Pera Barrett

Experienced leader and product development specialist, entrepreneur, father, author, and former New Zealander of the Year Local Hero.

Pera Barret (Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Ati Awa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga) wears many hats. He has a commercial background in people leadership and digital product delivery at BNZ, works as a Digital Equity Lead for Te Whatu Ora, and is the Founder of Shoebox Christmas.

Shoebox Christmas connects members of the community with tamariki through low decile schools and community groups and providers such as Women’s Refuge centres across Aotearoa. These community members prepare and deliver a shoebox-sized Christmas present to the child they’ve been matched with via the school or community service. I founded the Wellington kaupapa in 2014 and have since scaled and expanded using Design Thinking, Human Centred Design, Lean principles, and Agile delivery frameworks (between work and whānau). Last year Shoebox Christmas delivered 15,800 christmas smiles to tamariki across Aotearoa, so they know the community has their back.