Volunteer Projects

 Business Mentors New Zealand is an independent not-for-profit organisation.   Their mission is to support business owners in advancing their business capability and capacity, to enjoy real, sustainable success – through the sharing of knowledge and experience from skilled business people who are able to gift their time and expertise.

I have volunteered with Business Mentors for almost 10 years.  I usually mentor  one to two businesses at any one time through Business Trust Marlborough who manages this programme for the Marlborough Region.

The issue of labour and skills attraction and retention is a critical one for Marlborough, particularly in light of the region's rapidly ageing population profile.

In response to this issue, Council initiated the creation of a Smart+Connected Labour and Skills Group at the end of 2018.   The role of this Group is to convene relevant organisations drawn from the private sector, central government departments, industry training organisations and the education sector, to develop and implement potential strategies to address Marlborough's rising labour and skills shortage.

This is an important discussion for our region, and as such I have been pleased to be able to chair this group through 2024 to provide the structure for this work.

Startup Weekend Marlborough is a 54-hour event, which helps to inspire, support, and empower people to become entrepreneurs. As a mentor I am there to support the teams through the event and share knowledge.
I volunteered in both 2023 & 2024 and hope to continue to do so.

​The vision of Youth Enterprise is to inspire students and unleash leaders for a more prosperous New Zealand.  They work to prepare our young people to thrive in business life and community by ensuring all young people have the opportunities to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

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I have supported the scheme both as a judge and a mentor, and look forward to being inspired by the ideas of new youth over the coming years.