Hi. I’m Tom. I’ve been involved in the effective altruism community in New Zealand for a few years doing community building and other miscellaneous projects. If you’re reading this it’s probably because you’re working on making the world better and I’m interested in helping you!

If you think I could add some value for you or your organisation, please get in touch over email or WhatsApp!

My Value Add

Things I can do for you include:

Bringing Order to Chaos

• Helping you set up project/task management and knowledge management systems for your life or your business.
• Documenting and refining existing workflows.

Events and Workshops

• Planning, co-ordinating, and executing events: from week-long company retreats to stand-alone workshops.
  • Working as a team lead or part of your team.
• Facilitating group sessions on a wide range of topics.

Coaching

• Productivity, accountability, values and goals, or broader life coaching.
• One-off or ongoing sessions, depending on your needs.

Logistics / Operations tasks

• My comparative advantage is likely to be in detail-focused tasks, editing and refinement, or in co-ordinating a team for a multi-faceted project.

Other things!

• If you’re interested in working with me on something else, and you think I could be a good fit, please get in touch!

Core strengths:

Systems

• Understanding, refining, and communicating existing systems and processes.
• Supporting people to establish tools and systems that enable them to be more effective in their work and life.

Strategy

• Asking useful questions - consultancy, coaching, upgraded rubber duck debugging.
• Helping people to understand and express their values, goals, and theory of change.

People

• Creating and supporting positive team culture - as a team lead, team member, or through running workshops for your team.
• Understanding how different people work, and being able to communicate and work with a wide range of people.

My Context

I am based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) in Aotearoa New Zealand. While I’d consider travelling for the right role I intend to remain based here in the long run.

In 2025 I am travelling around Europe early June - early October and working as Team Lead for the EAGxAustralasia conference taking place in late November. As such I have limited (but not necessarily zero) additional capacity until 2026.

In 2026 I will likely have additional capacity for work/projects where there’s a good fit and where I can have a high counterfactual EV.

My ideal additional workload is ~10-20 hours a week, though I may be willing to do more hours for a short-term project. I’m not particularly concerned with consistency of hours and am happy to take on work requiring flexibility.

My best work is done in collaboration and consultation with others, even if it’s just me and you collaborating on the project of You.

Why I might not be a good fit

I am less likely to be interested in a role that is both 12+ months in duration and >20 hours a week (one of these alone may still be a good fit). Why?

• I place a fairly high value on living a balanced life. I’m happy to be flexible with project based work, but after a year of focusing on one large project I am usually ready to change gears and move on to the next thing.
• My goal in roles is usually to add my perspective, skills, and systems approach, then to set the project and the people up to succeed without me, in the long term ensuring my own redundancy.

I am a poor fit for solo (no team and unsupported) creative style work - I’m a professional enabler, adapter, and refiner. If you give me a blank canvas I’ll start by asking what you want on it.

My Background

I trained and worked as an air traffic controller for ~6 years before pivoting in 2019 to pursue more meaningful work and a life more in line with my values. Since then I’ve been able to focus more on my volunteer work, and on fixed term projects where I can have an impact. Some of my recent roles and projects include:

EAGxAustralasia

EAGxAustralasia is an annual three day conference bringing together ~300 attendees from across Australia and New Zealand for a weekend of talks, workshops, and making connections, with the aim of empowering attendees to take informed actions to improve the world.

I was co-lead for EAGxAustralasia 2024 and am team lead for EAGxAustralasia 2025.

1:1 Coaching

I’ve worked as an Accountability Coach for other members of my local EA community. This involved regular check-ins and discussions about habit forming, goal setting, and resources and systems that may be useful.

I’m open to taking on more coaching clients, for accountability or other forms of coaching. This will look slightly different for everyone and is dependant on us being a good fit. If you’re interested in talking about what this could look like please get in touch!

Effective Altruism Retreats

I was co-organiser for the EANZ 2024 Summer retreat and for the EANZ 2023 Summer retreat series (two retreats focusing on careers and community respectively), and had a lead role on the programme team for the 2023 EAGx-Australia post-conference retreat.

These roles have all included strategy development (theory of change), planning and logistics, establishing positive event culture, and facilitating sessions during the event.

Outward Bound NZ - Kora Programme Co-ordinator

Outward Bound Kora was a pilot outdoor-education and leadership programme for high school students.

As kora programme co-ordinator I worked with a team to develop and deliver the programme to four high schools across Wellington. Core components of my role included stakeholder management, logistics, programme design and documentation, and facilitation of the programme.

RYLA 9940 - Programme Director

RYLA 9940 is a 5-day residential course with the aim of developing community leaders aged 18-24.

My role as 2023 programme director included co-ordinating guest speakers, overseeing logistics, recruiting and leading the programme support team, and working closely with our lead facilitator and organising committee to plan all aspects of the programme.

What Others Say

Tom was my co-organiser for the [2023] EANZ retreats. He was easy to work with and helped shape the retreats into a great experience for attendees. I appreciated his attention to detail, clear communication, and thoroughness in making sure we had everything we needed.

Sara Montgomery - EA New Zealand Community Director 2022-2023

Tom has been my accountability coach for the past year and a half I and have been impressed by his thoughtfulness and commitment to helping me overcome obstacles to building strong habits. He has brought a structured approach to the work and helped me to connect with the values underlying the changes I am making in my life.

Dylan C

My Contact Details

<aside> <img src="/icons/mail_gray.svg" alt="/icons/mail_gray.svg" width="40px" /> [email protected]

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<aside> <img src="/icons/telephone_gray.svg" alt="/icons/telephone_gray.svg" width="40px" /> +64 22 633 1031 (WhatsApp)

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