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“Staff that are placed by Greenstone are of high integrity, honest and reliable. Using Greenstone takes the stress and gamble out of employing staff.”

Pieter & Beth Ackermann – Employers

Meet Our Team

Phil Hughes

Recruitment Manager

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Rebecca Armstrong

Recruitment Consultant

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Graydon Sharratt

Director

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Vanessa Sharratt

Licensed Immigration Adviser

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Barbara Sherson

Finance Administrator

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Kay Annett

Office Administrator

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Haley Sykes

Licensed Immigration Adviser

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Steven Dunning

Licensed Immigration Adviser

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Carol Wright

Licensed Immigration Adviser

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Victor Klintcharov

Licensed Immigration Adviser

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Jim Ennion

Client Manager

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Stephan du Plessis

Licensed Immigration Adviser

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Ruth Ouwehand

Client Manager

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Catherine Jacobson

Client Manager

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Abigail Hilario

Client Manager – Christchurch branch

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Right from the word “go” Greenstone got things going and introduced and subsequently placed us with high quality employers. Their service is professional, effective and efficient. We will gladly recommend Greenstone Recruitment’s service to anyone.”

Nathan & Elri Levin – Dairy Farm Worker now Farm Manager

Phil Hughes

Phil Hughes is our Lead Recruiter.  He has been in the recruitment and HR industry for over 12 years, working in large corporates and HR companies including Kelly Services, with a focus on customer service (both clients and candidates). He enjoys placing people into a role where they can succeed and grow from their experience.  Phil has a passion for the outdoors and lives on a lifestyle block with his wife, where he dabbles in small scale dairy and beef farming. He has a Masters Degree in Business and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business from Waikato University.  Originally from the United Kingdom, Phil has been in NZ for 25 years.

Rebecca Armstrong

Rebecca is our recruiter, working together with Phil Hughes.  She has studied in Human Resources and held HR and Recruitment roles both within Agribusiness and a number of other private and public sectors.  Her focus is on working with both candidates and employers to help find the best fit possible.  She enjoys spending time with her young family, developing her lifestyle property and squeezing in fitness training and social sports where she can.  Rebecca was born and raised on a dairy farm in New Zealand.

Graydon Sharratt

Graydon is a director of Greenstone Recruitment and also a fully licensed immigration adviser. He started Greenstone Recruitment in early 2006 after recognising the need for quality employees while working as a senior Rural Bank Manager for Bank of New Zealand.  He is well known as an industry specialist in his field. Graydon has been a finalist in the NZAMI Immigration Adviser/Lawyer of the year awards.

Graydon has an Honours degree in Economics and 10 years of banking experience: 3 years as a Senior Rural Banker with the BNZ and 7 years of Investment Banking experience in South Africa.  He is a keen sportsman and has completed multiple Ultra-marathons and marathons. He grew up on a beef and sheep farm in South Africa and he and his family moved to New Zealand in 2001.

Vanessa Sharratt

Vanessa is a Licensed Immigration Adviser and Director of Greenstone. She was one of the first advisers to be licenced in 2008. Vanessa was a finalist in two categories of industry awards hosted by the NZAMI in 2013 - Immigration Adviser/Lawyer of the year and NZAMI Service Award.  She enjoys challenging residence cases and appeals.

Vanessa grew up in South Africa.  She has a Masters degree in Economics from Rand Afrikaans University and 8 years of Banking experience in New Zealand and South Africa.  She has served as a Board Member of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI), and on the Immigration Advisers Authority Reference Group.

Vanessa is fluent in Afrikaans.

"Choosing Greenstone was probably the best decision we made after deciding to immigrate to New Zealand.  Vanessa’s professionalism and expertise combined with her personal touch made the whole process a lot easier and less stressful.  Greenstone was the only immigration consultancy that presented different options from the start and made us feel positive about our chances to succeed.  Our application was approved a lot quicker than anticipated and thanks to their assistance we are residents of this beautiful country.  We would highly recommend Greenstone Global."

