Our People

Kerry Whitehouse

Director

Kerry leads the Brandspec team, ensuring clients receive outstanding support from the Account and Customer Support Teams.

He thrives on seeing client activations and campaigns come to life and will often be the first to try any new product development in the market - especially if chocolate is involved.

Outside of work, Kerry enjoys spending time outdoors with his young family.

Mitchell Whitehouse

Director

Mitchell takes the lead in business development and marketing. He invests his time in meeting new clients and developing new products, services, and software.

Mitchell is an advocate for mentoring and is passionate about seeing people grow personally and professionally.

Outside of work he’s happiest when spending quality time with his wife and daughter, while enjoying good food and good company.

Tim Holt

Sales Manager

Tim oversees the management of the operations team, from inwards and dispatch, to events and storage. He enjoys bringing the Brandspec team together to execute plans and projects, essentially ‘making it happen’ for clients.

Outside of work Tim loves spending time with family, getting out on the water boating, general fitness, and running in the many events around the Auckland region.

Debbie Ryder

Marketing Manager

Prior to joining us at Brandspec, Deb ran her own boutique marketing agency for almost 20 years and has a wealth of practical experience in television and radio production and visual merchandising.

Deb handles everything from maintaining our website and social media, to assisting with presentations and handling sponsorship.

Outside of work you’ll find her walking her hyperactive GSP or miles out to sea on her paddleboard.

Natalie Parfitt

Account Executive

As Brandspec’s key client relationship manager, Natalie understands each client’s unique requirements and works to optimise brand growth. New account acquisition and project management are also part of her role.

Natalie loves the vast variety of her work and enjoys the satisfaction of seeing her clients succeed.

Outside of work she enjoys spending time outdoors, and relaxing with family.

Isabella Hellen

Account Executive

Isabella has worked in a variety of client service and sales roles and has a strong grounding in print & FMCG. Earlier in her career she worked in the Real Estate and Health & Safety industries but soon realised her strengths lay in forging long-term partnerships.

Isabella enjoys learning new skills and recently completed Level 3 Sales Certification.

When she’s not at work, you’ll find Isabella doing a pilates class or outside soaking up the sun. She also loves spending time with her dog and going for coffee with her friends and family.

Milosi Papali'i

Finance & Procurement

Milosi’s position is a mix of finance and procurement. Her finance role involves purchasing for the office, receipting orders and allocating freight invoices.

Whe wearing her procurement hat she's pivotal in spec jobs, sourcing, quoting, reviewing art files, and managing print orders. She’s passionate about finding solutions for print POS and displays and seeing them come to life.

Outside of work Milosi enjoys working out and is a passionate netball coach.

Misha Peters

Print & Procurement Assistant

Misha is an experienced Graphic Designer and has 15 years’ experience in the print industry.

In her spare time, she enjoys chasing sunsets and collecting seashells while snapping pics… vitamin sea is her creative fuel.

Misha's favourite pass time is spending quality time with her husband and their two boys.

Leilani Simpkin

Finance Support

Leilani supports distributions and helps clients to navigate Mobilisar. She also provides executive assistant support to Directors Mitchell and Kerry, and acts as an essential point of contact between the Ops and Client Teams.

Leilani is passionate about achieving customer satisfaction, and ensuring her team works cohesively to guarantee deliverables are met on time.

Outside of work Leilani loves coffee, trying culturally diverse food, enjoying arts and crafts, spending quality time with friends and family, and mentoring students in their NCEA years.

Shaine Muldong

Finance Support

Shaine has worked in global finance for about 9 years with experience across financial and management accounting, analysis and operations support. She brings with her a blend of a technical expertise, strategic understanding and leadership that helps drive better business performance and team results. She is passionate about being well organised to achieve more thoughtful outcomes and smoother processes

Shaine's skills are backed by a Bachelor in Accounting Technology and achieved Xero Advisor Certification.

Outside of work, Shaine enjoys interior design and loves organising spaces but her biggest joy is spending time with her toddler and family.

