Spark Announces Departure Of Spark Foundation Lead And Appointment Of First Digital Equity Lead

Monday, 29 July 2024, 10:10 am
Press Release: Spark

Spark today announced Spark Foundation Lead, Kate Thomas, will depart the business at the end of August to explore new opportunities, with a new Digital Equity Lead role being created to unite Spark’s investments into digital access, skills, and wellbeing across Spark Foundation, Skinny Jump, and the Te Awe Skills Hub.

Martin La’a, who currently leads Te Awe Skills Hub, has been appointed to the newly created Digital Equity Lead role. Spark’s internal skilling centre Te Awe was created in response to the surge in demand for skills in new technologies such as AI, data and analytics, and cloud, and is focussed on upskilling and reskilling Spark’s people.

This focus on digital skills is strongly aligned to Spark Foundation, which is investing the lion’s share of its funding into programmes that close the digital skills divide in communities outside Spark, with a particular focus on those who are most at risk of exclusion – Māori and Pasifika rangatahi, and women.

Spark Sustainability Director Leela Ashford said: “Digital equity remains an issue in communities across Aotearoa, with estimates that up to 1 in 5 New Zealanders may be experiencing digital exclusion in some way. This is only going to get worse as businesses embrace greater levels of digitisation to become more productive and sustainable.

“This is why Spark makes a considerable investment into digital equity every year – through the subsidised connectivity we provide through Skinny Jump, our investments into the community through Spark Foundation, and our own focus on preparing our people for the future of work.

“We now see an opportunity to bring our digital equity investments under one leader, to ensure we are maximising our impact and connecting the dots between access, building a diverse talent pipeline in the community, bringing those skills into the sector with care, and then continuing to evolve capability over time.

“We are thrilled to appoint Martin into this new role. He brings with him a unique perspective of the full digital equity ecosystem, as the current lead for Te Awe at Spark, his prior leadership of the Skinny Jump squad, and his role as a Trustee on the Spark Foundation Board.

“We also want to recognise the significant contribution Kate has made during her six years as the Spark Foundation Lead. Kate oversaw our divestment of Givealittle, set a new strategy focussed solely on digital equity, redesigned and scaled Skinny Jump during Covid, and has built strong relationships with our partners to deliver real progress in our communities. We are sad to see Kate go, but understand her desire to apply her considerable leadership skills to a new challenge outside Spark, and we wish her every success in the future.”

Under this new structure Spark Foundation will continue to operate as a separate charitable trust as it does today, under the guidance of a Board of Trustees that includes both internal and external appointments. Spark’s skilling centre Te Awe and not for profit broadband product Skinny Jump will remain independent of the Foundation and continue to operate within Spark as they do today.

The appointment is effective 1 September 2024, at which time Martin will step down as a Spark Foundation Trustee.

Notes to editor

• About Spark Foundation: Spark Foundation leads Spark’s work in the community. The Foundation has a single-minded focus on digital equity, and its vision is that no New Zealander is left behind in a digital world. It has focussed its strategy on the areas it can make the biggest difference – digital access, digital skills and pathways, and digital wellbeing. Spark Foundation allocates funding for programmes through a strategic partnership approach, working with organisations whose objectives are aligned to improving digital equity for Aotearoa. Most partnerships focus on empowering and equipping the next generation of digital thinkers and creators, especially Māori and Pasifika, who are disproportionately impacted by digital exclusion. 
• About Skinny Jump: Spark’s not-for-profit broadband service is delivered by a dedicated squad of Spark people alongside a community partner network, which is overseen by Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa (DIAA) and includes over 300 local organisations nationwide. There are now 31,776 households across the country who are actively using Skinny Jump. 
• About Te Awe Skills Hub: Te Awe was created in response to the surge in demand for skills in new technologies such as AI, data and analytics, and cloud. It is a skills acceleration programme within Spark that is building the ‘hard to access’ specialist digital skills Spark needs to support its strategic ambitions. During FY24 over 200 Spark people progressed through the Skills Hub. In the longer-term Spark’s ambition is to open Te Awe up to community partners, to intentionally grow diverse talent pools and make sure the high-tech workforce of tomorrow is more inclusive than it is today.
• The economic case for digital equity investment: There are clear and compelling reasons to bridge the digital divide. In May 2023, Spark Foundation and NERA Economic Consulting released a report outlining the economic opportunity that a home broadband connection provides for a household – which showed that providing more homes with internet connectivity could benefit New Zealand’s economy by around $464 million-$737 million per year.

About Spark: As New Zealand's largest telecommunications and digital services company, Spark’s purpose is to help all of New Zealand win big in a digital world. Spark provides mobile, broadband, and digital services to millions of New Zealanders and thousands of New Zealand businesses.

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