Hands Across the Water Board
The Hands Board provides the strategic direction for the operation of Hands Across the Water and supports our Thai Partners in the four foundation pillars of governance, compliance, sustainability and leadership.
The Board members are all accomplished in their chosen field, bringing a wide range of skills and attributes to the table. They are well respected and most importantly, they share one vision: supporting the children. Board members are not financially compensated for their time – in fact they cover their own expenses when traveling to our sites in Thailand.
Hands has established a Foundation in Thailand. This allows us to own property in Thailand and to continue the work we do for the long term. Being granted Foundation status by the Thai Government is further testament to the work we do. Hands is also a registered entity in New Zealand and we are supported by a Board of Directors who generate funding for the English Language Program.
Kay Spencer
Chairman
Board Member since 2009
Kay is the Chairman of the buying and retail services group NARTA. An accomplished leader, Kay joined NARTA in 1998 after rising through the ranks at Sharp Corporation of Australia where she became the first female director in a Japanese company. Kay also held the position of Sharp’s general manager of sales and marketing. She joined the Hands Board after hearing Peter Baines speak at NARTA’s 2007 conference.
As an accomplished leader, Kay sits on other boards and brings to Hands her extensive knowledge of the business sector, as well as compassion and care for the children.
Peter Baines
Founder and Director of International Operations
Peter is the Founder of Hands Across the Water. His passion for helping others, especially Thailand’s children, has inspired people around the world to have the courage to make a difference.
In addition to leading Hands, Peter is the principal of Peter Baines Consulting. Peter helps businesses build effective sustainable leadership programs through a unique mix of leadership and corporate social responsibility initiatives. His corporate social responsibility platforms create goodwill, staff engagement and sustainable change.
Peter was awarded the Order of Australian Medal in 2014 for service to international humanitarian aid in Thailand.
Stuart Harker
Board Member
A Chairman and independent Director, he has more than 25 years of experience operating at the highest levels of business both in Australia and across the globe.
After 25 years as a senior partner in global leadership roles across retail and financial services: digital, operations and strategy for PwC, Stuart has transistioned to taking on mrore board roles, strategic advice and working with high performing start-ups and scaleups.
Stuart has worked extensively for major retailers and consumer goods organisations in Australia, Aisa, USA and the UK in technology, operations, strategy and performance improvement areas.
Hands Group Team
In 2011, as we continued to grow we knew that to provide more resources for the kids and communities we couldn’t reach our potential just with a board of volunteers, we knew there would come a time that we would need to employ a dedicated team in Australia to help us achieve more. But we also didn’t want to spend donors money on salaries.
To give us the best of both we established a private company that would sit next to the charity, operating as a social enterprise to generate its own funds through commercial activities. It is through this social enterprise that we employ a team in Australia and The Phillipines to take care of the operations of the charity.
Claire Baines
CEO
Claire is a passionate and driven individual who just wants to help people be the best version of themselves. She spent the first part of her career navigating the corporate events space before hanging up her boots to launch her own business helping to bridge the gap between corporates and charities.
Inspired by the work of her husband Peter Baines, Claire became deeply engaged in the work over in Thailand and decided she could bring about greater change if she focused 100% on Hands and the operations in Australia. In February 2019, Claire was appointed CEO of Hands Group to oversee the social enterprise that supports the charity. She has completed 25 bike rides for Hands, personally raising over $200,000, and believes that all children deserve a life of choice just like she had growing up.
Devoted wife, Mum to Burton, and the coolest Aunty in the world, Claire loves nothing more than giving every single bit of love in her to those around her.
Amanda Reeves
Operations Manager
Amanda is a professional organiser at heart and as Operations Manager at Hands she brings her experience from over two decades as an Executive Assistant and a career managing five star hotels.
Amanda is driven by a people-first philosophy, constantly seeking better, more efficient ways of doing things through effective communication and collaboration, with a strong focus on emotional intelligence. She loves working with a team and seeing the positive outcomes that can be accomplished collectively.
Amanda is blessed by her strong family values and supported by her Husband Marty (committed Personal Trainer and country boy at heart), Step mum to Ayva, Mum to her energetic son Riley and her disabled sausage dog Mika.
Navigating family and career, Amanda is committed to personal and professional growth creating memorable experiences, in order to provide the children in Thailand a life of choice.
Jenny Lewis
Marketing Manager
Jenny is a story-teller who loves using her creativity and passion to make a difference. Coming from a degree in English and Film & Media Studies, Jenny worked in the television industry in Los Angeles before moving to Australia in 2015 and taking up a career in non-profit events fundraising, and marketing.
She loves to share the stories of impact that can be achieved from the generous support of people who care, like the wonderful Hands community.
When she's not sharing the stories of Hands, nothing brings her more joy and laughter than her sons Albert and Max, and her husband Ryan.
Airene Bongon
Event Coordinator and Administration
Airene started her career working as a customer service representative for various accounts in a BPO company in the Philippines. She later moved to Hewlett-Packard and worked for their operations in Southeast Asia as Order Management Specialist. After 9 years of working in the Corporate world, Airene learned about the opportunity to work from home and was hired by Hands Across the Water to work remotely as its Ride Coordinator and Admin Support. After having been sent to Thailand in 2015 to see and experience what Hands is doing for the children, she fell in love with the organisation and its cause even more. Being a part of Hands and being able to contribute in achieving their mission is something that she is very proud of.
Airene is a loving partner and mum to Adrian and Devin, and dreams of travelling to many places. She is your go to person for all your ride and fundraising concerns.
Adrian Javier
Multimedia Designer
Adrian started with graphic design as a hobby which later grew into a design and printing business. He later moved on to lead a team of basketball analysts doing data gathering for NBA teams, then as a web content designer for a sports betting company.
His partner, Airene who was already working for Hands at that time needed some help with design work from time to time so he initially got involved with Hands doing part-time design work. Adrian was then absorbed to work full-time as its offshore multimedia designer and website content manager.
A proud father of four, a devoted partner to Airene, Adrian is a foodie since birth, a child in a man’s body, and the biggest basketball geek you’ll ever meet.
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