I believe businesses play a key role in flourishing communities. They do this through providing the opportunity for meaningful employment and through the products and services they offer.
I am currently involved with the commercialisation of New Zealand Food & Beverage brands in the USA, bringing Professionball Basketball teams (women’s and men’s) to the great city of Tauranga, and reimagining Allied Health to help communities to flourish and to provide meaningful work.
I am most passionate about the formation of strategy and early commercialisation.
In my early 20’s I trained as a Podiatrist and started a Podiatry Practice straight out of University. I graduated with a sound knowledge of lower limb anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, and general medical biology as all Podiatrists do. Whist most of my future colleagues were completing major research projects on technical aspects of podiatry, I was focused on my research topic entitled “building a successful practice through meeting customer needs.
I have always inherently understood that is all about the customer. Every business I have built has started with the customer at the center and built out from there. Ignore your customer at your peril!
What I did not realise when I started my career as a Podiatrist is just how much I was going to learn about building a business. Today Foot Mechanics is not only the largest Podiatry practice in New Zealand but also a vertically integrated foot health business being run by a talented management team.
So far, I have had the privilege of navigating businesses through a global recession, a property market collapse in New Zealand and the global Covid-19 pandemic. These experiences taught me a lot about short-term business survival and long-term positioning. What I learnt starting a small business, in a tiny industry on a little island, I have taken into other businesses and organisations with a global footprint. I keep my activities updated on LinkedIn.
The businesses and organisations I have founded and I am currently working in include Foot Mechanics, Food View, Whai Basketball, and Whai Foundation.