In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 42, our guest is Distinguished Professor Emeritus Paul Spoonley, of Massey University.

Paul Spoonley is a career academic with a remarkable ability to explain complex matters in very straight-forward terms.

But that straight forward manner is less surprising when we hear about someone who spent five years working in the freezing works,and later started writing his PhD thesis on that topic before abandoning it under pressure from the industry.

And so a career in academia followed, and the independent thinker shows through in Spoonley’s discussion and in his attitude to the future of the country. If only the politicians would listen.

Drawing heavily from his recent presentation entitled “The future of New Zealand: Demography as Desitny” Professor Spoonley conducts a wide-ranging discussion on the make-up of New Zealand and the challenges for our growing population.

We learn that Auckland’s population is set to grow by up to 700,000 people in the next 13 years, and we discuss the implications of that growth for infrastructure, health services and education. Professor Spoonley discusses the reasons behind the most rapidly growing regions in the country. And we hear about how an ageing population at a time of declining fertility rates threatens the way of life we have come to enjoy.

But there are solutions too, and plenty of advice for governments around the world who are grappling with immigration issues. Education, in particular, could become more relevant if greater access to apprenticeships was available and digital literacy more widely taught.

This is a fascinating discussion, filled with insights from a man who has made the make-up of our societies his life’s work.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 41, our guest is real estate’s Martin Cooper, the principal of Harcourts Cooper & Co.

Most will know him as the man on television shouting “the North Shore, what a great place to live.” But Martin Cooper’s story started in Queenstown where he grew up and where he admits to taking the magnificent landscape around him for granted. He was not the most committed student, but he enjoyed sports and the outdoors adventures that his natural surroundings offered.

His father was a cabinet minister, and his work saw the family move to Mosgiel in Dunedin while Martin was at high school. Upon finishing school, and a couple of jobs that saw him away from home a lot, his desire to play senior rugby resulted in him returning to Dunedin and looking for a regular and local job.

That search led him to real estate, a business naturally suited to his energetic and charismatic personality. He found it tough at first, but after three years, he decided it was to be his career.

Despite the recession of the early 1990’s he established his own real estate business and, after a few tough years, learned that he was suited to recruiting, motivating and developing great people.

Success followed in the Dunedin market, but Martin soon found it hard to resist the opportunities afforded by a bigger market and he moved to Auckland, intent on establishing himself and his business on the North Shore. Again, he found the early going tough, but he’d been there before.

The result is Harcourts Cooper & Co, a 20 office, 480 person real estate business and a personal profile to match.

Martin Cooper’s journey is an inspirational leadership story. On the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, he talks to Bruce Cotterill about building resilience through the tough times, the importance of good people, and of putting a little bit of Disneyland into the aspirations of his team. He speaks openly about the pressures of keeping his business going through the Covid lockdowns and the toll of a recent complaints process.

But the real value is in his view of how to be successful in a business that rewards success well. And of course, there’s plenty of advice on the state of the real estate market, and what lays ahead for first home buyers.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 40, our guest is Lawyer turned Novelist, Rachel Paris.

Success is a recurring theme in the life of Rachel Paris. With degrees from Auckland University in Economics and Law, and the Law Society’s prize for the top law student under her wing, she joined one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, Bell Gully.

A spectacular law career in New Zealand and around the world followed. Along the way she completed her Master of Law degree at one of the world’s most prestigious law schools, Harvard Law. Her dissertation there was cited as ‘influential’ by the Wall Street Journal.

After her Kiwi OE via a law firm in London, she returned to New Zealand, quickly becoming a Partner back at Bell Gully where, she became an expert in Banking and Finance law in the free lending days before the GFC, and she oversaw much of the post-crash restructuring that became the aftermath of those heady days.

Uniquely, she put that career aside and left the law partnership, as her family moved to London, following husband Jason’s career at Vodafone. There, she created her own boutique law firm specialising in Blockchain technologies and supporting her global client base part time while organising a growing family in a new part of the world.

But, having returned to New Zealand, it is her latest adventure that is the most fascinating. A masters degree in creative writing back at her old stomping ground at Auckland University and now a new book. And not a book about the law or even blockchain. But a novel, a twisting turning thriller about toxic rich people behaving badly!

The book, published in New Zealand and Australia, is called “See How They Fall” and has already attained Number 1 Bestseller status, while a Hollywood production company has optioned the rights for the big screen.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast Rachel Paris talks about her amazing career and the lessons in leadership she has learned along the way. We learn more about Bitcoin, Harvard Law School, and the importance of making an impact, while balancing a family with three busy children and a CEO husband.

And, as you might expect, there is both support and strongly worded advice for a government with plenty on its plate.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 39, our guest is the brains behind the four day week, and Founder of Perpetual Guardian, Andrew Barnes.

