Rotorua lawyer Ngaroma Tahana is one of four Ministerial appointments to the Council of the new tertiary education institution that brings together the Waiariki Institute of Technology and the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.

Ms Tahana is a member of the Council of the Waiariki Institute of Technology and will retain that position until its disestablishment on 1 May 2016.

Admitted in October 2005, Ms Tahana had over five years' experience in environmental litigation, resource management, public law, Māori issues and local government as an Associate at Simpson Grierson in Auckland.

She returned to her home town, Rotorua, in 2010 and joined Gordon & Pilditch. Ms Tahana's governance experience includes co-president of Te Hunga Roia Māori o Aotearoa (the National Māori Law Society), Chair of Te Rūnanga O Ngāti Pikiao and elected member to the Rotoma No.1 Incorporation Committee of Management.