Angie & Jan Cronje

Barbara Sherson

Barbara has been with Greenstone  since 2008. She started as the Office Administrator before progressing to her current role of Finance Administrator.  Barbara has a New Zealand Certificate of Commerce and has worked in various office roles during her career. She is married to Grant, and has four children.

 

Kay Annett

Kay is Greenstone's Office Administrator and will be your first port of call, either in person or by telephone.  Kay was born in Martinborough in the Wairarapa and has worked and lived in Wellington, Auckland and Hamilton.She began her career in Banking, working for two different Banks in Wellington and Hamilton for a total of 18 years. While her daughter was growing up she had other part time roles with an Export and an Import company in Auckland. She then spent 13 years at a Chartered Accountants firm. Kay loves people and enjoys spending time with her family and friends while enjoying cooking, travelling and reading.

Haley Sykes

Haley is one of our Licensed Immigration Advisers.  Haley joined Greenstone in 2014 in the role of Administrator before moving into a Client Services Manager role. Haley took some time off when she had her son Jack at the end of 2015 and now returns to Greenstone Global as a Fully Licensed Immigration Adviser. She has a Bachelor of Business majoring in Marketing from Unitec and Graduate Certificate in Immigration Advice from Toi Ohomai, where she received the runner up award for second highest marks over courses B and C (Temporary and Resident visas).

Haley was born in New Zealand and grew up in the small town of Pauanui on the Coromandel Peninsula where she now lives with partner Greg and son Jack.

"The processing was really smooth.  The processing of my application didn’t take long and Haley Sykes kept updating me with the status of my application.  Haley prepared all my supporting documents in order and informed me of any additional requirements INZ needed.  I appreciate Haley and the rest of the Greenstone Global team for making it happen in a short period of time.  Cheers!"

Imo

Steven Dunning

Steven is one of our Licensed Immigration Advisers.  He completed his Graduate Certificate in New Zealand Immigration Advice from the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic in Tauranga in 2016, and served his two year period as provisional license holder at Greenstone before become a fully Licensed Immigration Adviser in June 2018.  Steven has dealt with the full spectrum of immigration cases and is valued by all his clients.

Steven was born in New Zealand and grew up in a multitude of places including Christchurch, Thames, Mussoorie (India), Suva (Fiji), Palmerston North, Auckland, Osaka (Japan) and Shanghai (China). He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Massey University but his career has taken him in other directions including teaching, banking and marketing.

After 13 years living abroad, Steven is now based in Hamilton, New Zealand.  He is well versed in speaking business Mandarin.

"I would just like to pass on how fantastic the service and advice provided by Steven was.  He went above and beyond to make sure the visa was approved as quickly as possible and we would not have been able to do this without his expertise. This is a very stressful situation for a small business like ours and we are relieved to have this approved."

Emillie Tamarapa

Carol Wright

Carol Wright joined Greenstone Global in 2010 and is a fully Licensed Immigration Adviser, with many years of experience with both work and residence visa applications.  Carol has a special rapport with all her clients and was a finalist in the NZAMI Immigration Adviser/Lawyer of the year Awards 2017.  She has also represented Greenstone on the Immigration Advisor Authority reference groups.

Carol grew up in the USA and has a Bachelor of Arts International Studies from Miami University. She has three years legal experience in the Ohio state legislature. She has also worked in tertiary education for 14 years in New Zealand, often dealing with foreign students.

Carol has three children with husband, Blair.

"On the behalf of Alfredo, Nicolas and Mario we would like to thank Carol Wright for all the hard work and passion she has put into obtaining Alfredo’s 3 year work visa. We are extremely happy to have Alfredo in the team and have nothing but respect for all that Carol has done."

Alfredo Gonzales & Mario Lopez

Victor Klintcharov

Victor is one of Greenstone's Licensed Immigration Advisers. Victor knows first-hand the challenges an immigrant faces; navigating complex and ever-changing immigration legislation while wrestling with government agencies to secure a future in a new country. Victor moved to Hamilton for his family in 2017 and joined the Greenstone Global team to take the next step forward in his career.

