Tony Falkenstein was born in Auckland, and has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Auckland.
He is a serial entrepreneur, who has started over 50 companies.
He is the CEO and majority shareholder of Just Life Group Ltd, a publicly listed company which he founded 33 years ago.
In 2003, Tony established New Zealand’s first Business High School, at Onehunga High School, with a view to include ‘business and entrepreneurship’ as a subject in the National Curriculum. In 2011 this goal was attained, and he has assisted the Ministry of Education with establishing Business High Schools throughout the country.
In 2005, he established the Building and Construction School at Onehunga High School.
In 2008, he was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.
In 2010, he was appointed as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to business.
In 2011, Tony received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Auckland.
In 2012, he received the World Class New Zealand Award for ‘New Thinking’.

In 2007, Ryan started Haka Tours with no tourism experience but a desire to break away from the corporate world and to work in an industry he could be truly passionate about.
13 years later, the wider Haka Tourism Group was named NZs fasted growing tourism business in 2019 and includes a growing nationwide chain of up-market hostels, Haka Lodges, an international educational brand, Haka Educational Tours that operates in 12 countries globally, NZs newest hotel brand, Haka Hotels and an inbound tour operator business, ANZ Nature Tours.
With a strategy firmly based on niche tourism products backed by a shared service business model, the Haka Tourism Group aims to be one of the most widely recognised and respected tourism brands in Australasia and for cultural, social and sustainable business practices to be at the heart of what they do.

Wendy Thompson is an experienced global marketer and entrepreneur, 2019 Australasian Social Media Marketer of the Year and finalist 2018 Next Women of the Year. She founded Socialites in 2010. The Socialites Group includes Socialites, a specialist social media marketing company that works with global brands around the world, Socialites Academy, an online training company and Australasia’s largest influencer agency The Social Club. The Group has won many business and global creative awards including Australasian Agency of the Year 2018, and placed in the Deloitte Fast 50 and Asia-Pacific Tech 500. She was Westpac Business Awards lead marketing judge 2014-2018, board member of the Well Foundation 2015-2017 and Comms Council Committee 2016.  She is currently a board member of Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) the Rugby World Cup 2021 Committee and Te Korowai O Waiheke. Passionate about entrepreneurship, growing businesses and unlocking the power of communities to create a better world. In her spare time you’ll find her on, or in, the ocean.

• Marisa co-founded The Madison Group in 1998, successfully growing it to become New Zealand’s largest, privately owned Recruitment Company.  Having won numerous awards, it was acquired in 2013 by listed public company AWF, in a textbook deal that set a precedent for the industry.  Since then, Marisa has created a portfolio of angel investments, and supports causes close to her heart.
  She is currently:
• – a non- executive independent Director of listed company Enprise Group,
• – an Advisory Board member for NZ Work Research Institute (an adjunct of AUT),
• – a Trustee of Simplicity, a new low fees and not for profit Kiwisaver Fund and
• – an Executive Judge for New Zealander of the Year.

Petra has around 20 years’ experience in liability claims management. She spent a number of years as a litigation lawyer in the UK before moving into the London insurance market as a claims manager, handling professional liability risks and managing a claims team of up to 40 staff. Moving to New Zealand in 2008, she now heads Delta Insurance’s claims function and technical operations.  In this role, she has overseen the response to many cyber and technology liability claims.  Petra is passionate about claims service standards and helping clients improve their Risk Management.

Liz has had a distinguished career of public service and has held a number of Deputy Chief Executive roles before being appointed to the position of Government Statistician, a position she retained until late last year.

In addition to her wide and extensive leadership, management, policy, operations and regulatory experience, Liz has previously worked together with the Privacy Commissioner on a number of projects over the years.  As a previous Government Statistician and Government Chief Data Steward Liz understands the value and importance of privacy, and its role in maintaining trust.

Bio coming soon

Charlotte joined as CEO of Jade Software Corporation in January 2018. Prior to joining Jade she has led global businesses in Health Technology, and Packaging & Print. Charlotte is an experienced company director, including current roles on the Board of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, and the Dodd Wall Centre for Quantum and Photonic Technologies. Outside of work she has three children and is an avid fan of new technologies and Jeeps.

