What does it take to help build world champions?

In Episode 64 of Leaders Getting Coffee, Bruce Cotterill sits down with David Abercrombie – former All Blacks physiotherapist, former CEO of Yachting New Zealand, and one of the people who has worked behind the scenes of some of New Zealand's greatest sporting achievements.

Over a Physiotherapy career spanning more than three decades, David has treated elite athletes across rugby, sailing, basketball and Olympic sport. He was part of the All Blacks environment during one of the most successful eras in New Zealand rugby and worked alongside some of the country's most iconic sporting figures. He was on the spot for, Michael Jones injured knee, Zinzan Brooke’s famous dropped goal, and he kept Sir Peter Blake’s elbows working in San Diego. Four medals in one day’s sailing at the Rio Olympics remains a special memory.

Born in Scotland and raised on Auckland's North Shore, David's journey took him from a young physiotherapist helping establish North Harbour Rugby's sports medicine programme alongside his great mate Dr John Mayhew, to becoming one of the most respected practitioners in New Zealand sport. Later, when the physical demands of physiotherapy forced an unexpected career change, he successfully reinvented himself as CEO of Yachting New Zealand, leading that organisation through 15 years of transformation and Olympic success.

In the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, David shares remarkable stories from inside the All Blacks, the America's Cup and New Zealand's Olympic sailing programme. He reflects on the pressure of elite performance, the evolution of professional sport, and how the sport of sailing is changing with the introduction of foiling, women joining men’s crews, the rise of SailGP, and the leadership lessons learned from working with some of the world's best athletes and teams.

This is a conversation about far more than sport. It's about excellence, resilience, reinvention and what it really takes to perform at the highest level.

If you love sports, you’ll enjoy this conversation. But it’s much more than what happens on the field or in front of the TV camera. David Abercrombie brings a genuine insight to our sporting stories and a behind the scenes glimpse into the factors behind sporting success.

Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 64 with Bruce Cotterill and David Abercrombie.

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In episode 63 of the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, our guest is the Founder of Orion Health, Ian McCrae.

He is regarded by many as one of the early “heroes” of the New Zealand tech sector, but Ian McCrae refers to himself as simply a passionate engineering entrepreneur, and he remains committed to his mission to leverage technology in order to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare for every person.

After an undistinguished high school education, he found his way at Auckland University where he graduated with an engineering degree and a Masters. Along the way he took a break to hitchhike around the world, a journey that saw him in London during the sharemarket crash and in Iran during the revolution, a period which enhanced his already substantial levels of resilience.

Back in New Zealand, his Masters thesis led him to Antarctica where he modelled the ice shelf flows long before it was cool to do so. A series of jobs in the tech space led him to decide that the health sector was where the opportunity was and Orion Health was born.

Ian’s story of establishing a global business, on limited funding and heavily reliant on suitcases and shoe leather, has plenty of lessons for every aspiring entrepreneur.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee Podcast, he speaks with Bruce Cotterill about his combination of sales skills and software knowledge creating a critical combination enabling his success. There’s plenty of chat about the early days of cracking the US market and the ups and downs that followed.

Five years ago, his life was upended with the diagnosis of a brain tumour. And as you might expect from a technology leader with a passion for healthcare, he has piloted his treatment programme via his own software and the AI tools that we all have access to. The result has seen him outlive his original diagnosis four-fold and he’s showing no signs of slowing down.

He’s also outspoken about what those same AI tools should mean for the health system, and he sees opportunities to overtake our unaffordable current approach to healthcare and move directly to a new way, one which sees the patient at the centre of their own care and AI providing the interface between the system and the needs of the population.

This is the opportunity to hear from a man who is a massively successful New Zealand entrepreneur. But that man is also patient in our health system, one with strong and well qualified opinions on the future direction of one of our government’s biggest challenges.

Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 63 with Bruce Cotterill and Ian McCrae, Founder of Orion Health and Brain Tumour patient.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 62, our guest is Caroline Harvie-Teare, who is the CEO of Venues Otautahi in Christchurch, home of the new One New Zealand Stadium.

She started life as a farm girl,but moved to the city as a youngster and became a heart and soul champion for the city of Christchurch. The farm girl lingered though as her passion for horses took her to eventing success.

That start reflects a toughness that has been reflected in every challenge she has taken on.

When the earthquakes hit her city her job in the events industry was under threat. So she stepped up to join the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, doing her bit to help her city repair itself. Her success there led her to Christchurch International Airport as the city tried to recover its lost sparkle and resultant loss of tourists.

