Waikato Business News | March 1, 2024

26 REMARKABLE WOMEN
MARCH 2024
Remarkable
Women
Over the past 28
years each March we
have profiled many
Remarkable Women in
the Waikato, alongside
the rest of world who are
celebrating International
Women’s Day, on the 8 TH
March 2024.
We know you will
once again be inspired
by reading our 2024
Remarkable Women
profiles, discovering
more about what has
encouraged and enabled
these women to excel in
their chosen fields, along
with how they can assist
your business to grow
and excel.
If you see an opportunity
for these Women to
assist your business,
they look forward to
your call.
ADVERTORIAL
A remarkable vocation
By helping and supporting
families in their time of
loss and grief, by relieving
them of much of the burden
as possible when they are most
vulnerable, Ana-Maria Richardson
says she and fellow funeral director
Riki Dodunski of Ana-Maria Funeral
Services don’t consider themselves as
remarkable women.
“It is about listening, compassion,
empathy, trust, guidance, assuring
families you will take good care of
their loved one with dignity and
respect, and carrying out their
wishes.”
“Riki and I both knew funeral
directing was our calling.”
Ana-Maria has many years’
experience as a funeral director, and
Riki says she was privileged to join a
few years ago.
“For us it is a vocation in life, we
are both honoured and privileged
to be entrusted with the care of a
loved one, and be able to gently
guide and support their family to
help create the right farewell, backed
by our knowledge of the diversity
of cultures and the different cultural
sensitivities.”
The Spanish Art Deco funeral home
with its family home orientation at 82
Grey Street in Hamilton is a heritage
property. It is warm, welcoming
and friendly with its ambience of
tranquillity and peace, that is often
commented upon.
“I believe this is the ideal
environment for bereaved families,
it is what they want and need,” Ana
says.
Ana-Maria Richardson and Riki
Dodunski say they are honoured to be
entrusted with the care of loved ones.
Ana-Maria Funeral Services is a
family-owned, registered Funeral
Home and a Member of the FDANZ
operating within its professional and
high standards.
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Sandpit days lead to high-end career for Hannah
ADVERTORIAL
A
When a young Hannah
Julian showed more than
the usual obsession with
sandpits and volcanoes,
her parents should have known there
was a passion brewing in their daughter.
That passion went on to become
Hannah’s obsession and career. Earth
science and all it entails is the very stuff
that courses through her veins, but
it’s the way she has crafted her career
that makes this 30-year-old particularly
remarkable.
Hannah is a resource management
planner and pedologist in Cheal
Consultants’ Hamilton office. For
the uninitiated, a pedologist is a
soil scientist who analyses soil in its
undisturbed, natural state so as to
classify it and study its formation.
It’s a dual role that effectively links
two normally separate functions –
that of planner, and of soil scientist.
She started at Cheal as a planner in
2017, then moved into LUC (land use
capability) a couple of years ago.
“It’s a great balance, one that means
I get to do the outdoor-based field work
that I have always enjoyed, as well as
the planning side where I’m helping find
creative solutions, completing resource
consents, dealing with councils and
the like. That has helped me develop
a different set of people skills,” she
laughed. “It’s almost like having two
different parts of my brain working
… one the scientific side, the other a
more creative, solutions-based side. I
find that diversity, that counterbalance
Hannah Julian in her happy place – out and about in the fields as a soil scientist.
really drives me. Now I just want to
keep pushing, learning and exploring as
much as I possibly can.”
The excitement Hannah brings to her
job is palpable, and it started early.
Born and raised in Tauranga, she
completed a MSc (Tech) majoring
in Earth Sciences in early 2016,
adding a raft of linked topics to her
original interest in geology, including
volcanology, soils, resource and hazard
management, environmental planning
and project management … winning
numerous awards as she went. She
then completed a thesis focusing on
the volcanological interpretation of
the Owharoa and Waikino ignimbrites
found within the wider Waihi region and
Bay of Plenty.
The goal, she says, was a career
in Earth and Environmental Sciences,
either here or abroad. The postgraduation
follow-through was to
Genesis Energy’s Huntly Power Station
as an environmental assistant focusing
on Regional Council compliance and
environmental mitigation, then to Cheal
Consultants in Rotorua as a planner.
“I came in to Cheal as a planner and
found I enjoyed it more than I thought I
would,” she says. “When I moved to the
Hamilton office, they let me pursue that
along with my earth sciences role. I’m
very lucky to be able to fulfil that dual
function … it offers a very efficient way
of working, but it is quite unusual.”
When not out on the land or
wrestling with complicated paperwork,
Hannah enjoys life with her dog.
Unsurprisingly, they enjoy being
outdoors and often go hiking in their
down time.
Hannah reckons she landed the job
at Cheal in Hamilton at the perfect
time. Land use capability (LUC) was
really taking off amid a growing focus
on primary production in the Waikato.
It meant her unusual skillset and range
of interests were a uniquely good fit,
and she’s very grateful that the team at
Cheal ‘let her loose’ … albeit with the
support of her soil mentor.
“This isn’t a very popular field for
women, but I’ve always been fascinated
by the way the earth’s systems work.
I’m extremely lucky in my role at Cheal
… I don’t just handle the scientific,
technical side of things, but I am able
to drive projects forward, almost to
the end of the line if I want to. That’s
rare, and I’m deeply appreciative for the
opportunity.”
Level 1/533 Anglesea Street,
Hamilton Central,
Phone: 07 858 4564
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