I was born into a family of creatives and sporting legends; I leaned towards the creative side.
On leaving school, I had the choice of joining a game design company as a partner or working at a Government Computer Centre. Taking advice from my parents, “computers are the future!” I opted for the latter. Over the next five years I went from being a trainee to the network
supervisor for one of the Government’s significant networks, where I learned the power of creative thinking when applied to problem-solving.
Leading through Innovation became my thing. Over the following years, I worked with the disabled and brain-injured in designing therapies via play. I studied neuroscience while a therapist at the National Brain Injury Centre, understanding how we think would underpin my future work.
In the late 90s, I started my first company, Fuzzy Logic, an award-winning Web Design Agency.
We would later become ISP, software developers, and ICT managers for Central Hawkes Bay District Council. We experienced the Dot.Com crash and the meltdown of 2008. Resilience through reinvention became my catch-cry. Over this period, I gained a reputation as conceptual designer of strategies and systems, working in the Public Sector, leading an ‘All of Government Think Tank’ and working in community development in Hawkes Bay (Owning our Futures) and
Tairawhiti (Bio-region/Rua Bioactives).
I have enjoyed being a presenter at several major conferences and summits, including the World’s first Digital Earth Summit on Sustainability and the Primary Industry Summit the following year.
Alongside my work with the team at Whippet Digital, I also sit on the Governance Board for an American XR Company and the Advisory Board for ARK 2030 (a global regeneration project). I have co-hosted World Futures Day as a Professional Futurist. I am the founder of Looking Glass Studio, a pro-social transmedia project. I have won awards in advertising, design, and business, including the IPANZ Award – The Public Services Sector top award.
In 2005, I designed and secured a Process Patent for the technology that connected the physical print world to the digital world via visual recognition. (most commonly seen today as QR codes).
People’s cultures drive me, and the role technology can play in building coherence and understanding.
I relish my friendship with Mike and Midge, and support their vision any way I can.