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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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 32, our guest is Kiwibank CEO, Steve Jurkovich.

Banks play an important role in the economy and our everyday lives. And yet, it’s the first time we’ve had a bank CEO as our guest on the podcast.

And he doesn’t disappoint. From growing up in Paeroa and Auckland’s North Shore, and a boyhood dominated by sports at Glenfield College, we hear of a fast moving career supported by the mentorship of some of New Zealand’s most well-known business leaders.

After leaving school, Steve started at Teachers training college, before deciding to pursue a law degree at Otago University instead. Upon graduating he spent a few years practicing law, but the business of banking beckoned and a move to ASB settled him into a long and enjoyable career.

Steve is a passionate leader with a heavy emphasis on purpose, in particular the need for Kiwibank to make a real difference to the lives of New Zealanders. And he believes in the value of a common vision for the country he cares deeply about.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, Steve Jurkovich talks to Bruce Cotterill about the importance of helping businesses to stay afloat during tough times. He notes that the Covid-19 pandemic was not the fault of business owners and talks about setting up outbound call centres during lockdowns to enable the bank to proactively engage with and support struggling businesses.

He’s equally passionate as he talks about the impact of Covid-19 on our kids, and how business leaders can play a role in helping today’s graduates catch up on what they missed when the country was locked down.

 

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 31, our guest is The Right Honourable Winston Peters. 

Deputy Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Winston Peters has confirmed that he is keen to run again in the 2026 election, citing the need to finish the job they’ve started. The New Zealand First leader will be 81 when the next election comes around, but he spoke about legendary American investor Warren Buffet, among others, as testament to his belief that age and experience should be viewed as a positive.

Blessed with an encyclopaedic knowledge of New Zealand politics that can only come with 45 years of parliamentary life, Peters’ insight into how we can improve the country’s economic fortunes should be compulsory listening.

Speaking candidly with Bruce Cotterill on episode 31 of the podcast, Leaders Getting Coffee, Mr Peters canvassed a wide range of issues including the election of President elect Trump, the importance of small countries at the United Nations, and the examples set by other small nations such as Ireland and Singapore that New Zealand should follow as we seek to get our economy back on track.

He also speaks about the current geo-political issues facing the world, and his disappointment at the race debate that has resurfaced in New Zealand in recent years. And after last week’s debacle in the house, we hear about his views on the importance of the re-establishment of standards in parliament.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 30, our guest is New Zealand Country Manager for Xero, Bridget Snelling.

Bridget completed her law degree at Auckland University before settling into the traditional first job of graduate lawyer at one of the city’s prestige law firms. Then everything changed.

To everyone’s surprise she left the law after only a couple of years and hasn’t looked back.  A career that has included a stint at one of the country’s premier Public Relations firms led to seven years at TVNZ where she handled multiple roles before eventually moving to ANZ bank and becoming the head of Brand Marketing and Business Marketing. She moved to Xero as Marketing Manager four years later.

The Xero story is one of New Zealand’s great business start-up successes and there is no doubt that Bridget sees her role as something of a privilege. With over 3,000 New Zealand based staff, it’s a massive leadership challenge with people with varied needs and a fast-moving industry.

Bridget talks to Bruce Cotterill about the challenges of being a corporate leader and a mum of three children, the oldest of whom is about to embark on high school. She has plenty of lessons for busy parents including an acknowledgement that life is seldom perfect.

And we hear her views on productivity, talent, boundaries and what she calls “making accounting cool”.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 29, our guest is business leader Sir Robert McLeod.

Rob grew up near Gisborne on the East Coast of New Zealand and over the last forty years has become one of New Zealand’s most influential business leaders of our time.

His career started as a tax specialist at KPMG and subsequently Arthur Andersen before he settled into the firm then known as Ernst & Young. There he became the Chair of the New Zealand Partnership, and subsequently CEO before later becoming CEO of EY Australia.

