About

Penneylaneonline.com is the website of blog writer Gail Penney. She is, in her own words, a business creative: “ … it’s the best of both worlds, business and artistic skills combined. An interesting but not unusual skills set these days …”

Born and raised in Central Hawkes Bay, New Zealand she is a descendent of Te Whanau a Apanui/ Ngati Porou and Ngapuhi parents. She has lived and worked the past 27 years in Sydney, Australia where she has held Senior Management roles in Recruitment and HR for both the Not-for-Profit and Private sectors, later becoming a private Consultant and Assessor for Qantas Airways Ltd’s Long Haul Flight Attendants & Railcorp personnel. She returned to New Zealand in February 2008 wanting to hear the seasons change.

In Sydney, her extra curricular activities ranged in participation from commissioned art works to collective art exhibitions and as the Fines Arts Collaborator for Hannah Horsley-Cooper’s Masters thesis. She was also a main commentator in AFTRS (Australian Film Television & Radio School) graduate Leisle Grant’s short documentary ‘Greening the Future’, the story of Petersham Bowling Club (one of the few remaining resident-run Bowling Clubs in NSW) where she was an Executive Director and Manager.

In the early 1980’s at Palmerston North Teachers College she was an Arts student under renowned N.Z. artists Paul Dibble, Cliff Whiting, Frank Davis, Stan Jenkins and David Aitken. This was followed by stints in fledging N.Z. FM radio for 2GNT, 89FM and 92FM as both an on-air presenter and Station Manager for Harbour City 92FM in Wellington.

She has held a life long interest in music, the arts, people and cultures. She loves history. She thinks of herself as a bona fide bitsa, happy that her resume reads like someone who has persistently taken ‘those roads less travelled’. “Im interesting to myself, I’d like to think that’s a good enough indication of how I have chosen to live my life.”

She is currently a business mentor, Small Business owner and business partner in both New Zealand and Australia working out of Central Hawkes Bay. She has found several community projects to be involved in and since her return from overseas she is a strong promoter of Central Hawkes Bay and the wider Hawke’s Bay region – “the lifestyle is so good I’m not sure the locals fully comprehend just how good that really is … ”