and  planning),  and  the  Ministry  of Health.

A Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and recent Chair of the NZ Council of the Medical Colleges, Lyndy is a psychiatrist renowned for driving paradigm change and improvements. She provides clinical leadership for government agencies, specialist health services and primary care organisations. As part of HealthTRx team Lyndy provides clinical governance to e-Mental health and addictions workstream at the National Telehealth Service