His influence across government policy grew as he took on appointments across a wide range of government appointed taskforces and commissions including Tertiary Education, Justice and an organisational review of the Inland Revenue Department. Most notable was his appointment in 2020 to the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission and in 2001 to the Chair of the New Zealand Tax Review, in what became known as the McLeod tax review.

His ability to stride both sides of the pollical spectrum is summed up by the fact that he was also the Chairman of the NZ Business Roundtable, a role supposedly not compatible with the Labour Government of the day, and yet he commanded both the Tax Review and the Roundtable with equal measures of independence and pragmatism.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, Rob speaks with Bruce Cotterill about the wide range of issues affecting the New Zealand economy, including the recent interest in a capital gains tax, the escalating debate about Maori sovereignty and the current challenges within our debt laden economy, including the need to reduce the size of government before implementing meaningful tax reform. And as you might expect, there’s plenty of discussion about what constitutes good leadership.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 28, our guest is the former ACT Party Member of Parliament and NZCPR Founder, Dr. Muriel Newman.

Dr. Newman moved to New Zealand with her family as a young girl, and brought with her an approach to her education typified by her desire not to let her parents down. That education led to a career teaching in New Zealand and subsequently the USA, before returning to New Zealand to bring up her young children.

Her work as a part of Sir Michael Hill’s Whangarei team led to a position as President of the local Chamber of Commerce and subsequently as a founding member of the ACT party.

After nine years as an MP, she founded the New Zealand Centre for Political Research an independent public policy think tank that provides research-based analysis and commentary on matters of national interest. 

NZCPR is guided by a firm belief that informed citizens are at the heart of a well-functioning democracy.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, she speaks to Bruce Cotterill about the enormous challenges for the New Zealand government in the aftermath of the Ardern Hipkins Labour government, in particular the implications of unravelling the failed centralisations, bloated bureaucracies and inflated expectations of those who were set to benefit from government decisions based on race.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 27 we take a close up look at how governments and local authorities spend our tax and rates money.

 

Our guest for this quest is Jordan Williams, co-founder of The Taxpayers Union, a purpose driven organisation established over ten years ago with a view to campaigning for better value for money from government spending.

 

Jordan graduated from law school at Victoria University and spent his first five years working in the law firm founded by former Act Party MP, Stephen Franks. We hear how he ‘picked up the bug’ of defending taxpayer dollars and the vision that led to the creation of The Taxpayers Union.

 

Former Prime Minister Sir Bill English has described the Union as follows:

 

“One of the principal tools for restoring value for money for the taxpayer is transparency. The Taxpayers’ Union has been remarkably successful simply by exposing the actions of government to the hard light of day”.

 

We’d all like to think that such transparency results in better politicians, better behaviour and better public services. But the job is still a long way from being done.

 

The conversation doesn’t stop at government spending either. The Prime Minister’s speech to Local Government New Zealand a few weeks ago gets some attention during  the podcast as does the recent local body spending news about steps to the $263,000 beach at Milford in Auckland and Wellington’s now famous $500,000 plus bike rack.

 

Jordan Williams is at his animated and enthusiastic best discussing the wasted spending in our public organisations as he celebrates the organisation’s annual “Jonesie Awards” for the worst examples of wasteful spending.

 

Episode 27 of Leaders Getting Coffee is a wonderful opportunity to understand more about where our tax and rates dollars go, and we share the story of those who are trying to make that spending more responsible.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 26, we are back into the topic of education, this time with an entrepreneurial CEO with a vision for a better world through education.

 

Dr. Jamie Beaton is the 29 year old co-founder of Crimson Education Group. He has carried a passion for education, borne of an entrepreneurial mother who hung her own university degrees, three of them, in his bedroom when he was a small boy.

 

He went on to excel at Kings College in Auckland, before leaving our shores to study at Harvard University in the USA. Now, some ten years later he has a double degree from that most esteemed of universities, as well as eight other university degrees from the who’s who of prestigious education, including Stanford, Yale, Princeton and Oxford.

