Our People: Development

Based in Washington DC, Phil Fairclough heads up NHNZ's US development and production operations. Previously Phil was Senior VP of Production at Discovery Channel in the US, Head of ITV's Granada Wild and he ran Wildvision, the acclaimed BBC Natural History Unit's commercial production arm. Recent high-profile projects he's been instrumental in developing and producing are Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a 3D feature doc directed by Werner Herzog, Into the Shark Bite for Discovery Channel, which was the 4th highest rating Shark Week show ever, and Discovery's animated series Reign of the Dinosaurs.

Craig Meade has made over 200 hours of programs in news, comedy, infotainment, reality, science, and natural history. He has also worked as a field producer and director before joining NHNZ as VP Development and Marketing.

Kristen Gillespie began her television career as a presenter for the well-known New Zealand children's show Play School. Since then she has worked for a number of production companies as production manager on comedy, drama and format shows. She joined NHNZ Development in 2002, and coordinates all new development projects and international marketing.

Shera started out as a freelancer before joining Animal Planet as an associate producer in 1999. In 2004 she joined the team at NHNZ's Dunedin base directing episodes of The Most Extreme. Before re-joining the company as its North American marketing representative in 2006, Shera was involved in new media production for Discovery Communications.