Paul is the youngest member of the Donaldson family and works for the company in the capacity of General Manager.  He works alongside his parents, all three of his brothers and various sister-in- laws, all of whom manage various aspects of a busy, robust, dedicated winery, events space, and vineyard.  Along with his three older brothers, Paul was very hands on in the early stages of the development of the vineyard: painting posts and general hole digger and vine planter.  But as is quite typical for the New Zealand wine industry, his education followed a science path, with his original qualification a BSc (Hons) in Zoology, followed by an early working career in the banking industry.  Yet there was no escaping the allure of life in the family business, and after several years overseas in Ireland and England he returned to New Zealand in 2005 and began work at the winery while also undertaking an MBA. Pre-Covid he managed a staff of up to 75 people at peak times, and has recently retired from the role of Chair of the North Canterbury Winegrowers Association after 3 years, and is the current Chair of the Family of 12, a co-operative marketing group.

Colin is CEO at the Crusaders, Australasia’s most successful professional sporting franchise in the last 25 years and arguably best professional rugby club in the world. Colin’s a Crusaders tragic but prior to joining them was Head of Agribusiness for BNZ, working with the bank and its customers on how to progress in a world with more discerning and demanding consumers and less natural resources. Colin’s worked in banking, particularly strategy and leadership, in the UK, Australia, SE Asia and NZ. Colin’s best learning has come from learning to communicate on the Board of an overseas listed Bank where English was not the spoken language as well as coaching rugby across a language.

Ekant Veer is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch. He is a multi-award winning teacher and researcher having been named in the Top 40 under 40 Business School Professors worldwide, an Ako Aotearoa Tertriary Teaching Excellence Award winner, UC’s Teaching Medal in 2017 and five times winner of the UCSA’s lecturer of the year award. His work looks at the role that marketing can play in both driving social change and community wellbeing as well as what impact digital technology plays in consumer interactions and their sense of identity. His research has been published in numerous international journals, such as the Journal of Marketing Management, The European Journal of Marketing, and The Journal of Public Policy and Marketing. Ekant has recently taken on the role as Director of the UC Knowledge Commons which is a new venture by the University of Canterbury that seeks to build a culture of engagement between tertiary sector and businesses, community and the public sector.

Dean Logan has worked successfully for 22 years in the insurance industry in various roles including, National Leadership Specialist, Regional Sales & Development Management, Risk Financial advisory and is currently the Managing Director of Logan Smythe & Associates.

Past key responsibilities and experience ranging from building nationwide leadership systems to developing strategies to improve overall quality and productivity, developing nationwide product training and delivery programs to new insurance product development and testing.   

Rhodes has wide experience in the investment world spanning more than 35 years, beginning with a unit trust development company in 1985.

Rhodes established Polson Higgs Wealth Management in November 2001 with the partners of accounting firm Polson Higgs. There are now six staff spread between Christchurch and Dunedin offices.

Rhodes is one of the original Certified Financial Planners^cm (CFP^cm) in New Zealand and holds the Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst^cm (AIFA^cm) designation from fi360.

He has diplomas in Finance and Teaching as well as a BCom. He initially trained as an engineer at Canterbury University and was a Charles Upham Scholar at that time.

I am a mortgage and Insurance adviser for Brenda Nom Mortgages & Insurance. 

I am based in Invercargill, I have 3 staff and we are all super passionate about helping people through out the mortgage and insurance journey. 

 Our goal is to deliver smart results the easy way. We do this by securing clients first home and helping them navigate their way through that process.  We also help with their next steps and help save money on the journey, whether that journey be buying a house, refinancing, consolidating debt, or updating insurance cover. And no matter what they need us for, we keep it fun and simple and do whatever we can to get them the best deal.

We also make sure we have the right discussions around Risk insurance and go over their options that suits their needs and budget as well as supporting them at claim time. 

Cecilia has had a 25-year career in the Life Risk sector and during her time as an adviser, she specialised in developing Personal and Business advice processes that embedded sound risk management philosophy with a client centered sales approach.

She is a highly respected training facilitator bringing together her practical experience in the field and her prior background in Industrial Psychology to help advisers expand their skills in consultative selling.

Cecilia is currently on the board of Financial Advice NZ as the practitioner director – Risk.