Salevi Tiatia - Community Engagement Specialist

Our new Community Engagement Specialist Salevi Tiatia describes himself as a ‘community resilience specialist’. 

He’ll be known to many from his roles with NEMA and New Plymouth District Council’s Civil Defence and Emergency Management (CDEM) team where he held a variety of roles in the emergency management sector.  

His passion for working with people is the thread that’s run through his life. From his upbringing in Porirua to his early career working as a public servant, in human resources and the social services sector - working for and within communities is in his DNA. 

The ability to have a positive influence on the community is important to Salevi. 

“I’ve enjoyed being a conduit for Pasifika and ethnic communities at a local and regional level over the years. 

In Salevi’s time in the emergency management sector he has had hands on experience working on the welfare response to some of the most severe weather events in Aotearoa in recent times. 

He says this experience of working on community responses to emergencies drew him to the community engagement team at Powerco. 

“What attracted me to Powerco was the ability to maintain my connections with the community and have a proactive, positive influence on emergency preparedness through our work with the likes of PowerHubs and other community resilience initiatives,” he says.  

If you don’t know Salevi through his roles at NEMA and CDEM, maybe it’s through sport? Salevi’s sporting career has seen him play rugby for Taranaki and Manu Samoa, as well as playing and coaching volleyball. Today you’re more likely to find him on a golf course or spending time with his moko, the apple of his eye.