World Class New Zealand - Inspire Wellington

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear six of New Zealand’s leading global business thinkers. This series of short, powerful presentations from World Class New Zealanders will offer valuable thought leadership, business insights and inspiration for entrepreneurs, students, corporates, managers and business owners.

Speakers are:

Michael Boustridge: as President of BT Global Services Michael runs a $9 billion business that delivers services in more than 176 countries and can count 85% of the Fortune 500 companies as clients. A truly globally connected Kiwi, Michael sits on the board of X PRIZE Foundation where he works alongside global business leaders such as Google CEO Larry Page, PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, Segway inventor Dean Kamen and YouTube Co-founder Chad Hurley.

Craig Nevill-Manning: putting his Waikato PhD to good use, Craig invented the technology which
drives Google’s Froogle. Originally turning down Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Craig later joined Google as Engineering Director and founded the company’s first remote centre in New York. With his wife in a senior role at Facebook, Craig truly knows the power of the web.

Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas: the first woman to lead the City of London, the first woman to Chair the Royal Opera House, the first woman Provost of King’s College Cambridge and, until its takeover in 2008, the only non-American on the main board of Merrill Lynch in New York. The London Mayor has now made her responsible for redeveloping the most famous shopping streets on the monopoly board and leading the tourism, business and education opportunities in the lead up to the 2012 London Olympics.

Dr Karen Wilcox: aspiring to become New Zealand’s first astronaut, and already a finalist in the NASA Astronaut Selection, she leads a multi-institutional research team at MIT that is funded by NASA to develop methods for the design of environmentally sensitive aircraft. No doubting Karen’s drive to succeed when you consider she is also a successful ultra-marathon runner, experienced mountain climber and recently made time to learn three languages and start on her private pilot’s license.

Michael Stedman: in just over twelve years he has taken Natural History New Zealand from the point of closure to world leader status. Its documentaries are seen in over 220 countries, have won over 250 international awards and international co-production and sales now make up 97% of NHNZ’s business.

Derek Handley: at the age of 22, he became New Zealand's youngest ever managing director of a listed company and later co-founded mobile advertising company The Hyperfactory to service global clients such as Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, L'Oreal, Vodafone and Disney. Last year he sold his company to US media group Meredith Corporation in a confidential sale rumoured to be in the tens of millions of dollars and was Ernst & Young’s 2009 Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Event listed by Sue Sinclair

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