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,

Jim was born and educated in Auckland completing a law degree in 1967. He worked for a period in the profession before entering public service and successfully standing for the New Zealand Parliament as a candidate for the NZ National Party in the Birkenhead electorate in 1975. A long-time member of the National Party organisation he was clearly seen as a future minister and leader and within three years of his election to Parliament he was appointed by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon to the posts of Attorney General – the youngest ever to hold the role – and Minister of Justice. Six years later he became deputy leader of the Party and Deputy Prime Minister.

In that same year National lost power in a snap general election. Muldoon was seen to be out of touch by younger members of the party and was challenged for the leadership with our guest taking out the contest. In a difficult post Muldoon period there followed a further leadership challenge which he lost and our guest subsequently retired from Parliament in 1987. It was post Parliament that he began the most interesting period of his career working commercially in numerous board and advisory roles, serving as a permanent representative to the United Nations and winning a place for New Zealand on the Security Council of the organisation. He became New Zealand’s representative to the Palestinian Authority and acted as special advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He has held and influenced at a national level through roles too numerous to mention.

He has received recognition and honours for his public service that range from honorary doctorate to knighthood and, significantly, has a glacier in Antarctica that bears his name. This recognises his work on the International Whaling Commission – particularly his advocacy that led to the establishment of a whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean.

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 vowed to make it their home in both residency and business.

Today he can be described as a business owner, a property investor, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist and a practicing environmental advocate. One of the few hotel owners and developers based in New Zealand he is a sought after speaker in tourism and won the prestigious Environmental Tourism Award in 2017. Under his direction Sudima Hotels now includes three hotels with another three under development from Auckland in the north to Christchurch in the south. The group currently has other hotels under development including a new development in Kaikoura. All the group’s hotels have been rated bronze to gold for accessibility as you would expect from a Be Accessible business leader.

With a community focused ethos and an emphasis on sustainability with the country’s only carboNZero hotels, this is an industry leader who is a strong advocate of diversity and inclusion, and who provides free breakfasts for school children.

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

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

Actually it is outside the primary industry that this man has made his mark as someone special. He has worked for charities, mentored youth and set the benchmark for the term “corporate social

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 acknowledged dominance as a leader in the sector saw him assume global roles and receive numerous honours from organisations, universities and academics. He was honoured also by his adopted country New Zealand being made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and the community. A director, author, speaker and business ambassador he is known and followed by many in countries too numerous to mention.

http://www.saatchikevin.com/kevin/bio/

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 stong 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.

Get things done vs. make things happen? which style are you?

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 acknowledged dominance as a leader in the sector saw him assume global roles and receive numerous honours from organisations, universities and academics. He was honoured also by his adopted country New Zealand being made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and the community. A director, author, speaker and business ambassador he is known and followed by many in countries too numerous to mention.

Often described as a colourful and entertaining speaker he has a distinct frankness and direct style that highlights key messages. Those messages focus around leadership and impact, about the here and now and around building high performance cultures. Indeed one of the books he co-authored “Peak Performing Organisations” deals with the lessons to be learned from sports teams that have developed the habit of winning. Unlike many leadership gurus – whose approach is purely academic or often based on one event or change – the pointers that come from our guest are from lessons learned in hand to hand combat in multiple challenging environments that each represent a fascinating case study.

http://www.saatchikevin.com/kevin/bio/

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.

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, increasing 76% over the past 12 months alone.

An only daughter in a family of five children with a Pacific heritage she grew up in a family environment that was not privileged and had its share of difficulties. Indeed this has been pointed to by some as the key to her intense drive to succeed. It has almost certainly shaped her view of family which is inclusive. At an early stage, while still in her teens, Naomi decided to desert university study and get a job to earn money and marry. She applied for a role in an industry that was totally foreign to her and she not only learned it from the ground up but set out to dominate innovative thinking inside the space.

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 Christchurch Town Hall and Convention Centre where she took responsibility for sales, marketing, events, facilities and IT. She drove a loss of $8 million into profit transforming the business in structure and focus.

She developed her own investment and advisory business, served as an independent director and in 2012 joined the Auckland Trotting Club as chief executive officer, a role she currently holds. With assets of $250 million and a staff of around 300 she runs racing, hospitality, gaming, retail and property development on a

With a 51 hectare portfolio with 16.5 hectares located in Epsom and 35 hectares in Franklin near the country’s major city with strategy and financial responsibility for the largest brownfield development in Auckland. It is, by any terms, a major transformation programme in action.

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 Bucket List, Covenant Trustee Services, Foundation Corporate Trust and New Zealand Trustee Services. In recent years he has challenged the status quo of global fiduciary services by leading a sea-change in digital estate planning services through Kowhiri, New Zealand’s largest digital provider of online wills and will management. 

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.

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.