Shyla Walton

Reception & Support

Shyla leads the Brandspec Support Team, providing essential support for everything from distributions to Mobilisar queries. She enjoys understanding the inner workings of big brand names and assisting them to put their promotions and campaigns together.

Outside of work Shyla likes listening to music and spending time with family. She loves her cats and spontaneous trips, like a last-minute shopping or beach trip with friends.

Joseph Connolly

Inventory Coordinator

Joseph focuses on stock and movement accuracy, data manipulation and reporting. His data also supports logistics for distribution. Joseph is passionate about solving potential issues, before they become problems, by getting accurate and efficient data to clients.

Outside of work he enjoys DIY projects around the house, spending time with his vegetable garden and going for a swim at the beach on a hot summer day.

Ken Maule

Events Manager & Project Delivery Supervisor

Ken ensures the smooth management of events, deliveries, collections, delivery of product activations and client assets, including maintenance.

He enjoys working with an enthusiastic and knowledgeable team and having a happy customer at the end of the day. 

Outside of work he likes to spend time with family, and travel whenever possible. Ken’s passion for ‘anything automotive’ means you’ll also find him restoring cars, dabbling in freelance motoring journalism and driving his simulator, league racing with people around the world. 

Sebastian Opitz

Christchurch Warehouse Manager

Sebastian manages Brandspec’s logistic refrigeration assets and repairs, communicating with reps about new and refurbished asset placements. He also oversees the inwards and dispatch of all the assets for BrandSpec South Island.

Seb loves collaborating with coworkers, reps and clients to ensure a smooth process between all parts.

Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with family and friends, surfing (when it’s warm enough) and outdoor activities.

Benedict Fariu

Auckland Warehouse Manager

In his role as Warehouse Manager, Benedict is focused on creating and sustaining a safe, productive, and positive working environment that keeps in line with the BrandSpec core values and objectives. He loves watching his team grow personally and professionally through engagement, support, and mutual respect.

Outside of work he enjoys movies, reading, playing/watching sports, TV sci-fi and thrillers, and looking after his dog Cooper, as well as enjoying the company of family and friends.

Shaneel Lal

Dispatch Manager

Shaneel oversees the team to ensure the orders that we send out are accurate and on time. His favourite things about the role are the team environment and the variety of products he deals with.

Working in the warehouse is a physically demanding role so Shaneel keeps fit running, playing soccer, and chasing his 4-year-old daughter around.

He’s also into fishing and, when it all goes to plan, enjoys converting the catch into his signature dish of prawn and fish curry.

William Rakete

Warehouse & Inwards

William keeps the warehouse humming, taking care of inwards goods, quality control, warehouse storage management, stock movement, plus dispatch and much more. He’s passionate about team work, being pro-active and getting a great result from a job well done.

Outside of work William enjoys a BBQ and beers with family and friends, watching rugby and rugby league, or a leisurely drive up country.

Toby Cottle

Warehouse

As part of the Warehouse team, Toby receives and processes the products coming into the warehouse, from event equipment to promotional materials and stock. He enjoys the challenge of ensuring everything has been processed correctly and all is accounted for.   

Outside of work he enjoys spending time with friends and family. 

Bob McCloughen

Warehouse

Bob’s role in the BrandSpec warehouse involves everything from distributions to onsite safety.

Outside of work he loves reading, puzzles, watching sport and going to the gym, as well as spending time with old mates.  

Weihi Williams

Warehouse

Weihi has a varied background and has worked in office admin, cleaning, retail and dispatch roles before joining us at Brandspec.

A keen gym goer, Weihi also enjoys spending chilling on the beach.

In the future she hopes to travel more and her first destination will be Bali.

Josh Koski

Warehouse

Josh is originally from Australia but emigrated to New Zealand in 2025.

The former Woolworths Grocery Manager is also a qualified Refrigeration Air Conditioning Mechanic – a skill he puts to great use helping to service and repair the large fleets of chillers and freezers we manage for our clients.

One of the parts of his job that Josh enjoys most is driving forklifts, and he holds all the relevant licences and safety qualifications.

After hours Josh is a big Online Gamer and it was through that shared interest that he met his partner.