Location: Harbourside Function Centre
Date: Thursday 17 August
Time: 6.30pm
Dress: Formal
Cost: $2,200 for a table of 10 + booking fee
MC: Nick Tansley
Special guest speaker: Sir Richard Taylor, co-founder of the Wētā companies and co-owner of Wētā Workshop.
It’s time to get a little bit fancy and have some fun while raising vital funds to help keep hospice care free for people in our local communities. You’ll savour a three-course meal matched with delicious Spy Valley wine, be entertained by Wellington talent and have the chance to bid on a collection of exciting auction items.
We’re calling on our supporters and fellow Wellingtonians to gather your friends and colleagues, round up a table and join us for the cause!
For more information about this gala fundraising event contact Phillip Harris on 021 2107276 or events@marypotter.org.nz
About Sir Richard Taylor
Sir Richard Taylor is the co-founder of the Wētā companies and co-owner of Wētā Workshop. With more than 30 years’ experience working in the world’s creative industries, Richard is the CEO and Creative Director of this award-winning company.
As a passionate creative at the core of Wētā Workshop, Richard collaborates each day with his colleagues and friends across a diverse range of artistic and technical disciplines.
With 350 crew across five businesses, the Workshop has grown to become a multifaceted, creativity focused company.
Richard has won five Academy Awards© across three disciplines, for special effects makeup, visual effects, and costume design. He has also received four BAFTAs, two THEA Awards and more than 30 national and international awards for his work within the creative industries. In 2010 Richard was made a Knight Companion of the NZ Order of Merit for his services to film, and voted New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year, and in 2012 he was named New Zealander of the Year. Richard and Tania are patrons of the Little Miracles Trust and are heavily involved in the Wellington community, giving their time to charity projects and initiatives.
Wētā Workshop has provided the design and physical effects for more than 120 films, numerous television shows, and multiple location-based experiences. Best known for their work on the globally acclaimed The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, as well as the Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong, Avatar, District 9, Ghost in the Shell, Mulan, Thor, and Black Panther to name a few.
Wētā Workshop also operates a number of popular tourist attractions, a digital game studio and produces high-end collectibles. They also specialise in the design and manufacture of location-based visitor experiences, including their Thea Award-winning works: Gallipoli: The scale of our war exhibition and Wētā Workshop Unleashed, a fantastical film FX experience.
Richard and Tania co-own children’s IP and television production company Pukeko Pictures, which developed the award-winning television shows Jane and the Dragon, the Wot Wots, Kiddets, Book Hungry Bears, and reimagined the Gerry Anderson classic Thunderbirds Are Go.
Richard and Tania also co-own Stardog LP, a fine art and IP development company that helps young people within their team to realise their own creative endeavours.
Richard has spent more than 24 years working in China, building a highly respected relationship with local and central government, educational facilities, and the creative industries, and has nurtured many strong business collaborations.
Richard was also a founding Board member of Magic Leap, a mixed reality technology company based in Florida. Working with Rony Abovitz over nine years in the creative development of what is possible through this extraordinary technology.
Most recently Richard and the team at Workshop have been working in emerging technology arenas and are collaborating in two metaverse projects for their clients.
For more information about this gala fundraising event contact Phillip Harris on 021 2107276 or events@marypotter.org.nz
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