Melissa is a mom, an environmental advocate and an entrepreneur.
Her passion for our planet is profound, and reflects in how she is raising her daughter, how she gives back to her community, and how she is growing her business. One of the first two New Zealanders trained up as an Ambassador for Al Gore's Climate Project, Melissa has presented The Inconvenient Truth over 20 times to more than 2000 New Zealanders to raise awareness and motivate people to take action. MiniMonos is an opportunity for her to combine her dedication to sustainability with her 20 years of experience as a successful entrepreneur.
Melissa incorporated MiniMonos in 2009 out of a desire to create games that have a positive impact on children.
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Greg is a passionate innovator, entrepreneur and tech monkey with 20 years in the Software industry. His obsession with computers and games kicked off as an eleven year old after writing his first game on the ZX81! This moment set him on a path towards a career in the software industry.
"Tech Monkey" loves the pace of change in the electronic entertainment industry and thrives on the opportunity to find innovative and engaging ways to play, have fun and learn about the planet.
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Kaila is a serial entrepreneur whose purpose in life is to be an uplifting presence. During the first dot com boom, she co-founded ParentsConnected to teach kids and parents how to use the Internet in a fun, safe and educational way. She wrote a book, produced a series of videos that sold in CompUSA and aired on public television, and created and implemented the ParentsConnected Bus Tour, performing at schools across the States and ultimately reaching 5 million people. Kaila speaks four languages and is a Climate Project Ambassador; she is also a TEDx licensee and spoke at TEDActive and TEDxAuckland.
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Andrea loves to connect good causes with good people. She is a mother, has a background in marketing and communications and for the past few years has donated her time to childrens' charities such as Koru Care.
Awed by her son's passion for the environment, Andrea thinks it's fantastic to see kids leading the way to a greener future, armed with knowledge their parents didn't have—but they still love to play. How cool is that?!
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Deb started her career writing Saturday morning cartoons for the Pink Panther and soon transitioned to becoming a world-renowned childrens game expert. She has worked with some very famous characters, including Curious George, Blue of Blues Clues, and all of the 101 Dalmatians, and has created many award-winning titles for children and grownups. Deb has 27 published titles in books, games, and television, and loves bridging the worlds of technology and entertainment and education, especially for kids.
Deb's passion is designing fun education into games, and believes that playing games can be a great way for kids to learn!
Paul is one of our technical gurus and father to two gorgeous baby girls! His wife is helping him learn to appreciate where our food comes from by introducing him to the concept of a town garden (otherwise referred to as an edible oasis).
Paul is a complete gaming addict who's been making game systems since he was 7 and building commercial software (SafeTsmart) for 10 years, and MiniMonos brings together his multiple passions—games, kids, and a passion for the environment—in one place.
Gwen is one of our moderators dedicated to keeping MiniMonos a safe and fun place for kids to enjoy. She describes herself as a geek who enjoys mmorpg-type games, gardening, and reading every day. As a huge animal lover, she is owned by four cats (two of which are manxes). Her passion for animals is one of the main reasons she is striving to have a more sustainable and eco-friendly life.
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Another one of our moderators, Lilian loves to help and meet as many kids she can on MiniMonos while keeping it a safe and friendly environment for everyone. She is passionate about playing on, and trying out new virtual world games since she first discovered them as a teenager.
Lilian adores kids and babies, and especially enjoys seeing how happy and innocent they are to all of the negative things in the world. She likes to be able to inform and help others about how we can treat the Earth with greater kindness.
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Jacob has been involved with virtual worlds since the age of 12. From creating a blog with over 4.5 million impressions in less than two years to throwing the biggest parties in virtual world history, Jacob is well known on the largest virtual worlds on the web! As well as being an eco-friendly Party Master on MiniMonos, he's also the president of the "Project Green" club at his high school.
Throwing parties and having fun is what Jacob does best! From competitions to theme weeks to hosting our weekly web show, Jacob plays a bananatastic role in the MiniMonos community.
Richard is one of our illustrators and has been drawing cartoons since he found which end of the pencil not to stick up his nose. He loves to see any new artwork by MiniMonos fans up in the art gallery and to play pranks on Badgerfox in the office.
As one of our illustrators, Alicia draws a lot of monkeys (and many other awesome things!). She loves to draw and carries a sketchbook wherever she goes. She likes to chat to other monkeys on MiniMonos and her monkey, Zinky, can often be spotted in games of Monkey Fist.