Andrew Barnes survived the hurly burly of London’s investment banking world in the 1980’s, the result of which saw him sent to Australia to manage the exposures held downunder by his banking masters in the UK. He moved to Australia for a month and stayed for twenty years.

After returning briefly to the UK in the mid 2000’s, the GFC saw him head to New Zealand and a unique opportunity with the business that became Perpetual Guardian.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast Andrew Barnes speaks to Bruce Cotterill about the lessons he’s learned from a highly varied career and how re-defining risk led to his ability to make better investment decisions.

Barnes came to prominence a few years back when his book, “The Four Day Week”, was launched during the covid lockdowns. Born of an article in the Economist, and time to think on a long flight, the concept of a four day working week and resultant improvements in productivity has been adopted by companies and countries around the world. His view that people can be more productive in four days than in five makes for a compelling conversation.

Barnes, who these days splits his days between the UK and New Zealand also offers his thoughts on the different challenges being faced by each country. He cites the failure of politicians pursuing a change agenda to “take the people along with them” as a primary reason for the unravelling of our once cohesive culture.

As for what he would do if he was Prime Minister for a day, his answer should be compulsory listening for every parliamentary MP.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 38, our guest is the Executive Director of the New Zealand Initiative, Dr Oliver Hartwich.

Oliver Hartwich was born in West Germany and talks of growing up in the 1980’s in a country shaped by the two World Wars that had until that point defined it. As Europe reshapes its defence strategies in response to the Ukraine crisis, his surprisingly frank conversation about his youth offers a stark reminder of the long-term impacts of war.

But it is as an economist, specialising in thinking about government strategy, that he has made his career. That career has seen him working in the House of Lords and in think tanks in the UK, Australia, and ultimately, for the last twelve years, in his adopted home in New Zealand.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast Dr Hartwich speaks to Bruce Cotterill about the state of New Zealand, a country which he says has so much going in its favour, and yet continuously fails to live up to its potential.

Using the extensive research base of the NZ Initiative as his base, he discusses the state of our housing market and explains in a simple and no-nonsense manner the reasons why such a small country at the end of the world has some of the world’s highest house process.

And while on the local themes, his insights regarding our education system, excessive centralisation, infrastructure and the opportunity for direct foreign investment are as refreshing as they are direct.

Dr Hartwich has made quite a name for himself as an international columnist, and his comments about the current state of the USA, Europe and the UK are so insightful that they should be regarded as compulsory listening for the millions who are relatively uninformed on matters of international geopolitics.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 37, our guest is Emeritus Professor of Health at Auckland University Medical School, Des Gorman. 

An Otahuhu schoolboy who applied to enrol at Auckland Medical School, because his friend was applying, turned that accidental decision into one of the most distinguished medical careers in New Zealand.

That medical career nearly went off the rails when his disillusionment resulted in a change of career and a change of life, leading to seven years in the Australian navy. He credits those years in the military with the development of leadership and people skills, valuable capabilities that many in the medical sector don’t develop, and that he says added greatly to his career when he later returned to medicine.

Ultimately Professor Des Gorman became the Head of the Auckland University Medical School and he was enlisted to multiple government appointments where he has been an instrumental member of the various teams working to improve our health system, including ten years as the Executive Chair of the Health Workforce Review and 6 years as a Director of ACC.

But it is his desire to challenge the things that don’t make sense that is a feature of his medical research into brain injuries and which overlaps into his critique of the health service that New Zealanders rely on.

He came to greater prominence as one of the few outspoken commentators concerned about the manner in which we were managing the Covid 19 pandemic.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast Professor Gorman speaks to Bruce Cotterill at length about our Covid response, the cruel constraints on our way of life and how they could have, and should have been avoided. And he discusses the current state of the health system, the issues around Maori health, and his view on Robert F Kennedy’s appointment as Health Secretary in the USA.

And what would Professor Des Gorman do if he was Prime Minister for a day? His answer will make you wish he was appointed for a full term.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 36, our guest is TVNZ CEO, Jodi O’Donnell. 

She took over as the CEO of TVNZ just a few months before having to front the announcement of the company’s disastrous financial result, a process that ultimately led to a restructuring programme that included the loss of loved TV shows such as Fair Go and Sunday.

Despite her baptism of fire, Jodi O’Donnell is remarkably open about discussing those early days in the job she has now occupied for a little over a year. And she seems comfortable in taking on the challenge ahead.

And so she should be. O’Donnell has been at the flagship state owned television company for almost her entire career, twenty five years in total. Refreshingly, she comes from the sales and marketing side of the TV business, a commercial upbringing that sees her unapologetically focussed on the customers, both advertisers and viewers.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast Jodi covers topics such as the government ownership model, the importance of winning trust from viewers and the recent merger talks with Radio New Zealand. And she talks about the challenges to the 6pm news hour, the dearth of international news coverage, and the challenge of getting the balance right.