 

His own entrepreneurial efforts led to the creation of Crimson Education, an organisation that supports high school students to gain offers to the world’s most competitive universities, including those he has attended. Crimson Education now has  a network of over 20,000 students and with over 2,300 tutors and mentors around the world.

 

In this episode, Bruce Cotterill talks to Jamie about what makes the best universities and how an aspiring student should select a university. Their conversation is littered with tips and ideas for those considering studying abroad. And parents might be pleasantly surprised at the cost of doing so. If you look in the right places, it might not be as expensive as we think.

 

There’s also plenty of discussion about the state of the New Zealand education system, how we can improve it, and why we should.

 

Episode 25 of Leaders Getting Coffee is a “must listen” for any students and parents  considering University as a next step, and how to maximise that opportunity. And we hear the story of a fascinating young New Zealander who lives and breathes education. 

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Hard on the heels of the Paris Olympics, our guest for Leaders Getting Coffee episode 25, is Nigel Avery, Chef de Mission of our Olympic team.

Inspired as a seven year old watching John Walker’s Olympic Gold medal race in 1976,  Avery set his sights on going to the Olympic games. He became one of those most unique New Zealanders who went on to represent the country in three very different sports, namely Track & Field athletics, where he was a national champion, bobsled racing, and Weightlifting where he won two Commonwealth Games gold medals and five medals in total.

And yes, although he didn’t get onto the podium, one of his own sporting highlights is that he did get represent his country at the Olympic Games. 

Nigel Avery talks about his own sporting career, including the highs of Commonwealth gold and the frustrations of missing Olympic selection, and how those highs and lows influenced his approach to the role he now plays. We hear about the appointments process to becoming Chef de Mission and the high quality group of leaders and managers put in place to support the New Zealand Olympic team. And we learn about the effort that goes into making sure our athletes feel a sense of belonging in the Olympic environment.

The 2024 Paris Olympics saw New Zealand compete at our most successful games ever. A total of 20 medals, including 10 golds, was probably unexpected by most of us.

And you’ll be surprised at just how hands-on the Chef de Mission role can be, as he shares his unique perspective on the athletes that represented us, the moments of glory, and the disappointments.

There is nothing quite like sport to demonstrate success and failure. Elite sport in particular, can be brutal in it’s honesty. Bruce and Nigel chat about the fine line between first and second in Hayden Wilde’s Olympic triathlon, the celebrations of a medal winning performance and the frustration of fourth place. 

And what do you think a celebrated sporting champion would do if he was Prime Minister for a day? You might be surprised.

In episode 25 of Leaders Getting Coffee we hear another great New Zealand story about an intensely competitive athlete, who became the leader of our best ever Olympic team.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 24, we’re talking technology with the founder of one of New Zealand’s most innovative software engineering companies.

 

Like all good tech stories, this one started in a garage 14 years ago. That was when Danu Abeysuriya founded Rush Digital, a software development and engineering business that can be found working with numerous organisations in New Zealand and around the world.

 

Born in Sri Lanka to teaching parents, he spent his primary school years living in Zimbabwe before his father’s vision and timing led the family to New Zealand. They settled in South Auckland where Danu went to school and ultimately university. It’s a story well worth listening to.

Rush was the Company that delivered the Covid tracing app in New Zealand, at a time when people were scared and the government was under pressure. We hear about the time pressures and the wide range of issues that had to be dealt with as the mobile phone app landed in everyone’s phone, in just three months.

And then there is artificial intelligence, or AI as we now refer to it. Abeysuriya is rapidly cementing himself as one of the country’s foremost experts on the topic and we discuss the challenges, the opportunities, and the pitfalls of bringing this exciting development in technology, into every aspect of our lives.

Finally, we hear what at technology leader would do if he was Prime Minister for a day. You might be surprised.

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