Victor was born in Bulgaria and migrated to New Zealand at the age of two (with some help from his parents). He was raised in Auckland and then travelled to the USA to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Rockhurst University in KCMO. Following a decade of competitive tennis as a player and coach, Victor decided to change direction and was hired by a prominent immigration consultancy in Auckland. He completed a Graduate Certificate in New Zealand Immigration Advice from the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic in Tauranga, and became a fully Licensed Immigration Adviser in 2015.

"I have just got my South Island contribution visa approved and am so thankful to Victor Klintcharov and Greenstone Global. I am glad I did make the right decision by choosing Victor’s service. Before I lodged my visa application I did consult quite a few other Immigration consultants around NZ but all responded with one simple answer that my visa approval would be impossible! Victor did work very hard to make the visa approval possible."

Tarlochan (Taj) Singh

Jim Ennion

Jim will be completing his Graduate Diploma in New Zealand Immigration Advice and is currently working as a Client Manager until he is provisionally licensed.  Jim was born in New Zealand and grew up in Auckland. He has a Master of Laws from Victoria University, a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws conjoint from Auckland University and a Diploma in Project Management from the Southern Institute of Technology. He worked as a lawyer in Nelson before he and his family moved to Mae Sot, Thailand for 2 years and worked with a local NGO. They recently returned to New Zealand in 2017.

Jim is married with 5 young children and loves spending time with his family. He is also a keen musician and bikes or runs regularly.

Stephan du Plessis

Stephan is one of our Licensed Immigration Advisers. Stephan is experienced and leaves no stone un-turned in preparation of visa applications and other complex immigration issues.  Before joining Greenstone, Stephan worked for a prominent law firm for more than seven years. Towards the middle of 2015 he sat and passed all the required papers (A+ average) to meet the Immigration Advisers Authority's licencing requirements.

Stephan also sat on the the Immigration Advisers Authority reference group for 2016, where he worked to make a valuable contribution to the Adviser industry.

Stephan grew up, studied and married in South Africa. He was later admitted as a lawyer in the High Court of South Africa. Stephan gained more than 13 years legal experience in South Africa before he and his family immigrated to New Zealand in 2008.

"Extremely satisfied from the service of Greenstone, my visa outcome was excellent but I would like to make special comment on communication with Stephan de Plessis regarding my visa application documents. He was in touch with me 24/7. Thank you so much for all you are hard work Stephan –“you are a great man”

Amanjot Singh

Ruth Ouwehand

Ruth is one of our Client Managers, and works with the Licensed Immigration Advisers to ensure that documentation is correct. She started her career with the ANZ Banking group, progressing through the ranks to Branch Manager during her 10 years with the Bank. While raising her three children, Ruth has worked in a part time capacity at various entities, most recently as Financial Administrator. She has also been very involved with the swimming community in the Waikato.

Ruth has a National Certificate in Business Studies.

Catherine Jacobson

Catherine is our youngest team member, and as Client Manager she will assist the advisors in ensuring that all documentation is prepared correctly. She is from New Zealand and grew up in Hamilton, She joined the Greenstone team in 2019. Catherine holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology majoring in Criminology from the University of Waikato and has started her master’s degree. Outside of work Catherine enjoys music and attending concerts, she also loves the outdoors and travelling.

Abigail Hilario

Abigail is our Christchurch Client Manager and assists the advisors in ensuring all documentation is prepared correctly. Originally from the Philippines, Abigail has over 10 years of work experience as a visa officer and consular officer with the Embassy of Norway in the Philippines. In these roles, she gained first-hand experience with immigration, visa processing, and consular assistance.

Abigail holds a New Zealand Certificate in Project Management from the Southern Institute of Technology in New Zealand and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Lyceum of the Philippines University.

Abigail loves traveling and enjoys developing relationships with people of all cultures.