Her return to Venues Otautahi, the city’s main events hub, just a week before the first of the Covid 19 enforced lockdowns, provided another challenging chapter to a career that had already had it’s share.

But she has thrived. Venues Otautahi is now New Zealand’s largest events and venue company, and the organisation owns or manages some of the country’s most sought after venues including the revitalised Christchurch Town Hall, Woolfbrook Arena, Hagley Oval, and New Zealand’s newest and already arguable best stadium, One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha.

Caroline’s story encompasses many characteristics. Resilience and strength are obvious. But she is also someone who thinks very clearly about where her best skills lie and how she can apply those skills to make the best contribution.

She is unashamedly a proud and passionate cheerleader for her chosen city and her story provides countless lessons for any aspiring leader.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast Caroline Harvie-Teare speaks to Bruce Cotterill about the tough days after the earthquakes and the memories that return as each step in the city’s recovery is taken. She’s very open about the tough decisions enforced as a result of Covid 19.

But the main story here is about a stadium. One that is so much more than a venue for sports and music. It’s a venue that represents the recovery of a once broken city and provides the ‘icing on the cake’ as that long rebuilding process nears completion.

Caroline Harvie-Teare has a great leadership story, and she tells it well. As is so often the case, the best leadership experiences occur when the circumstances are genuinely difficult. There are lessons aplenty from every step she has taken.

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In episode 61 of the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, our guest is Former Blackcap and Broadcaster Mark Richardson.

There are many elements to the Mark Richarson story. The cricketer who bloomed late. The accidental broadcaster who seemed a natural behind the microphone. And now the Investment Advisor, charting a new path in yet another career.

Even as a boy, Mark Richardson dreamed of playing for the Black Caps. His early years saw him on the pitch as a bowler and over time he transformed himself into a batsman, and then again into an opening batsman. The dream didn’t come true until he was 29, but the story of how he got there is a testament to his determination and resilience.

He was honest enough to hang up the cricket bat when he was mentally burned out, despite the fact that he probably could have gone on. But he didn’t sit idle for long.

The opportunity to broadcast the game he loved opened a door to a twenty year broadcasting career that included “The Crowd Goes Wild”, “The Block NZ”, “The Project” and “The AM Show”. He continued to commentate the cricket, not because of the money, but because of his love for the game.

But the changes in the media industry meant the going was too tough and first Mediaworks and then Today FM closed down, leaving Richardson wondering what might come next.

But he’s nothing if not adaptable, and another casual conversation turned opportunity arose, one which sees him today operating as an Investment Advisor with well known financial services group Forsyth Barr, a topic deserving of some air time given the current challenges in the markets.

On the Leaders Getting Coffee Podcast, Mark Richardson speaks with Bruce Cotterill about his passion for cricket, the teammates he loved playing with, the disappointment of being out for 99 and the relief of that first century scoring 115 just a few weeks later. And he’s refreshingly open about the highs and lows of that broadcasting career.

Behind the blokey persona is a man who takes every step as he did his batting, with careful preparation and just enough nervousness to keep him trying his very hardest to be his very best. It’s a seriousness of intent that he now channels to the task of guiding clients on their investment journey.

Leaders Getting Coffee - Episode 61 with Bruce Cotterill and Mark Richardson, former Blackcap, Broadcaster and Investment Advisor.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 60, our guest is The Right Honourable David Seymour, Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand and Leader of the Act Party.

To many of us, it seems like David Seymour has been in the public eye for so long that we feel like we know him. And yet, as it turns out, we know very little.

He grew up in a Whangarei family, with working parents and a personal ambition shaped partly by a mother who suffered from a disability.

As a youngster he was exposed to business and voluntary work, all of which drove a unique work ethic and a passion for the freedoms his generation took for granted.

He left the family home for life as a boarder at Auckland Grammar and soon he was at Auckland University studying for degrees in Engineering and Philosophy. He had to work his way through university to make ends meet and talks of forty hour weeks bookended by lectures and assignments.

His early career focussed on engineering until the opportunity came to work for a Canadian think tank and a new career path was formed, one that would ultimately see him return to New Zealand, becoming an MP and Act party leader in 2014.

On the Leaders Getting Coffee Podcast, David Seymour speaks with Bruce Cotterill about the loneliness of his early years as parliament’s sole Act MP and his focus on working with other politicians, many of whom were not natural bedfellows, to get his End of Life Choice Act passed into law as a result of a referendum in 2020.

That led to him ushering in nine additional MP’s in 2020 and Act’s role in parliament has been secured as a result.

David Seymour speaks proudly about taking on some of parliament’s tougher challenges, including charter schools, regulatory reform, and the treaty principles bill, as well as the End of Life legislation.

