Leadership Masterclass

Dr Maree Roche - Moderator Leadership Masterclass

Co-Director, Leadership Unit, Waikato Management School.

Dr. Maree Roche (Ngati Raukawa) is co-director of the Leadership Unit, Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, She has expertise is in leadership and positive psychology/positive mind-sets of leaders. Her research, which is internationally recognised, has examined many of the psychological aspects of mind-sets in relation to business leaders, with an overall finding that the enhancement of these in leaders manifests in many positive outcomes for organisations, leaders’ themselves and their employees. Her specific areas of expertise in positive mind-sets include psychological flexibility and agility, HERO mind sets (Hope, Efficacy, Resilience and Optimism), motivation, goals, and psychological needs.

Maree is currently leading teams of researchers in projects such as leading change, psychopathy in leadership, women and leadership, as well as leading work on wellbeing at work for Maori. Maree’s passion is for extending and understanding the benefits of leadership and positive mind sets and how to enhance the spread of these within organisations. She is actively involved in many projects in this capacity, as well as providing consulting and workshops on leadership and positive mind-sets for both individuals and organisations.

Andrew Smith

Chief Executive Officer, Prolife Foods Ltd.

Andrew Smith has 10 years as CEO of Prolife Foods, a Hamilton based $300m turnover business, trading in NZ, Australia and 16 other countries.

He has strong governance experience. Not only as Director of Prolife Foods subsidiaries, but also as Director of AS Wilcox (potatoes / onions), OOB Foods (organic berries / ice-cream) and as an advisor to Maison Therese (pickles / relishes).

Andrew has a stellar International and NZ FMCG career. Starting in the UK / Ireland with P&G. He has worked for Unilever in Australia / NZ; 10 years with NZ Dairy Board / Fonterra in NZ and Global marketing / strategy / general management roles.

Professor Brad Jackson

Director, Policy Innovation Hub, Griffith Business School. 

Professor Jackson is the Director of the Policy Innovation Hub and Professor of Social Innovation within the Griffith Business School. The Policy Innovation Hub promotes and facilitates close collaboration between Griffith University researchers, students and partners in industry, government and the community to create value for the residents and communities of Queensland, Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Prior to joining Griffith in March 2018, Brad was Professor of Public and Community Leadership at Victoria University of Wellington where he was the former Head of School of Government and Head of School of Management. At the University of Auckland Business School, he was Co-Director of the New Zealand Leadership Institute and the Fletcher Building Education Trust Chair in Leadership.

Jackson has published six books—Management Gurus and Management Fashions, The Hero Manager, Organisational Behaviour in New Zealand, A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Leadership, Demystifying Business Celebrity and Revitalising Leadership. He has also co-edited the Sage Handbook of Leadership and Major Works in Leadership. He is a former co-editor of the journal, Leadership, and the former Vice-Chair of the Akina Foundation and the International Leadership Association.

Brad’s current research explores the inter-relationship between leadership and governance practices in promoting and sustaining social innovation and the application of place-based approaches to foster cross-sectoral leadership development and education.

Innovation Masterclass

Professor Shikhar Sarin - Moderator Innovation Masterclass

Professor of Marketing, University of Waikato

Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical Engineering) – Bangalore University, India; M.S. (Electrical Engineering) and Ph.D. (Marketing) – The University of Texas at Austin

Shikhar Sarin is a Professor of Marketing at University of Waikato, where he also serves as a Co-Director of the Enterprise Innovation Unit of the New Zealand Institute for Business Research. Prior to joining Waikato Management School he served on the faculty of Boise State University, USA (2002 – 2018), where he held the Kirk and Marsha Smith Endowed Chair, and served a stint as an Associate Dean for the College of Business and Economics. His previous stops also include an appointment as the Robert and Irene Bozzone Endowed Chair in Management of Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York (1996-2002). 

Professor Sarin’s research and teaching interests include marketing strategy, new product development, innovation, marketing of high-tech products, digital commerce, personal selling and sales management, and bibliometric analysis.

Dr. Sarin has worked closely with several organizations in his executive education, research and consulting activities, including: General Electric, IBM, 3M, Hewlett-Packard, Schlumberger, Apple, Micron Technology, Bank of America/Merrill-Lynch, National Instruments, AOL, Lucent, Sprint, Ubiquitel, W.W.Grainger, United Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom), Korea Advance Institute of Science and Technology, Albany International, Plug Power, Mechanical Technologies, Infosys, Allied Signals, Standlee Agribusiness, and Clearwater Analytics, among others. He has also worked extensively with dozens of non-profits and small-medium sized businesses. Dr. Sarin served on the boards of Boise State Public Radio (Idaho affiliate of National Public Radio), and the Idaho Botanical Gardens for many years prior to his move to New Zealand.

