High Altitude

Sir Jim McLay discusses topics frankly and openly; as diverse as Public service, NZ local and national politics, leadership, conservation, whaling, climate, the UN and the law: How to spot and grasp opportunities to serve your community; the dos and don'ts, MMP vs. first past the post, Why he wouldn't recommend politics as a career but it’s worth doing for the right reasons and with life experience  When to throw your hat in the ring for local or national government The minimum requirements for joining politics - local or other Creating opposition by "not saying yes enough" 3 vs 4 year government term - 4 years is too short for a good government, 3 years is too long for a bad government Why it’s good that youth are worried about climate change - which is a "risk management" issue based on the science The glacier in the Antarctic that is named after him and how it happened Whaling - the history and what next  - Iceland, South Korea, Russia and other's stance and why it's a worry United Nations - The

Sudesh is a New Zealander who was living "sustainability, accessibility and culture" as a way of doing business way before it was fashionable. A Be Accessible Fab 50 member and recipient of numerous awards, he has set his sights on scaling the business with family origins. Here he discusses his journey. Born in the former Burma to Indian parents. He spent his childhood in Kathmandu and Hong Kong where his business career began. His grandfather, who started life as an accountancy clerk in Burma, began the family dynasty when he started his own company three years after that initial job. Two generations on our guest runs the New Zealand arm of the enterprise - a significant part of the family business - with the next generation in the wings preparing to carry it on. And the business runs with sustainability and longevity to the fore. Sudesh completed a degree in business administration in Southern California and came to New Zealand for the first time on honeymoon with his wife. They both loved the country and

Peter Egan is a man who started his working life as an accountancy clerk, switched to the practical and trained as a butcher and subsequently became general manager of his family’s butcher shops in Gisborne. He moved on to larger roles in the meat industry, served on the national industry association executive and then drove the development of a mutton export business before embarking on the establishment of a sophisticated boneless meat processing operation to prepare pot roast product taking lamb from the farm to the United Kingdom customer as a packaged item. His work and standing in the industry saw him appointed as chair of Freesia Investments to focus on a restructure of a major portion of the New Zealand meat industry. An influencer and force for change in the sector he was awarded the 1990 Commemoration Medal for Services to New Zealand. He subsequently became an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit. In 1993 our guest started a meat processing and exporting organization, Greenlea Premier Meats,

Kevin started life in Lancaster and talks about his early formative years in the north of England, choosing not to be a prefect, sport and entrepreneurship and working for strong women early on.  He discusses many themes including leadership vs. management, freelance talent, innovation, failing fast and niche growth areas. Opening his corporate career with the high profile London fashion house Mary Quant. He moved through two of world’s leading fast moving consumer concerns Gillette and Procter and Gamble working in Europe and the Middle East before becoming Chief Executive of Pepsi-Cola Middle East at 32 years of age. He was promoted to a similar role in Canada and made a distinct impression in the Cola wars before coming to New Zealand in 1989 to head Lion Nathan driving the brewer to a dominant market position in New Zealand and Australia. 20 years from 1997 until 2014, as worldwide chief executive of global creative giant Saatchi and Saatchi, lead the thinking in marketing, brand and communications. His

True Grit. An innovation and disruption story. Character and Culture key ingredients to move from start-up to business valued in excess of half a billion dollars within only 7 years This is company founder inspiration and required listening. The story so far and where to next. What keeps you up at night? Naomi describes the journey through the lonely moments, of being brave and backing yourself and your team plus what it takes to go from a start-up up to a “step up” company. She describes in detail the influence of character and culture on growing a start-up. Themes of customer outcomes, building culture, diversity, innovation, bootstrapping it and scaling a “family business” are explored. How to transform and dominate your industry through putting people first. What to do when you make mistakes. On being a role model and putting back. Partners Life has recently received its third tranche of a $200 million investment into the business by US-based Blackstone and reported a record underlying insurance profit

Dominque provides insights into how to diversify while balancing commercial and community objectives. Creating a sustainable business with a “declining” professional sport at the heart of it is also on the agenda. She discusses commercial property development, retail, governance, ideas for rejuvenation and challenges of creating a lifestyle village that is also a destination . She also touches on intricacies of running a “membership based co-operative organisation". Dom is the chief executive of a prominent Auckland entity in transformation. As a young girl in Barbados she was sent to boarding school in England at the age of eight for first encounters with cold temperatures and kippers. Returning to Barbados she worked in broadcasting, hospitality, sales and marketing and investment management handling a widely spread family investment portfolio. Her introduction to this country saw her start work with a bankrupt hotel which led to the role of director of sales and then deputy general manager of the Christch

Andrew Barnes chats about various topics including innovation, change management, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, the military, leadership, and team engagement and the 4 day week initiative. Andrew graduated with a MA in law and archaeology from the University of Cambridge, completed banking and Harvard qualifications and then, deserting the traditional, built a career in financial services in Australia and New Zealand. As an entrepreneur, and also a philanthropist, he has challenged the norms and provoked innovatio and new thinking in the ways we work in a generation of digital communication. An entrepreneur, philanthropist and innovator in business and fiduciary services, he is a director of Coulthard Barnes and the founder of Perpetual Guardian, which formed under his leadership and direction through the coming together of Perpetual Trust and Guardian Trust, two trustee companies with more than 130 years’ history between them. Andrew followed these acquisitions with a series of others, including My Bucke

The current chief executive of Te Papa Tongarewa who graduated in modern history and science at the University of Birmingham and is adjunct Professor at the Auckland University of Technology and Victoria University in Wellington speaks on process and problem in the New Zealand and International healthcare systems. Geraint began a career in the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, rose to chief executive and lead a redesign of the Welsh health and social care system before coming to New Zealand and spending a decade running a major District Health Board in a complex multi-ethnic community with deteriorating building assets, rapidly expanding needs and increasingly demanding cost reduction targets. He talks of the difficulties and issues of governance and management and the complexity of the health systems in populations that are aging and facing bigger demands with an emphasis that is now moving to personal health management.  

  Distinguished corporate director and accountant who made his way from the Chartered Accounting office to industry, to retail and fast-moving consumer goods, working for major New Zealand corporates as a general manager finance and planning before taking the helm as chief executive of one of the country’s two largest dairy concerns and seeing that organization merge as a major component of the country’s dominant dairy business and largest export earner Fontera. For the past 17 years he has been an active corporate director and respected chair filling senior governance roles in both private and state sectors. The later has included roles such as chair of KiwiRail – the state national railway operation. He has been a forceful voice in his profession and held various roles in the Institute of Chartered Accountants while also serving on a Government taskforce for economic development. For his long and valuable service to business and the profession he has been honored by a tertiary institution, his fellow acco

London based New Zealander who graduated from Massey University and passed through companies such as Unilever, Dunlop and National Mutual on his way to New Zealand chief executive for Axa at 40 years of age.  He moved to Commonwealth Bank in Australia, where he was widely tipped to take the top role, before shifting to the United Kingdom in 2012 to become head of retail banking for the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Just a year later he became chief executive of the group taking on a role that was publicly described as a wince-inducing hospital pass. The now state owned Royal Bank of Scotland was a multi-billion-pound loss maker that had taken such a battering the State was forced to bail it out to the tune of 45 billion pounds. Its reputation was in tatters in both the UK and offshore. Just five years later, in 2017, our guest managed that business into its first operating profit since the bail out and is steadily rebuilding its brand image. It has been a daunting and massive restructure that would keep anyon