This is a man who is passionate about personal freedoms and making New Zealand a better and more productive place for its people. And as one of parliament’s best communicators, he is very clear on some of the challenges ahead.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 59, our guest is Lisa King, the inspirational founder of Eat My Lunch and more recently alcohol free cocktail brand, Free AF.

She was born in Hong Kong and moved to New Zealand at the age of two. Her hardworking parents instilled a passion for education and an enthusiasm for entrepreneurial flair.

Lisa King didn’t waste that business oriented zest for life. A couple of university degrees provided her ticket to her dream jobs, in big corporate organisations that could show her the world.

The New Zealand Daily Board sent her to the Philippines, Unilever took her to the UK and the arrival of her first child brought her home. Roles in the heart of FMCG business followed at Bluebird, Cadbury and eventually back to the newly named Fonterra.

But a need to do something with purpose was stirring and, inspired by an advertisement for shoes – buy one get one free – she set up a school lunch programme that followed that same model. If sponsors would pay for a school lunch, her team would deliver that and another to students in need. It was called “Eat My Lunch” and it arrived at a time when some schools had 50 kids going without a midday meal.

They prepared the lunches in her lounge at first, and at its peak her team were delivering 2,600 free lunches and the same number of paid ones, across 45 schools, every day.

With the arrival of the Government’s school lunch programme, her work there was done and another purpose was waiting.

Lisa had decided to give up drinking alcohol, and was astounded by the social pressures and the awkward questions. She’d decided that the conversation around not drinking was broken.

And so, in 2020, despite Covid and lockdowns and plenty of reasons not to, she assembled a team and created a brand, developed recipes, and launched Free AF, an alcohol free cocktail brand with a goal to reduce the alcohol in people’s lives without sacrificing the experience.

On the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast Lisa King speaks to Bruce Cotterill about, not one, but two entrepreneurial journeys, the lessons she’s learned and the opportunities ahead. Free AF now features in more than 4,000 stores across the USA, including Whole Foods, Target and Walmart and she is very open about the hard work involved in getting established in a massive market, including the importance of keeping her team small and action orientated, jumping time zones and the funding challenges associated with order sizes you don’t expect.

This is a case study in purpose from someone who is in the process of building a global brand. It’s a must listen for every aspiring entrepreneur. Spoiler alert… it’s a lot of hard work!

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 58, our guest Sharon Zollner, Chief Economist at ANZ Bank.

At a time when the economic recovery in New Zealand is threatened, yet again, by a major international shock, we thought it was worthwhile to host one of the Country’s leading economists on Leaders Getting Coffee. And we weren’t disappointed. This week’s guest is one of the most entertaining economists we could wish to speak to.

A self-confessed geeky kid, and cricket tragic, Sharon Zollner grew up in rural Canterbury in a farming family near Methven. She excelled at school, particularly it seems in English and Mathematics, capabilities which influenced her decision to study English Literature and Economics.

She left Canterbury University with a Masters in Commerce and majors in Economics and English Literature, and headed to the New Zealand Reserve Bank to start what has become an amazingly successful career.

A stint with Norway’s central bank followed, where her work included developing a macro economic model for the Norwegian economy.

Returning to New Zealand, her climb up the ranks of Bank Economists has been rapid and she speaks openly about becoming the Chief Economist at ANZ in 2017, just ahead of a change in government and prior to the disruption created by Covid 19.

On the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast Sharon Zollner speaks to Bruce Cotterill about the current state of the New Zealand economy, which she suggests is more resilient that many of us might expect.

She is also refreshingly open about the impacts of war in the Middle East and the associated panic around oil prices and supplies, and the likely stages that economies will go through as the conflict continues.

As you might expect, Zollner reels off economic terms and statistics in an uncomplicated manner that is easy to understand and entertaining to listen to. Her lessons from Norway are interesting given the similarity of that economy to that of New Zealand, and the differing constraints that the two countries must operate within.

Most importantly, she is positive about the current state of New Zealand, despite the obvious headwinds, and one wishes that her enthusiasm for our future should be contagious.

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In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 57 part 2, we continue out chat with The Right Honourable Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Following on from last week, we get deeper into his past two years as Prime Minister, the recent India Free Trade Agreement, and whether he would work another term alongside coalition partners Winston Peters and David Seymour.

There is no escaping Christopher Luxon’s aspiration for New Zealand nor his passion for the role that he now occupies. He’s driven by outcomes rather than slogans and that reflects in his attitude about the election campaign ahead.

And if he could flick a switch, what’s the one thing he would like to change?

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