And she is remarkably frank about her early days in the role and those decisions to cut top ten programmes in order to ensure that the business was set up as a media business fit for the rapidly changing future.

Jodi O’Donnell is the leader of a business that is, perhaps, the most influential in the land, and one which is critical to the effective functioning of our democracy. Her story will leave you certain that she is up to the task.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 35, our guest is Olympic High Jump champion, Hamish Kerr.

He describes himself as too tall for a runner. So it was just as well that a young Hamish Kerr scuttled down to the High Jump enclosure after his 800 metre race ended. There he found a natural ability and reduced competition; a combination that saw him develop a passion for this highly technical event at a remarkably young age.

Hamish Kerr’s is the classic Kiwi story. After winning the NZ Secondary Schools title for Auckland Grammar School, he headed off to Massey University and forgot about athletics for a couple of years. But the passion still burned, and an opportunity to attend the World University Games rekindled a love affair with the sport through which he would become a world an Olympic champion.

With his degree completed, he moved to Christchurch to follow the coaching and worked part time in a hardware store while he worked on the physical and mental techniques that would make him successful.

On the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, Bruce Cotterill talks to Hamish about his gradual journey to the top of the Olympic podium, a journey that now includes Commonwealth Games and World Indoor titles alongside his Olympic triumph.

And he takes us step by step through that agonising Olympic qualifying session which saw him almost leave the competition prematurely, and a finals day filled with the drama that can only be delivered by an energy sapping one on one jump off for the gold medal.

And he’s not finished yet. Hamish Kerr has an aspirational message for our future leaders and an agenda that will see him attempt to defend his title in Los Angeles in 2028.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 34, our guest is Foodstuffs CEO, Chris Quin. 

The supermarket industry is never far from the headlines. Whether we’re talking about grocery prices, retail crime or allegations of monopoly pricing, the supermarket is front and centre.

But they are also massive businesses playing a critical role in our daily lives and our communities. 

Chris Quin is the CEO of Foodstuffs North Island, the largest grocery business in New Zealand. His leadership experiences have seen him through an outstanding career that includes over two decades at Telecom/Spark, before joining the grocery giant.

He grew up in a family that moved around a lot but ultimately settled in Wellington where he attended St Pat’s Silverstream College near Wellington, where he became Head Boy. An accounting degree from Victoria University followed, while working part time at a supermarket (what else?) to pay his way through his studies. 

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast Chris Quin speaks passionately about the twenty-four years he spent at Telecom and Spark, his passion for technology and his two failed attempts at winning the top job there.

But it was the challenges of the grocery world that ultimately saw him sit in the CEO’s office, and from where he has made his mark for the last decade.  We talk in detail about the drive to keep groceries affordable and the efforts to merge Foodstuffs’ North and South Island businesses in order to continue the search for maximum productivity. Quin is forthright in his views of the importance of the merger and his reaction to the Commerce Commission ruling that it should not proceed.

We also discuss the alarming boost in retail crime over recent years, and how facial recognition technology is one of many technology-based tools helping to win that fight.

Chris Quin is the leader of one of our biggest businesses, and one with which we all interact more than any other. In sharing his experiences there are plenty of lessons for aspiring and established leaders alike.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 33, our guest is Australian rugby referee Angus Gardner.

When a back injury forced a young Angus Gardner to give up contact sports at the age of 15, he thought his involvement in the game he loved was at an end. But thanks to a dedicated school teacher who suggested he take up refereeing as a way to stay involved in the sport, that injury created a pathway that would see him become one of the world’s leading rugby referees.

Angus Gardner is Australia’s leading rugby referee having officiated in 49 test matches and 118 super rugby matches. Those matches include the 2018 Super Rugby final between the Crusaders and the Lions, the same year in which he received the World Rugby Referee of the year award, and the semi-final at the 2023 Rugby World Cup between New Zealand and Argentina.

With a Bachelors of Property Economics, with honours, under his arm, his career started in property development while he balanced a flourishing refereeing career throughout his twenties and early thirties. But the opportunity to become a full time professional in 2015 enabled him to pursue his passion and he has been a full time presence on the global rugby calendar ever since.

Angus talks to Bruce Cotterill on the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast about the game he loves and his view from the centre of the action. He talks openly about rugby’s hefty rule book, how long advantage should be played, and the lengthy post-match review that all participating officials go through after every game. And he discusses the memorable players, coaches and teams he’s had the pleasure to work with.

Angus Gardner also talks about the challenges for a dedicated family man, who is sometimes traveling for one hundred nights in a single year, and the team behind this one man band that keeps his mind and body on the road.

And this passionate Australian has a unique answer to what he would do if he was the Prime Minister of that sports mad country for a day.

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