Two new expert panel members for Project Phoenix

Following the decision to split Project Phoenix into three separate prize categories, two additional panel members have joined the judging team.

Monica P Mulholland and Julie Scott will now be part of the group judging the Community Impact award.

Monica_P - one of the two new panel members who will judge the Community Impact Award

Monica P is a finance professional who has lived and worked in Ireland, London and Hong Kong before arriving in Queenstown in 2001. She became the second New Zealand transgender President of a Rotary group and now is President of Queenstown's Inner Wheel Club. Monica P was also only the second transgender person globally to head a Rotary Club – the first person in the world to hold that position being from just down the road in Cromwell – a surprising fact given the size of Planet Earth!

Julie Scott will also be judging the Community Impact award – along with the community’s own online vote that will take place on the Crux Facebook page and via the Crux website.

Julie is CEO of the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust that has pioneered the provision of affordable housing in the Queenstown Lakes district.

Julie and her Trust, supported by the QLDC, has developed a unique model where property developers donate a portion of each new project to the Trust. The cost of the Trust houses is dramatically reduced by splitting the land from the house itself, as well as the use of legal agreements that give security of tenure and protection from the negative effects of the broader property market.

Julie Scott - well aware of local community pressures through her work on building affordable housing

Through her work with the QLCHT Julie has regular contact with over 600 families who are on the Trust waiting list, making her well aware of the social and economic pressures that have become an unfortunate feature of life in the Southern Lakes.

Project Phoenix Chair Jonathan Gurnsey has personally welcomed both Monica P and Julie onto the judging team.

The Project Phoenix Community Impact Award closes on Friday, April 24 and the winner will receive a $50,000 package that includes a full video production, marketing strategy advice, access to a premium business workspace, accounting and legal advice and a discounted brand/website package. Crux will publish full details of this new, enlarged sponsor package later today – along with a summary of all the competition entry conditions and a full guide on how to enter. The sponsor group now includes Mactodd lawyers, Deloitte, Mountain Club, Two Bearded Men and Whitelaw Mitchell.

The Community Impact Award will be focussed more on social values than economic outcomes, but if entrants can also produce revenue and jobs – then that’s a bonus!

The competition is open to residents of Queenstown, Cromwell and Wanaka. The other two categories are: Best New Business Idea, and Best Transformational Idea (adapting a current business to the post Covid-19 world.)

Register here for all Project Phoenix updates and if you are considering entering the competition.

Check out the Crux Project Phoenix page.