Damon Kelly

Chief Executive Officer, Enlighten Designs

A visionary start-up entrepreneur, Damon Kelly bootstrapped Enlighten Designs 19 years ago in a caravan in his parents’ backyard, fresh after graduation from Waikato University. The company was founded on a passion for people and to bring customer-centric, exceptionally designed, and innovative technologies from the shores of New Zealand to the rest of the world.

Enlighten Designs engages a wide spectrum of clients from local New Zealand start-ups to multinational billion dollar organizations including Air New Zealand, Microsoft, Sky, Downer and LIC. Enlighten Designs’ mission is to actualise exceptional client value through digital experiences that include websites, apps, digital workspaces, business intelligence solutions, and custom development projects. Through their dedicated and passionate team, Enlighten Designs has made the Deloitte Asia Pacific Fast 500 numerous times and has received 9 Microsoft Partner Awards.

Laurent Sylvestre

Chief People and Culture Officer, Beca

Laurent Sylvestre joined Beca in 2009 as General Manager HR for Beca Infrastructure Ltd, where he first established a 'people review' process to identify and nurture top talent. He became General Manager People & Culture for the New Zealand business in 2013 and spent the next 3 years leading the transformation of Beca's NZ HR team into People & Culture as strategic business partners. He also implemented tools for leaders to develop their self-awareness and their capability to create a culture where all our people are able to be their best and now oversees. In 2016 he was appointed Chief P&C Officer and joined Beca’s Executive Leadership Team.

Laurent is passionate about developing a high performance culture and believes that investing in people is vital for our teams' engagement and experience as well as the value and experience we provide our clients. His passion and contribution was recognised when he was recently named 'HR Generalist of the Year' in the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand's annual awards for excellence and outstanding achievement within the HR community.

Rob Heebink

R & D Executive, Gallagher Group Ltd.

Rob stepped into the R&D Executive role at Gallagher in 2008 after holding a variety of senior R&D management positions in New Zealand-based global technology companies.

Rob is an experienced Executive with extensive international experience in operations and R&D management. With his unique combination of Engineering and International Business Strategy qualifications and experience, Rob specialises in aligning Research, Development and Innovation activities with business strategy and developing Research and Development as a strategic capability for sustainable growth and competitive advantage in International Business.

In addition to his R&D role at Gallagher, Rob also manages the Gallagher Ventures corporate venturing initiative and serves as independent director on the boards of SODA Inc. Limited and WaikatoLink Limited.

Robert Bromage

Chief Executive Officer, intelliHR 

Robert Bromage is an HR technology specialist with 20 years in the industry. Rob’s entrepreneurial flair and continuous, forward-thinking improvement is fuelled by his passion for HR and high-performing businesses. His career has centred around the field of building validated performance prediction models, developing his expertise in human capital management analytics. He is the founder and Managing Director of intelliHR, a cloud-based people management platform that allows organisations to maintain a real-time handle on performance, creating a culture that contributes to strategic decision-making with data driven insights.

Sustainability Masterclass:

Professor Juliet Roper - Moderator, Sustainability Masterclass

Co-director of Responsible and Sustainable Management Unit - New Zealand Institute for Business Research, University of Waikato.

Professor Juliet Roper's research interests encompass social and environmental aspects of sustainability, including cross sector engagement, public relations, influences on public policy, government and corporate discourses on sustainability and social responsibility.

She has been a finalist for the US-based Aspen Institute's Beyond Grey Pinstripes Faculty Pioneer Award, and leader of several externally funded research projects, including analysis of business and government responses to the Kyoto Protocol; dialogue for public engagement in controversial issues; and the political, commercial, social and environmental context of New Zealand’s national sustainability policies and practices.

Adele Rose

Chief Executive Officer, 3R Group Ltd.

Adele is the Chief Executive of 3R Group Ltd. 3R’s purpose is to combine imagination and science to repurpose waste. This is achieved by designing great product stewardship programmes that accelerate the circular economy.

Adele has over 12-years management experience and nine years directly related to the development of waste solutions for environmental and economic benefit across a range of industries.

Adele is an effective collaborator and enjoys working with industry to develop solutions to shared waste stream problems and bringing those solutions back into a product stewardship framework which is practical and meaningful for the funders and the user’s right through the value chain
 

Rob Perry

Manager – Sustainable Leadership

Robert manages SBC's Sustainable Leadership programme. This growing programme includes initiatives on mainstreaming sustainable business practices throughout NZ, business leadership and reframing business with a societal purpose to deliver lasting value for people, profit and prosperity.

As a strategist, policy practitioner and auditor Robert brings to SBC over 20 years' experience providing strategic leadership on sustainability issues and their solutions in business, consultancy and public sector organisations in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Robert has worked on a wide range of sustainability initiatives and was the driving force behind the co-design, governance and citywide delivery of Low Carbon Auckland - a 30 year strategy and action plan to drive Auckland's low carbon economic transformation.

Originally from Liverpool, Robert is a passionate Liverpool FC fan, muso and fitness fanatic.